Vancouver

I promised pictures, so here are a few!

Packing up the bikes wasn't too bad, but it took a lot of time.  Once we finally got the front wheels off and everything zip-tied together, the bikes went into the boxes fairly easily.

One thing I insisted on bringing was an air mattress!  I love camping, but I really can't handle sleeping on the hard ground.  I found this one on Amazon and it's been awesome so far.  It rolls up nice and tight and is smaller than the tent, even though it weighs slightly more.

We didn't figure out our packing very well so we ended up just throwing our panniers and stuff inside suitcases to get to the airport.  Ethan's bag was exactly 50.0 lbs!  It was definitely a lot of stuff to haul around...

Once we landed in Vancouver, we got picked up by the Velofix mobile bike shop!  The service was awesome and the mechanic got our bikes put back together and in top shape before dropping us off at the local metro stop.

It was interesting hauling two bikes and two suitcases on the metro...but somehow we made it.

Once we made it to the city center, we met up with Ethan's co-workers for drinks and dinner at a local bar.  After crashing at her place for the night, we spent our first day in Vancouver going to various shops and getting things we need.  I really liked the sign at this shop which lightly made fun of hipsters:

It took a little jury rigging and a trip to home depot, but we finally got the front racks installed on our bicycles.

Then packing the panniers and loading up the bikes was a bit of a struggle.  The zippers on my rear panniers broke so we took those to a luggage repair shop to get new zippers put on.

Finally, after some struggle, we got everything onto the bikes!

We biked to a different co-workers place for the night.  We went out for some traditional Canadian poutine which looks kind of gross but is actually delicious.

After sampling the local fare, we went to a local bar for an improv show which was pretty funny!  Overall, Vancouver has been a lot of fun.  Now we're looking forward to getting on the road and really getting this trip started!