WE ARE IN VANCOUVER....Again

Caught a taxi from the Montreal Sheraton Le Centre to the Montreal-Peirre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.  Airport code is YUL.

• This you probably did not know, but the major Canadian airports also start with Y.
• When the International Air Transport Association shifted to 3-letter codes, most of airports in this country kept their original identifiers, and simply prefixed them with Y.
• Thus, Vancouver is YVR and Toronto is YYZ.

Qualified for Air Canada's airport lounge, for they are part of Star Alliance, and I have a lifetime pass.  Very well appointed club:

From the left:

• Had a Cucumber Gin Caesar or Cucumber Red Snapper.  Replaced the tomato juice with clamato, and vodka with cucumber gin.  
• Aberfeldy scotch on ice,
• Molson and Blue Moon beers.  Molson, formerly a Canadian beer, is now called the Molson Coors Beverage Company, #5 in the world, with key brands, Molson, Coors, Carling, Miller and Blue Moon.  Molson and Coors merged in 2005.

The cuisine was excellent, with a salad, aglio olio pasta and Italian Wedding Soup.

, 

We took off almost an hour late.

Except for that tardiness everything else went well. Nuts and Johnny Walker Black.

Chicken teriyaki meal.

I started watching A Decent Man, a 2025 series from Poland.  Six episodes.  As I wouldn't be able to see the entire production, I only saw the first.  I can go to Max at home for the rest.  Very well made series.

I then went on to a Japanese film, Tokyo Taxi.  Like my first feature, Rotten Tomatoes did not yet rate either one.  But I enjoyed this one, too.  An expected, but nevertheless comforting, ending.  Noted that the main actress was Chieko Baisho.  

• I remember her, for I'm not quite a year older.  That photo to the right is Chieko in 1962.
• She made more than a 100 films.
• She was the sister of Tora-san, a Japanese series that had 50 films, with Atsumi Kiyoshi as Tora.  Holds the Guinness World Record for that feat.

Made it to Vancouver, 

 No freeway.  While only 9 miles away, the ride to our hotel during the afternoon rush was almost painful.  Took a couple of photos from the cab,

That soccer ball looked different than the one we saw when we were in Vancouver earlier this year.  They transformed the geodesic dome at Science World into a 17-story replica of the FIFA World Cup ball.  Vancouver hosted 7 matches.

At the JW Marriott Parq, we were given a beautiful suite.  One of our views.

Hotel welcomed me with a Birthday gift.

The Executive Club was similar to the one in the Montreal Sheraton,  Maybe posher, but drinks were similarly ridiculously expensive.  Same type of appetizers, but a lot more veggies.

The hotel opened in 2017 as part of the Parq Casino entertainment complex.

• Has sister boutique hotel, the DOUGLAS, an Autograph Collection.

• 
  Located next to BC Place Stadium of the BC Lions Canadian Football League and Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer, and Rogers Arena, where the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL play,
• Parq Casino.
• Is the only casino in Vancouver.
• Became the largest privately-funded development in British Columbia at $640 million.
• Casino supposedly lost at least a billion dollars when the COVID-Pandemic came, and the casino was locked.
• Casino has 75 game tables, a sports book room and 900 slot machines. Open 24/7.
• Canada has more than a hundred licensed casinos.  
• Casino de Montreal has more than 3000 slot machines, but the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto has more than 4800.  The most in Las Vegas is the Red Rock Casino in Summerlin with 2860.

• 
  If you thought a Macau casino (above) had the most electronic games in the world, you would be wrong.  The Venetian Macao, at 6,000 is #2.  #1?  WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma is #1 with more than 10,000.  Has town population of roughly 400,  Is roughly an hour north of Dallas.  Texas bans casino gambling.

About those three ocean storms in the vicinity of Hawaii:

• Hurricane Lowell was only a tropical storm yesterday, but dramatically strengthened up to 145 MPH today:

Hurricane Lowell has doubled in strength over the last 24 hours and is poised to begin moving south of the Hawaiian islands on Wednesday.

At 11 p.m., Lowell had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and higher gusts, was centered about 470 miles south-southeast of Hilo and moving west at 12 mph, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 35 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extend 90 miles out.

Just 24 hours earlier, Lowell was a strong tropical storm with 70 mph sustained winds.

The storm is expected to remain a Category 4 major hurricane and continue moving west as it passes about 300 miles or more south of Hawaii Wednesday through Friday.

“A westward motion is anticipated during the next several days due to a mid-level ridge over the Central Pacific,” forecasters said. By Sunday, when the storm is far southwest of Kauai, “an upper-level trough is expected to weaken the ridge, causing Lowell to slow down and take a more northward turn, though there is considerable uncertainty on how sharp that turn might be.”

That caution is worrisome, for just a little earlier right turn north, and Lowell can become a Category 5 through Kauai or Oahu, as did Iniki, which caused severe damage to Kauai in 1992.

• Also at Category 4, equally strong hurricane Karina at 145 MPH.  We board the the Silver Whisper tomorrow, and will sail in that general direction from Vancouver to Hawaii.

In the East Pacific, Karina is also a Category 4 hurricane with 145 mph maximum sustained winds, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 11 p.m., Karina was about 1,500 miles east-southeast of Hilo, moving west at 12 mph toward the Central Pacific.

Unlike Lowell, Karina is expected to start weakening Thursday over the open ocean. The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicts it will be a tropical storm by Sunday, hundreds of miles northeast of Hilo and moving northwest away from the islands.

• 
  Finally, Tropical Storm Marie has formed, will become a hurricane today and move west away from Mexico.

Closer to Mexico, Tropical Storm Marie was forecast to become a hurricane Wednesday. At 11 p.m., Marie had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was moving northwest, away from the Mexican coast, at 1o mph. A turn toward the west-northwest, farther from land, is expected later Wednesday and continue through Friday.

In case you didn't know, from Google AI:

Why the Pacific Becomes Active

Warmer Water: El Niño brings warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures to the central and eastern tropical Pacific, which fuels more intense tropical storms and hurricanes. [1, 2]
Low Wind Shear: Upper-level wind shear drops in the Pacific. This calm upper atmosphere allows storms to maintain a steady vertical structure and exhaust heat effectively. [1, 2, 3]

Why the Atlantic and Gulf Are Suppressed

Strong Wind Shear: Rising air over the warm equatorial Pacific alters global atmospheric circulation, producing sinking air and powerful upper-level winds across the tropical Atlantic. [1]
Tear-Apart Effect: These fast upper-level winds create strong vertical wind shear that rips developing thunderstorms apart before they can organize into hurricanes. [1, 2, 3]
Global Monitoring: You can learn more about these shifts through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. [1]

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