Aimée won a trip for four to see Norah Jones perform in Vancouver on Monday night. She graciously invited me, my sister Angela, and Denise to come with her. (You can open up the pictures in another window and follow along if you’re into that sort of thing.)
The trip began with a ride on the Helijet to downtown Vancouver. Heavy fog in Coal Harbour delayed our departure, but at around 3:45 pm we were finally in the air. I would have taken pictures of us losing our collective helicopter virginity, but the co-pilot’s pre-flight speech brought the permissibility of the use of cameras on board the aircraft into question. (On the return trip I threw caution to the wind and snapped a few pictures.)
Our rooms on the 27th floor of the Century Plaza Hotel offered an impressive view of Downtown Vancouver, especially the formidable Sheraton Wall Centre across the street. Nobody got the memo saying our hotel had a pool, so none of us had brought our bathing suits. We contented ourselves instead by nearly charging video games to our rooms and pondering the contents of the locked cabinet in each kitchenette. (A safe, we were informed.)
When dinnertime rolled around, we put on our fancy duds and took a stroll down Robson Street in search of a suitable eatery. Our sense of adventure exhausted, we settled for the familiar in The Keg. Denise had the filet mignon, Aimée had the peppercorn New York, and Angela and I went for the teriyaki sirloin. Our appetites sated, we proceeded by taxi to GM Place.
The show was opened by a folk singer named Amos Lee. He performed solo, just him and his guitar. His set included an entertaining love song filled with sugary metaphors (“I wanna smear you in cocoa butter, I wanna caramelize you, baby…â€)
Norah’s set was preceded by a clip of Hank Hill (from King of the Hill) riding in on a lawn mower and advising the crowd to turn off their cell phones, lest Norah attack us with a microphone stand. Then they hit the stage, launching right into “What Am I to Youâ€. The rest of her set hit on most (if not all) of the songs on her two albums, as well as a few cover tunes. Improbably, a fight broke out in the floor seats at one point, prompting Norah to ask if everyone was OK. “I didn’t think my music incited violence!†We didn’t think so either, Norah.
After the concert, we returned to The Keg for some dessert, which none of us could finish. Exhausted, we returned to the hotel and retired for the evening.
The next day was a lazy one, with a little shopping and wandering around downtown. They had some nice shirts at the Tommy Hilfiger store but they were a little out of my price range. While relaxing in the courtyard of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Angela ran into a girl she knew, and I got crapped on by a bird (not seriously, mind you).
After drinks in the lobby of our hotel we returned to the heliport, and 45 minutes later we were back, safe and sound, in Victoria.