She wants to see the city.

“Give me a few minutes,” Amber says. “I need to . . . adjust . . . or something.” You grin and start unpacking for your stay. Then you hear her call you from the washroom. “Come here and look at this!”

Obediently, you follow her, to find her leaning on the counter, looking out the window. “Look at the view!” she says.

“It’s stunningly beautiful,” you say, and she nods. Then you add, “And the view out the window is pretty nice, too.” Amber turns, flushing, and gives you a smile that makes you melt—well, except for part of you that it starts rapidly hardening.

“I’ll reward you for that later,” she says huskily. Then she gestures to the windows and burbles, “It’s spectacular!”

You agree. You’ve never seen a city in as beautiful a location as Vancouver. Even Seattle doesn’t really come close, in your opinion, and you’re hard pressed to think of another city you’ve visited that can match Seattle. That said, you’re not sure why Amber is so much more impressed with the view from the washroom than she seemed to be with the view from the living room. Maybe it’s because she’s better able to absorb what she’s seeing. More likely, it suddenly occurs to you, it’s because she’s not used to having a bath with a view. It might make it hard to get her out of the tub for the next two weeks . . . not that that would be without its compensations.

“What are we looking at?” Amber asks.

“Well, I’m terrible at translating maps in my head, but I can give you the basics. The water is Burrard Inlet, and all those trees? That’s Stanley Park.”

“It’s amazing!”

“Yeah. It’s something like a thousand acres, and it’s the best park in the world.” She looks at you, and you say, “Not just my opinion. TripAdvisor said so. I agree, though, at least talking about urban parks. National parks like Yellowstone and Glacier are just a different kind of thing altogether.”

Amber turns back to the windows. “And the mountains?”

“Those are the North Shore mountains. There are a couple ski areas up there—Grouse Mountain and Cypress Mountain; Grouse you can go up when it isn’t ski season, too, and there are various things you can do. The cities at the feet of the mountains are North Vancouver and West Vancouver, and don’t ask me to tell you where one stops and the other starts, because I don’t know. Coal Harbour is down below us; this is a working port city, and a busy one.”

“I want to explore the city.”

“Where would you like to start?”