British Columbia

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Sunday April 19, 2009

Holiday time!! Vancouver bound…

My mom and I picked up Dorothy at her place, and we headed to the airport. After wasting time doing nothing, as one does in an airport, we boarded the flight, which thankfully was short and sweet. Dorothy’s mom picked us up at the airport and drove us to where they live in Burnaby, which was the perfect opportunity for me to look out the window and enjoy the scenery. The vegetation and foliage around here look very much like England did, which I guess is something I never noticed about BC before. The houses look like Seattle houses though. There definitely is a different sort of architecture around here. The like to use colour on the houses, and boxy, modern architecture, if that makes any sense. And glass, my goodness, the new apartment complexes are all glass! I wouldn’t want to be here during the impending earthquake!

A woman named Jin lives with the Chan family, so we dropped off our luggage and headed out to this Italian pasta place called Amarosa for her birthday dinner, where we were fed huge portions! After that it was back home for cake and cookies. Dorothy and I chatted to her sister, Gloria, for awhile, and then it was off to bed in my own little basement suite.

All in all, a lovely first day. The Chan’s are fantastic hosts!

 

Monday April 20, 2009

After sleeping in a bit, Dorothy and I took the skytrain downtown. First she showed me the Vancouver Public Library main branch. It’s pretty famous because it looks like the Roman coliseum. It’s very nice, quite new and modern, and of course huge. Apparently they blow it up in movies sometimes. They film a lot of tv/movies here, Dorothy even showed me the lot they film ‘Smallville’ on, as it’s right on the train route.

We walked into the old Bay building, and browsed through all the Olympic merchandise (tons!) before cruising through the downtown mall (Pacific Centre). Next, the tour continued past the art gallery, home to a strange sight! It was 4:20 (April 20), so the area in front of the art gallery was packed with people and food/crafty tents. Apparently, it was a protest or something to raise awareness about legalizing marijuana, and at 4:20pm they all light up joints (which we didn’t stick around for!). Strange. I just couldn’t figure out why the police let them get away with it!

Lunch was at Japadog, a corner hot dog cart with a twist! It was Japanese of course and oh so yummy! My Terimayo dog had teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed on it. It was fantastic! Then we walked down Robson Street, wandering into a few shops, and Dorothy made sure to point out all the Starbucks. I guess Vancouver’s downtown is way better than Edmonton’s of course, much more like London, or any big city. It was certainly vibrant, with shops and food and people milling about, so it was a fun afternoon.

Next, we took the bus to this gelato ice cream factory place that had 218 flavours!!! It was so hard to decide what to buy, but luckily the place was fairly quiet and we could sample a lot of different flavours. I settled on eggnog with peanut butter and jam on top. It was yummy, well worth the bus trip into the ghetto for! Following that we took the bus and skytrain back into Burnaby, visiting the public library to get a book for Dorothy, before walking around Crystal Mall (a Chinese mall) and Metro Town, the big mall in Burnaby. Dorothy’s mom bought us sushi for dinner at Sushi Garden, and wow it was good. I’m not a huge sushi fan but quite enjoyed the California Rolls (best I ever had), Dynamite Rolls, and Crab and Papaya Rolls. I also tried surf clam and of course gobbled up the tempura. It was the best sushi I’ve ever had. We topped it off with green tea ice cream at home, and then hung out on our computers for a laptop slumber party (I love my new desktop pic!) before going to sleep.

 

Tuesday April 21, 2009

Unfortunately, it seems the birthday pasta made Gloria and Mr. Chan a bit ill! This does not bode well…

Today was a full day. First we had dim sum, which was really good and I ate way too much as usual! The Lychee jelly was good for desert but I was actually too full to finish it! Then we took the train and bus to Stanley Park. It was beautiful and green, and the cherry blossoms are out so that was lovely to see, as I’ve never seen cherry blossoms bloom before. There are also tons of magnolia trees, which I’ve never seen before either.

The whole point about going to Stanley Park was to visit the Vancouver Aquarium, which did not disappoint! First we saw the frogs, the tropical fish, the Amazon section and the reef shark show, and then we also watched the dolphin show (not bottle nose dolphins for once, but Pacific West Coast) so that was cool. We watched the sea otter for awhile, and also the belugas. There was a new baby, so the tank was pretty empty, with just the mom and the grandma in there with the cute grey baby. They were so majestic, very mesmerizing. We headed back inside to see the jellyfish and octopus. I’m not normally an aquarium person but it was really cool; I definitely enjoyed it.

After finally finding some vegetable juice, we took the bus down Main St. to go to Voltage Land, a shop that sells cool ‘toys’ and clothes, and then went to another VPL library to grab a book for Dorothy. We walked down Broadway, past all the sport shops and the provincial streets, before settling into dinner at Sushi Bang. I had a bento box and it was fantastic, although the California rolls weren’t as good as Sushi Garden’s. Next we took the bus to the University of British Columbia, where Dorothy gave me a quick tour before the rain started and it got dark. The coolest things were a Millennial camera obscura carriage, just displayed in the middle of nowhere, and the main library. The main library had some really cool glass decorations, and was much more modern than the one I work at at home. They also have an on site warehouse called ASRS (Automated Storage Retrieval System), and I took a cool picture of the machine that picks books off the shelf.

Once we got home we spent some time figuring out our Seattle trip for tomorrow.

Unfortunately, part two, around midnight I got soooo sick, with food poisoning too. It was probably our Japanese dinner (me thinks the shrimp tempura?). I was really sick until 5:30am, when I finally fell asleep.

 

Wednesday April 22, 2009

Because I was so sick, we decided we couldn’t go to Seattle today. Boo!! I’m so disappointed! Honestly I could’ve cared less about the shopping, but it would have been nice to see Angela and Peter. I think Dorothy was disappointed too: she wanted to go shopping.

Instead we spent the day hanging out in the computer room on our respective computers, Dorothy, Gloria and I. It was a nice day in the end though, a fun laptop bonding day.

 

Thursday, April 23, 2009

We slept in today, and then headed back into Vancouver. First we stopped at True Confections for cheesecake, and then we walked around Granville Island and the Markets. I could see how this would be a big hit for tourists, but mostly I was unimpressed. The views of downtown and the boats were kinda cool, with the mountains in the back, but it takes more than over priced artsy stuff and food markets to impress me. The venue was nice though.

Following that, we trekked to another mall to checkout a purse for my neverending-handbag-quest. It was disappointing (stupid red stitching) so we went to the Cactus Club for some appetizers before heading home for dinner.

We spent the rest of the evening watching this anime show the girls got me into yesterday. It’s weird, but well done and clever, and culturally intriguing.

Off to Victoria tomorrow!

Friday, April 24, 2009

We set off for the bus depot early, and then enjoyed the trip all the way to Victoria (no stress, no fuss - take the bus!). It’s always fun driving in random parts of new cities, and I think I’ve seen quite a lot of Vancouver by now! The ferry was also alright, blessedly short with lovely scenery of all the islands to look at.

After arriving in Victoria and grabbing lunch, we wandered around the Royal BC Museum. It is quite a good museum, with the prerequisite fossils, stuffed animals, environment and native stuff. The native gallery was well done, and very different from the types of artifacts you’d find on the prairies (thus what I’m used to). The historical section was good too, they transformed the gallery area into a street, with store fronts and rooms, including a mine, lumber mill, fishery and ship. It was interesting and overall quite neat!

Dorothy and I then wandered around downtown, taking in the parliament buildings, Empress Hotel, waterfront, and touristy shops. We found some bubble tea and then met up with my cousin Kelly. It was so nice to see my cousins!! We had dinner (world’s best veggie lasagna) at their lovely place, then sat in the awesome garden around the fire pit just chatting. It was a really great evening.

 

Saturday April 25, 2009

After breakfast, we took Dorothy on the world’s longest walk through Victoria, much to her dismay! First we all walked through the neighbourhood to Craigdarroch Castle for a few pictures (too bad they’re tearing up the yard!) and then moseyed around the BC Lieutenant Governor General’s residence gardens. There are tons of gardens here, everyone grow interesting and pretty things, it’s refreshing! Matt left us to go play Frisbee so the girls and I kept walking to the coast. We walked along the beach for awhile and then rested for lunch at a yummy pizza parlour.

Following lunch we headed downtown, looking at a few quirky shops and Monroe’s bookstore before heading to Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s a dock area full of boats and floating houses, and has two fat resident seals! It was worth the walk just for the seals. We then walked all the way home. I really enjoyed walking through Victoria, it’s definitely different from back home, and is pretty and quaint.

We spent the evening snacking and gossiping, and played four rounds of ‘7up7down’, a new card game.

Sunday April 26, 2009

After breakfast, Kelly and Matt drove us to the bus depot and we headed back to Vancouver. It was really lovely to see my cousins, catch up on all the family gossip, and get an insiders view on Victoria (hippy house and all). I learned a few things; hopefully I can put that into practice when I get home!

Dorothy’s mom picked us up at the skytrain station and we went to Queen Elizabeth park for a short walk. The flowers were certainly lovely, and the place was crawling with people and their cameras! Plus there was a great view of downtown too. We had dinner at home (I’m loving the authentic Chinese food!) and then watched more anime. Only a few days, and a few episodes left!

 

Monday, April 27, 2009

Lazy day today. I slept in late, then walked to Metrotown Metropolis Mall. FYI, it takes 45 minutes to walk from Dorothy’s to the mall. It was a nice walk though, good weather. And I had a nice lunch of apple salad, fruit salad and a turkey and brie wrap. I just wandered around a bit, bought a few things, and walked home. It was nice to have an afternoon to my own thoughts, and to get a bit of exercise.

This evening the whole family went to this Bio-Feedback presentation from some company called Quantum something-or-other. We just went to get a free naturopath health session thingy, but mostly the presentation was a sales pitch/pyramid scheme thingy. The bio-feedback session I got for free was interesting, mostly about stuff I already know, like I need to get more sleep, eat better, take vitamins etc. It did pick out (sort of) my earlier food poisoning, and said I have an aversion to eggs and peanuts. Who knew. Interesting, but hokey.

 

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Up late again this morning, I do love lazy mornings! Gloria and I then went downtown to rent bikes and rode around the seawall. It was fantastic! The weather was gorgeous and blue, the scenery lovely, company good and the bikes a great workout. We stopped by the totem poles, saw the Navy reserve, the mountains, woman in a wetsuit statue, Lion’s Gate Bridge, and of course the ocean. We ended our ride at English Bay Beach, and then grabbed lunch before heading home.

I went out for a last supper with Dorothy and her mom, and we did some shopping. Dorothy and I finished that anime series (grief, does that mean I have to get into manga to read the continuing saga??) and that was that. I’ll see her again in four months when school starts, what I’ll do in the meantime I don’t know (who will tell me what is fashionable??).

 

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I packed, watched some tv, pottered on the internet, and then headed home. Ah Alberta, where the grass is brown, and leaves are nonexistent. Gosh I love being home! It was a great holiday though, so great I’m thinking I might have to go back soon…