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We had one last session in the hot tub before heading out for dinner, as we did need to drink up some of the beers in the fridge before leaving! Incidentally whilst packing I found a packet of travel tissues that I thought I'd lost when we were shopping in Vancouver for skis. It was a big thing at the time, honest!

Anyway the meal at Earls was great, the honey lager they had on tap was fantastic. I started off with a plate of delicious Dynamite Sushi Rolls, basically sushi rolls with a tempura shrimp inside. Paul and James shared a three tier platter of wings (very hot), dry ribs (some quite salty) and chicken tenders, of which I helped myself to some wings and ribs. For main course I had a lovely sirloin steak, no salt crust in sight either, and it was cheaper than the Keg and came with some very nice mash and some excellently cooked (and large) asparagus. The waitress in addition to being lovely managed to get James main course wrong, but resolved it quickly and without fuss, and also offered him the desert for free - which I think he refused, despite having one. I went with a chocolate sticky toffee sponge cake - very nice, and an irish coffee. Me and Paul then headed off to the Crystal Lounge to meet Pauls friend Paul. As we arrived two eejits (sideways caps etc) were walking to the entrance before us, at which point the bouncer said, sorry chaps we're a bit full at the moment, you'll have to wait. With this the two eejits decide to go to the Hilton - which they said loudly as if it was meant to impress - and once they're out of sight the bouncer lets us in! I only stayed for a couple of drinks as I was pretty shattered. The same guitarist was on as the night before and was playing exactly the same songs. One slight bit of entertainment was a load of jocks being thrown out for smashing a glass - I've never seen such a polite and civilised kicking out, or people go from Jock behaviour to all out grovelling so quickly before either.

We got up early on the Sunday morning. James and Paul went off to get the car, I lounged about and finished my packing. We had a Chevrolet Impala whose sole redeeming feature was having XM satellite radio. We left around 10 and got parked up in Vancouver (on Seymour street next to Granville) around 11:45. Paul soon went off on his own to do shopping, me and James went round a few shops and had a general walk around before going to the Cactus Club for lunch. I had a nice Quesadilla and beer. We then went back to the car and took a drive up to Stanley Park and then drove round from car park to car park around the park getting out for a little walk/sit down as appropriate.

We picked Paul up around 5pm and got to the airport around 5:30. We eventually found our way from the rental place to the international terminal, then found the customs office to get our expensive receipts stamped before checking in, which was great fun as they let us check in together - 4 hold bags, 2 ski bags and 1 snowboard bag in front of a check in desk makes for much amusement. We had to take the ski and snowboard bags down to the oversize baggage check after getting the tags on them. This led to Paul having to open his after the xray and getting a swab test, James and my bags were fine, guess that's what you get for being a dodgy looking snowboarder.

There wasn't much left open before the security gates, so after I bought a couple of souvenirs we headed through and the state of shops was terrible (the american side of Vancouver airport is much better). I managed to find the few remaining gifts for people however. The flight was delayed so we had a little longer to kill. We sat down next to an empty gate so James could steal some electricity, which was a good place to sit as after an hour they changed our flight to that gate. Boarding the plane was a real saga, I don't think the gate staff really knew what they were doing.

We'd checked in online (or rather reserved good seats), I had an aisle in the centre, Paul was in the same seat a row behind and James was over the aisle to my left. However upon getting to my seat, I noticed three children to the right of it - oh great I thought that'll be a nice flight, Paul just laughed. Then a stewardess asked if I'd mind moving back a few rows. Before saying yes I said, is it an aisle seat? Fortunately it was, but by a few she actually meant 8 - however it was closer to the toilet, so I could sit down and wait for it at least! Also I got a whole overhead bin to myself which is a first! Apart from having a lanky Pole who was keen on reclining as soon as possible in front of me - I ended up bashing the back of his seat repeatedly when he didn't put it up at dinner and breakfast time, he eventually got the hint each time. Oh and that reminds me the BA stewardess we had was useless, I remember the days when they'd actually ask passengers to put the seats up when eating so passengers behind could eat.

I slept very well after watching a Night at the Museum, but when I woke up, whilst I could see Paul down in front of me, I couldn't see James anywhere. In fact it looked as if he'd turned into a rather fat man. When we got off the plane, I caught up with Paul in the terminal, who was also puzzling over where James was. Turns out he'd got a seat right at the back of the plane having asked to move as the fat man next to him was so fat he pushed the armrests a good 3 inches out either side of him.

Going through passport control was a breeze, apart from for Paul, again must have been something to do with being a dodgy looking snowboarder (or maybe the fact his snowboard helmet was attached to his bag). Eventually our bags turned up, and all relatively close to one another, then it was just a question of queueing in the narrow gap next to the oversize baggage outlet for our skis. These also all turned up relatively close to each other.