Vancouver

Tuesday July 6, 2010
I flew out to Vancouver tonight to visit with my friend Dorothy and her family (who actually live in Burnaby). They have a full house of people, so I'm staying in the 'formal living room', which is fine because it's super hot here and it seems to be the coolest room in the house at the moment!

Wednesday July 7, 2010
Lazy day today. I watched the World Cup semifinal between Spain and Germany (yay Spain!!) and then walked to the grocery store for breakfast supplies. After dinner, Mrs. Chan drove us the the 200+ flavours ice cream place. I had gingerbread - yum! It was super hot here again today, so ice cream was most welcome!

Thursday July 8, 2010
Today Dorothy and I wandered around Metrotown, a really good mall in Burnaby. Yay for air con during a heat wave! The taro bubble team I had and the Chinese buns I bought from Maxims bakery were delicious!

Friday July 9, 2010
I went into Vancouver around dinner time to hunt down a Japadog vendor, with no luck. Boo! I wandered down Robson street before eating dinner at Subway (how un-exotic) and then headed down to Stanley Park. I set my camera on close-up mode and took a bunch of photos of the flowers before wandering over to the aquarium. On my way I heard a rustling in the bushes, turned around, and saw a racoon and her two babies! How cute! I've never seen a raccoon for real before!

I met Dorothy at the bus loop and we went to the Malkin Bowl to see the Theatre Under The Stars outdoor production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was a different version - about a group of children trying unsuccessfully to put on the play, until a group of hippies show up to help them. It was...different. Some of the jokes were lost on the younger segment of the crowd, but the songs were all there. Mostly the singing and dancing was good, except Pharoah was Tina Turner instead of Elvis which was a bit lame. They picked a child volunteer from the audience to be Benjamin, so it was interesting to see how they incorporated her. Mostly the just led her around by the hand and go her to do certain things like ride a camel or dance. It was cute. Overall it was a good production, though I prefer the regular version better.

** So depressing - I somehow managed to lose my clip-on sunglasses today!! I wear glasses so it's not like I can just go buy a cute pair. It sucks so much. They are over $100 to replace. I'm not sure what to do now. It makes me want to cry.

Saturday July 10, 2010
We were going to go to Seattle for the day today, but settled instead on driving just over the border to Bellingham to go to the Bellis Fair Mall. It was a good decision because Seattle is much farther and would have involved getting up much earlier! It's too bad I wont get to see my American friends this year either, but there's always next year.

The mall was mostly American stores, so it was fun to look through. We also went to Costco. It was interesting to see that some prescription drugs in Canada are available over the counter in US Costco's. I didn't buy anything though.

Sunday July 11, 2010
Today I spent the morning/afternoon watching the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. And Spain won!! How very exciting!!

I also went to a couple greenhouses and grocery shopping with Dorothy's mom. Then, while Dorothy went out for dinner with some friends, Mrs. Chan and I went to Aberdeen mall in Richmond. They had this huge Japanese $2 store called Diaso full of lot's of cool crap. When I get a house, I'm totally going to come back to buy junk for it. We then went out for Malaysian food for dinner, before picking up Dorothy.

Mrs. Chan dropped us off at the Richmond Night Market. It's a whole bunch of food and 'stuff' vendors behind this warehouse in a parking lot. The 'stuff' vendors were mostly all the same: cheap socks, imitation handbags, cell phone covers, pirated DVDs, cutesy stationary. There was one booth with a couple snakes where you could pay to get your picture taken with them!

The best part was all the food vendors. It was too bad I was so full because I would've like to try lots of things like squid-on-a-stick, or the different dumplings or meat or deepfried stuff. There were lot's of fancy bubble tea drink places, special ice cream and desert places. I did try wheel cakes, which are like thicker pancakes stuffed with filling. I tried Nutella, red bean and custard - the custard was my favourite. It was neat to see the Night Market, and I would come back to try more food another time.

Thankfully the heat wave is over. Now I can finally tour around without dying of heat stroke!

** And as if it wasn't bad enough I lost my sunglasses, my sandals broke today!

Monday July 12, 2010
I had a Vancouver adventure today!

First I went to see the Science World building (a neat looking dome) and the Winter Olympic Athletes Village. The Athletes Village was a big let down because now they are just normal looking condos.

Next I went up to Waterfront Station, and walked through Gastown to see the steam clock. Both were nothing special, though I can see why the clock attracts tourists as it's kind of neat to see. Gastown was full of pubs and shops selling cheap touristy and Olympic stuff.

I then walked along the waterfront to see Canada Place and the Convention Centre. Behind the Convention Centre is the Olympic cauldron! It was actually really neat to see, as it brought back lots of memories. Douglas Coupland also has a sculpture near there called 'Digital Orca', which is this huge pixelated looking killer whale. Seeing these two monuments, right by the water with it's pretty view, was probably one of the highlights of the day.

Following that I walked up Burrard to have a Japadog (finally!) from a street vendor. I love Japadog! I had an edamame terimayo, which was a bratwurst sausage stuffed with edamame beans, and topped with onions, teriyaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed flakes. Yum!! And I didn't even have to share with the seagull.

I walked up the street to Christ Church and went in. It was a pretty little church right in the middle of downtown. It looks out of place amongst the skyscrappers, but plays a necessary role downtown. I walked past the art gallery, taking a few photos of the Olympic countdown clock, which reads all zeros, and then through Pacific Centre, the downtown mall. I also went through the downtown library, taking a few pictures because it's cool looking, like the colosseum in Rome. I walked down Robson again, but past the Japadog store in favour of a Beard Papa cream puff. It wasn't fantastic - though I liked the filling better than the pastry. I kept wandering down Robson, but didn't really shop anywhere.

I walked down Denman too, all the way to English Bay. It was sooo windy, I don't know how all those people were sunning themselves on the beach! Though I was tired of walking, I walked along the beach until I got to Stanley Park, where I found myself a nice bench near the Lost Lagoon. There were ducks, geese and swans to look at, plus another raccoon! I read for awhile and helped a lady bandaid up her blisters, then headed back to Denman for some great Japanese ramen for dinner. Then, after a quick frozen yogurt stop, I went back to Stanley Park for the Theatre Under The Stars production of Singing In The Rain. It was quite good. The singing and dancing were well done, and it even rained for real on the stage!!

All in all, my adventure was worth a couple painful blisters!

Tuesday July 13, 2010
Today Dorothy and I went on an adventure.

First we went all the way to the University of British Columbia. It's a nice campus to walk around, and I took pictures of a couple libraries and the long house. Our main goal was the Museum of Anthropology. It's a nice looking museum. The great hall is filled with totem poles and other Aboriginal artifacts. There was an art exhibition, and then a huge gallery filled with Aboriginal and cultural 'stuff' from all over the world. It was mostly well done, except nothing had dates on it, and it was a bit of a maze.

After our eyes hurt from looking, we went all the way to Richmond again to go to another mall. I have more awesome mint chocolate bubble tea and thick toast. Thick toast is just as it sounds, it was so fluffy and yummy!

We stopped again at Japadog before heading home, and then continued what has become a tradition for my visits: watching anime.

Wednesday July 14, 2010
Today was my day off so I could rest my poor blistered feet. We watched more anime and I walked down to the grocery store again for some fresh air. Later that evening, Mrs. Chan drove Dorothy, Natsuko (their Japanese student boarder) and I to some outlet store, where I got some great deals. It was a nice lazy day.

Thursday July 15, 2010
Another adventure day today! I decided to check out the hype that is the Capilano Suspension Bridge. They run a free shuttle from downtown, so between that and the two interpretive walks I tagged along to (one explaining the totem poles, one a nature walk), it was almost worth the $27 (and that's the student price, it's $35 regular price). I thought the park area would be really big, worthy of a couple hours of walking, but instead it took a couple minutes to get over the bridge (and back) and then I think I could've probably walked the whole thing in half an hour if I hadn't tagged along to the nature walk etc. It was real pretty though.


I took about a hundred pictures though. I really was beautiful.

Over all I reckon it's worth the trip once but not twice. Apparently the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge is shorter but free, and Grouse Mountain has some fun stuff to do (ziplines!), so I reckon I'll be back to the area next time I visit Vancouver!

After getting back to downtown, I walked through Gastown to buy some souvenirs for friends, then up to and down Robson to get another Japadog. I took the train to Metrotown again and bought a few things on sale, then went home. I watched/learned/helped Mrs. Chan with dinner, then we watched anime the whole night.


Friday July 16, 2010
Today was another rest/anime day. We went for dinner to a Japanese restaurant in Port Moody so I could have tempura and yakisoba. Luckily, we got to sit at the sushi bar and the whole fun of the dinner was watching the chefs put together all the different types of sushi.

After dinner, Dorothy and I headed back into Vancouver so I could try a cupcake from the shop that had a reality show on the food network. I hated the show because the ladies were bitchy and annoying, but my pineapple-coconut cupcake was decent. I'm really not a fancy cupcake person, but it was neat to see the colourful 'Alice in Wonderland' shop. We ended the night with another bubble tea and a quick wander down Robson before heading home.

Saturday July 17, 2010
For my last Vancouver-food outing, Mrs. Chan and I went out for Dim Sum and the did the greenhouse route again. I packed, realized my flight was two hours earlier than I though - and then basically headed to the airport and home.

All in all, it was a great trip, with just the right mixture of touristy adventures and relaxing in front of the tv/computer. The food, as usual, was yummy - I always enjoy what I can't get at home like Japadogs, and Chinese/Japanese food. I know I'll be back in Vancouver visiting Dorothy soon, and then I can do it all over again!