Hyatt's Next Top Models

A few weeks ago, as Jean put it, we went into Vancouver to “…have fun. Go to Konbiniya, look stylish, and pretend to be rich while hanging out in lavish surroundings.” Since we are (or like to pretend to be) rich B’s, we promptly booked a room at the Hyatt Regency and drove in Jean’s 1985 Jetta to our weekend of pomp and prestige.

After a delicious dinner at Kintaro for a steaming hot and very delicious bowl of ramen (along with longing gazes at the cute Japanese boy who cooks noodles there), we headed to the Hyatt, only to drive around the block several times to find the parkade since our weekend of pomp and prestige didn’t include a budget for valet. After checking in, we rode up to the 15th floor of 32 total floors (no 13th, so technically, 31)







The television made a “bloopity beep” noise when turning on and a “bleepity bloop” noise when turning off. Each bed had approximately 20 pillows each, so there was a quite a pile of pillows on the floor when sleeping because I’m poor and only use one.



After darting around the downtown (seriously, running) in search of Kernels popcorn, we decided that an evening swim (or lounge) in the rooftop hottub was in order.









After a luxurious soak and some chatting about traveling to Costa Rica, Scotland and Japan, we packed it in and prepped for our next big outing.


Our view from the 15th floor. No big deal. It would have been even less of a big deal if we were up on 32.


The lobby

Our next stop was the high-end boutique called Konbiniya. (English translation = Japanese convenience store) This store is located on the far end of trendy Robson Street. We perused the wares and I ended up renting a Japanese DVD starring the exquisite male that is Ryuhei Matsuda. We also ate crepes.






The store is so convenient that they have karaoke on the second floor, for that impulse karaoke singer in all of us!




Waiting for crepes behind a gaggle of Korean boys








Our high-end lodgings



Jean had to work the next morning, so we called it a night. She left before I was even out of bed in the morning, so I spent the next few hours lounging about and hit up the stores for a bit more shopping.


Our daytime view






The Green Arrow’s apartment on Smallville. I used to get my hair cut in this building.

When I went down to the lobby to checkout, I noticed a large black man in a suit with an earpiece hangin’ tough near the concierge. I proceeded to the counter and said, “Hi. My friend may have…” and the ladies at the counter snapped “Yes!” and snatched the room key out of my hand. It was a nice snap and sntach, but I was somewhat surprised. I said, “Is that it?” And they said, “Yes!” Okay. It seemed as though they wanted me to leave quickly. They didn’t ask my name, my room number, to pay, nothing. I hadn’t seen either of them at check-in either, so they didn’t know who I was. Several days later in the paper, I saw pictures of Jennifer Aniston coming out of the Hyatt. Hm.