Northwest Roadtrip 2013: Vancouver, BC, Day 8

Sadly, no photos today. It was a a very chill, laid back day with our very own tour guides, Brenda and Edward!

They have seriously been such wonderful hosts; this morning Edward was up early, cutting fruit, frying bacon, frothing cappuccinos and making eggs. Such a full breakfast! Then we spent a lot of time just chatting and getting to know him and Brenda (and their puppy, Tegan) better. Both of them took the day off from work "just in case," we wanted tour guides. How wonderful are they??

After breakfast, they took us on a mostly driving tour of Vancouver, as it was a rainy, rainy day. We went over to West Vancouver and how a great cappuccino at a local chain. Walked around the shops, then drove through Yaletown (where I spent a lot of time on my last trip in 2008), and ended up on Commercial Drive. It was a great way to see a lot of different parts of Vancouver that I don't think we would have if we had been by ourselves!

Commerical Drive is very funky and eclectic, similar vibe to the Haight in San Francisco. It used to be pretty blue collar and heavily Italian; I think it's losing a bit of that character. Edward told us that it gets CRAZY there during the World Cup though, so who knows! We stopped for a light meal of pizza and pasta as we were having family dinner just 2 hours later! We heard a very interesting story of the restaurant; apparently it was co-owned by a married couple. Then the husband cheated on the wife and she got the restaurant in the divorce settlement. So he went down the street and opened his own (bigger) restaurant! The drama!

We went home so Tegan could be walked, then pretty much headed straight to dinner with Edward's mom, brother David, sister Connie and her husband Ken and their kids, Lauren and Ryan. We ate at their favorite Chinese restaurant, where everyone has their own favorite dish. It was some of the best chinese food I have ever eaten, seriously. Wow! It was delightful getting a chance to sit with everyone and just hear the family banter. Everyone made us feel so comfortable and we can't wait to return to Vancouver to spend more time with them. Truly a highlight of our trip!

When we got home, we spent a bit more time chatting and playing with Tegan (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE GET A DOG?!). Then packed everything up to start the long journey home the next day.

Northwest Road Trip 2013 - Whistler and Richmond, BC, Canada, Day 7

The alarm rang at 5:30am this morning and we JUMPED out of bed! It was still dark outside but we knew we had places to be! We actually stayed up past midnight and managed to catch 2 different firework shows from our hotel window! Great view!

After packing up all of our belongings, we checked out and began our long day's journey. Jumping on the Skytrain, we were able to get to the bus meetup point about 10 minutes from departure (which the time we were asked to be there). We were greeted by a bus driver with a French accent that told us we only had 4 minutes, after Greg asked if we had time to grab food. OoooK, guess not!

The bus only had about 15 people total on it and it was a huge coach bus! We plopped ourselves in the middle of the bus, which turned out to be a mistake after the bust took off. There were 3 high school boys sitting in the back who were TALKING AT FULL VOLUME even though they were only 2 feet away from each other. Everyone else was trying to catch some ZZZs and these bozos couldn't chill out. So, we got up and moved to the front of the bus (I know, we're old, so what!) and were able to sleep for more than an hour before we arrived in Whistler Village.

Not Disneyland, but close

The village was dead when we arrived at 8:20am, most likely from the major partying the night before! The village is modeled after a Swiss mountain village, so it's very cute and walkable. First stop, breakfast!

Um, the best thing was the coffee so that's the only picture I will post :-/

We then began a short walking tour of Whistler and all of it's delightful Olympic memorabilia.

USA! USA! USA!

Even though he brought his snowboard, Greg decided not to bring it to Whistler. Turns out it may have been the right decision as there were brown spots on the mountain, signaling low amounts of snow. But, it was probably snowing up on the mountain. There were many clouds and grey skies so the plan of taking the gondola up the mountain was out of the question.

Anyway, we decided to go on a hike, since we weren't go up on the mountain. A lot of them were actually snow-shoeing trails but.... there was barely any snow on the ground. Frozen lakes and ice though!

It was cold but not THAT cold. Some young guys were walking out on the lake and being general bozos. After I said that, I saw this randomly on a sign.

HA HA!!!!

This sign had a very memorable NYE

We made the loop and somehow found ourselves back in town. And this was one of the first shoppes we saw.

Seems like copyright infringement.

Using Yelp, we headed over to a burger joint in Whistler with good reviews. But, it wasn't that good. I chalk it up to the fact that you're not allowed to have a medium-rare burger in Canada. True fact. The accepted temperature for a meat patty in Canada is 71 degrees Celsius, which is 8 degrees higher than medium rare. BOOO!!!!!!!!! Canada, playin' it safe since 1974. Back to Splitz burger: not that exciting and we split(z) just one.

HOWEVER! On the way into Splitz, I had been intrigued by the place next door by the name of Peaked Pies. Turns out they are Australian meat pies, which you can get a scoop of mashed potatoes and mashed peas with gravy on top!!! WHAT! It was a pot pie with 3 of my favorite things on top. Uh, duh, I HAD TO HAVE ONE!

ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER EATEN! And you know that means something coming from me! We had the Aussie which was ground beef and onion on the inside. The crust was seriously perfect and I could've eaten a whole one by myself. OMG. I love it.

I checked in on Yelp and it had a check in offer of "Free Minington" but it didn't exactly say what a Minington was. I tend to be shy about these things so Greg asked and he came back with a delightful surprise!

Turns out a Minington is the "mini" version of their Lamington which is a sponge cake covered in chocolate, then rolled in coconut. Much amaze.

We only had a couple more hours until the bus was due to arrive so we headed over to Brewhouse at Whistler for our last activity: beer tasting and catching the end of the Winter Classic game.

These beers were mostly just OK to me. Greg liked their award winning IPA.
After that delight, we walked around town and then got to our bus just as it was arriving at the Visitor's Center. It was our same, efficient, French speaking driver and he was not messing around. Five groups of people had not yet arrived at 3:55PM and as he explained to someone at the Headquarters, he was going to give them 5 minutes past 4:00PM because they were told to be at the bus by 3:45! No messing around!!!

Thanks to his efficiency and wonderful driving, we made it back by 6:30 and headed back to our car. Luckily it had not been towed or broken into. Yes! We then headed over to Richmond, BC for some dinner and our lodging for the evening (which was at my cousin Edward and his wife Brenda's home).

Above is one of the most delightful curries I have ever had in my life. It is the famous Mui Garden Beef Brisket Curry. YUM!!!

Our evening ended at the home of Edward and Brenda, our fabulous hosts for the next day and a half. Edward's grandfather and my grandfather were brothers so we are cousins of some sort. They graciously offered us their home and we would be having dinner with Edward's siblings and families the next evening. We spent the rest of this one getting to know their adorable puppy Teagan (aptly named as her sister's name was Sarah) and getting to know them as well. I cannot gush about what wonderful hosts they were: just making sure we had everything we needed, asking us our preferred items for breakfast, and providing us with a warm home. More about that tomorrow!

Northwest Road Trip 2013 - Vancouver, BC, Canada, Day 6

A little bit less adventuring today yet still plenty to eat and drink!

We're facing a very busy street so due to an early wakeup, we ended up sleeping in a bit more. Which meant that we missed the brunch at Medina Cafe, which is the highest rated restaurant in Vancouver. There was a crowd waiting in front (of course), so we put in our name and jaunted around to Rogers Arena (home to the Vancouver Canuckleheads). Returning 20 minutes later, we waited an additional 25 minutes (total wait: 45 min) before being seated. We were thrilled to discover they were serving brunch all day! Also, we learned the couple next to us were also road tripping from San Jose! Small world.

This is a LAVENDER LATTE! Delicious.

Aside from their coffee, their other specialty are their waffles! Which you can order a topping with. So, naturally, we each went with one.

Waffles with Raspberry Caramel and White Pistachio Rosewater

 These waffles were AMAZING. I know, how can waffles be amazing? A waffle is a waffle, right? Wrong. Absolutely not true. These may have had crack in them. Or at least, some sugar.

Mains: Fricasse with short rib, sunny side up eggs, potato, caramelized onions, watercress cheddar and a side of grilled foccacia.
Les Boulettes, 2 poached eggs with spicy Moroccan lamb & beef meatballs, cilantro with hummus and grilled foccacia on the side.

The dishes were what I would call "saucy mush" since that's essentially what it was. That's more Greg's style than mine but I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. The waffles were just hard to compete with!

After "brunch," we walked around Gastown and "Chinatown." That's in quotes because it doesn't look like a Chinatown. There is nothing that evokes thoughts of Asia except that large Asian market on one of the corners. Perhaps we were in the wrong area (sounds like it's actually quite sketchy). Gastown, on the other hand, it's just so darn cute and hip. Eatings pigs is super hot right now and we saw 3 different restaurants with either word "pig" in it or had a pig in their logo.

Gastown is also home to this gas powered clock:

And lots of gifts shops with fine characters:

It was starting to get dark (we are quite far north) so, time for beer! We headed over to Parallel 49 brewery, with an hour to spare for their NYE hours. Get this: the beer samplers were only $1!!! The flight of 4 was only $3.50!

My favorite was the Nitro Milk Stout, which pretty much tasted like a Guinness. GZ's favorite was the Lord of the Hops. I don't usually like breweries that have cartoon-y labels but this was a good one.

As they called for last call, it was time to start thinking about dinner! Time for our other favorite cuisine: Shanghai Soup Dumplings! After much research, we headed over to Lin Chinese Cuisine and Teahouse. Terrible service but the most soup-y soup dumplings we've ever head. Check out that droop!

We also ordered the Schezuan Beef Noodle Soup, which had quite the kick!

Overall impression of Vancouver thus far: People are extremely polite and their streets are super clean. They love beer growlers and Asian food.

Looks like we will be sleeping through the New Year! Although, based on the noise being made by the party next door, that may not be true ("You kids better turn that noise down or I'm calling your mom!"). Off to Whistler tomorrow!

Northwest Roadtrip 2013 - Vancouver, BC, Canada, Day 5

The adventure continues!

Today, we began an absolutely dreary morning in Seattle, the first we've really had since arriving in the Pacific Northwest. However, that didn't stop us from venturing out into the cold for some lovely brunch before escaping into another country.

Our food spotlight was on Toulouse Petit, a Cajun/Creole restaurant in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, not too far from the Space Needle. Someone spent a bucket full of cash on this place as it was filled with glass, glass, and a little bit more glass. It also had one of the most impressive collections of booze I have ever seen in a bar.

Wait time: 10 minutes
Eats: Beignets, Pork cheek hash (SO GOOD), and Spicy Creole Shrimp & Grits, french press coffee

Today I realized that we take a lot of photos of food or drink. Sorry. #notsorry

The portions were actually reasonable (although the prices were not particularly so) which means we didn't feel like we were ready to birth a food baby right after.

On our drive up to the border, we had to decide if we were going to head up to Whistler for a day trip or not. Neither of us have ever been and we've heard only great things about it. Greg brought his snowboard "just in case." But we heard that you had to have snow tires for any trips going up to Whistler so we thought that was the end. Until.......  we found out they do bus shuttles up to Whistler. After finding a $35 round trip ticket on Groupon, the deal was sealed. Boom, Whistler, here we come.

Oh haaaay Canadian border

Rolling into Vancouver, we had to readjust to the metric system (let's have a real discussion why the US uses its own measurements) and practice saying, "Aboot" and "eh?"

Since are paying almost 10 nights worth of hotels, we decided to stay a bit out of city center this time round. As Greg put it, "If you're in the action, you can't SEE the action." OK, point taken. Still wish there was a jacuzzi tub in my room though.

That's really the view from our room, I didn't just google image this.

First things first, dinner time. We hopped on the Skytrain (subway) and were in downtown within 10 minutes. As we walked along the busy Robson Street downtown, we noticed how late all the restaurants stay open. It them dawned on me how much Vancouver loves food (especially Asian food). I told Gregory this is our soul mate city. Not like we'd ever move here (though I once seriously considered it), but that our hearts matched with it.

Who has a strong guess for our first meal??

Turns our our favorite ramen place (part of a global chain) has a location here in Vancouver, just opened in February. We headed over there but were quite discouraged to find a line that wasn't moving. We don't usually mind waiting but considering we have this chain at home (though had wanted to compare), we checked Yelp for other options (oh yes, we're also down to just my phone because we didn't want to pay roaming charges on both phones, just the flat global rate. Budget traveling, I tell ya). Turns out there were quite a few ramen joints all around the neighborhood.

Our first stop (yes, more on that later) was here at Hida Takayama (Wait time: 0 min) on the second floor of a very small shopping center. It was eerie climbing the steps upstairs as there were very few people in the entire place. Spooooky. Even the ramen joint looked empty until GZ noticed a younger guy surfing the net on his laptop, hidden in the corner. I felt bad, when we first came upstairs, the guy at the shop next door jumped up and said hello, probably hoping we were going to have him make us some delicious eats.

After a very brief discussion, we decided to share a meal here so we could hit try ANOTHER ramen shop afterward. HA! I know, we're so crazy! Roadtrip 2013!

Satisfying bowl, now to more noodles! The next one was just down the street, and it was called Motomachi Shokudo, a tiny place that only seats about 20 people (Wait time: 15 min) and had a short line out the front. Luckily, we seemed to have hit the line at the right lull because it was a pretty short wait.

We had planned on again sharing a meal so we could possibly go to a THIRD place, but it wasn't meant to be. Greg noticed they had a $9.55 per person limit (?) which meant we both had to order full bowls. They sat us at the bar, which was awesome because we could peer into the kitchen.

I'm a ramen creeper

The bowls were a little bit more pronounced at this place and I'm glad we went to both, for the variety. And both places were run by actual Japanese people!

Warm bellies once more, we headed back to the hotel to change shoes and get into the car for our next stop: brewery! Another city, another hip brewery.

A baby beer (6 oz) and it's brother (12 oz)

The whole place was done in wood and filled with hipsters. The people running the bar were dressed like hipsters but they were SO NICE. Like, unbelievably. The beers were quite excellent, so took some home with us, even if we won't be able to refill these guys.

Canadian sizes: 473 mL & 1 liter

Drink me, Alice

We are catching the 6:30AM shuttle tomorrow for Whistler so there may or not be an update tomorrow. Catch ya on the mountain!