55 posts tagged “out 'n about”

Hey, guess who's taking a break from homework to finally update this - wait, what do they call it again? oh yeah - blog? That would be me. Sorry about the extended absence; my free time tends to get sucked up by chores or trying to get as far away from my computer as I possibly can. (Preferably somewhere outside and oceany.)

Anyway, here's a quick rundown and some of what you missed in the past three months (or at least what I can come up with right now):

• My week-long break from school at the beginning of July was nice, if way too rainy. I didn't do much of note (that was the idea), although Shane and I went in for a couple's pedicure at one of the fancy spas on West Fourth (the yuppie part of town). That was a riot, since it's very much not the norm for either of us.

• When my second term of school started, I made a point of sitting in a new seat. That change has been really good, as it's allowed me to get to know more students and feel less isolated. The program has finally been getting into the web design/development in the past couple of weeks, and I have definitely been enjoying that. (Even JavaScript! Who knew?)

• After spending the first half of the term in the (required) video class for my program, I realized two things. One, I was not going to learn ANYTHING new. Two, I was going to waste WAY too much time on projects for that class. I went out on a limb and asked the program head if I could drop the course, and it turns out I could! Now I am just waiting for my St. Thomas credits to transfer, which hopefully will go through fine.

• For my birthday, Shane and I went out to eat at a new Thai restaurant here called Maenum. Both the food and drinks were amazing, and I can't wait to go back and try more of the delicious curries and cocktails. (Mmm, coconut-flavoured anything.)

• At the end of July, my mom and brother came out here to visit for a long weekend. Shane and I had fun being hosts for the weekend (we don't get to play that role enough!), and we made a point to get out and be active. We biked and hiked around town (the weather was perfect), although probably not enough to burn off all the food we ate over those three days. My family also got to experience a rarity that weekend: a Vancouver thunderstorm! Even better, a Vancouver thunderstorm during the annual Celebration of Light fireworks show. Awesome.

• In related news, Shane and I came home from the final fireworks show of the summer to find six people trapped in our (small) apartment elevator. Our landlord was not around, so we helped keep everybody calm until the elevator repairman could arrive through all the post-fireworks traffic. We managed to crack the door open, pass in ice packs and playing cards, and set-up a fan to blow some air in (did I mention this was happened during a heat wave? it was HOT here). It took about 75 minutes for the guy to get here, but eventually everyone got out.

• My latest obsession is with the bagels from a local bakery here called Siegel's. They are not kidding about having "possibly the best bagels in the world." Seriously, you guys. We've been buying a dozen bagels a week, meaning I have pretty much been eating a bagel a day for the past two months. DELICIOUS.

• Shane bought a new laptop recently, and thus my 2005 desktop PC was finally put to rest. Or at least put into our basement storage until we can figure out a place to donate it.

• Last weekend, we went out to BC's equivalent of a state fair: the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition). You may recall we went with Carrie to this event last year, when we saw the Superdogs show for the first time. (Okay, nobody but Carrie probably remembers that.) Well, we went back to the Superdogs show again this year, and it was even more hilarious. One of the performers this year was a tiny, tiny Yorkie named Pocket Rocket. Every time Pocket Rocket came out on stage (to compete in the obstacle course or just run around), the contrast between her and the other, bigger, built-for-agility dogs made me laugh until I cried. I cannot even tell you how much that sight tickled my funny bone. Good times.

• As some of you may have seen on Facebook, I went in for an appointment with a rheumatologist here last week. My pain has been getting worse lately, and I was hoping to come away with some new treatment ideas for my fibromyalgia. Instead, my new doctor wanted to run a series of diagnostic tests on me, to see if we can better pinpoint the problem. I will know the results of some of the tests by the end of month; it's weird to think that I may have been suffering from something else entirely all these years. (And no worries, so far nothing he's suggested is life-threatening or debilitating, if treated properly.)

That's about it. Now back to my regular homeworking...and counting down the days until my next week-long break (in October, when we will be joining Jon, Shannon, Joe and Carrie in California for a long weekend, yay!).

Shane and I decided on Friday to visit the Vancouver Aquarium.  It’s easy walking distance from our apartment, and we hadn’t been there since our first trip in 2001, so we figured what the hell?  (Especially with the winter rates!)  Let’s go see some fishes.

I really liked the aquarium.  It’s a fairly small place, so we easily navigated around it in half a day.  The focus there is on conservation, research and education, so there’s not that kind-of-creepy feel that places like Sea World exude (at least for me).  The shows we attended – beluga, dolphin, sea lion, sea otter – were actually training/feeding sessions rather than choreographed performances.  It was fun to watch the staff simply play with the animals.  And the show scripts weren’t as cheesily kid-oriented as I expected.

That said, there were a LOT of kids at the aquarium.  Which I guess is to be expected on a Friday afternoon, but wow.  We were constantly dodging tiny foot traffic and Hummer-sized strollers.  And don’t even get me started on the gift shop madness.  Oh my.

Random aquarium highlights:

• Seeing baby beluga Tiqa, who was born this past June.
• The giant clam and giant sea turtle, both living up to their names.
• The tiny green puffer fish that Shane wanted to take home in his pocket.
• A lucky timing coincidence that allowed us to watch the dolphin “show” twice, once from up above and once from the underwater viewing area.
• The weird little fish that followed our eyes at water level.
• The bright neon jellyfish display.
• Finding the exact species of my former frog.
• The disgustingly awesome slow-motion video of frogs eating all manner of insects.
• A delicious macadamia nut cookie that gave us the extra boost for walking home.
  

The only thing we didn’t get to see was the famous sea otter couple from YouTube, Milo and Nyac.  Milo was there, but it turns out Nyac passed away in September.  Ah well, their cuteness will live on forever on teh Internets.

Milo and Nyac's 15 minutes of fame

Milo goes it alone

The Chinese New Year occurred on January 26^th this year; thus, last weekend was host to Vancouver’s annual Chinese New Year parade.  So while (seemingly) most folks were gearing up for the Superbowl, Shane and I were making our way over to Chinatown (in the rain, no less) to ring in the year of the ox.

Since we were running a bit late (what else is new), we decided to claim a spot near the end of the parade route.  This allowed us to avoid the crush of people camped near the beginning, but it also meant the parade participants were fairly soaked and tired by the time we reached us.  Nevertheless, they still managed to put on an entertaining show.

If I had to pick one word to describe this parade, it would be: LOUD.  Firecrackers heralded the procession’s arrival and the sounds of drums, cymbals and small bands were a constant soundtrack behind the people marching by.  The colours, too, were extremely vibrant – lots of “lucky” red and gold, especially – a nice contrast to the grayness of the day.

We saw plenty of lion/dragon dancers, multicultural dancers and school groups.  We also had a few local celebrity sightings when (the new) Mayor Robertson and CBC weatherwoman Claire Martin walked by.  Oh, and the 2010 Olympic mascots drove past us in a couple of trucks!  It was a riot for me to get a glimpse of the big Quatchi (whom Shane posed with a few months ago) in-person.  We also got handed a lot of little red envelopes throughout the afternoon, which turned out to contain pieces of (wrapped) candy inside.  (Kind of a waste of paper, if you ask me.  Oh well.)

After the parade, we stopped by the International Village, an indoor shopping area in Chinatown.  I wandered into one store selling lots of Asian products (with very little English on the packaging), and we decided this would be a great place to buy some snacks.  We selected two items based mostly for their hilarious advertising: one turned out to be similar to Chex mix, the other tiny buns filled with chocolate.  It was a perfect, silly way to end a fun afternoon.

January was a pretty slow month as far as events go, but we did participate in Dine Out Vancouver.  This is an annual, two-week event where local restaurants try to boost clientele by offering special three-course menus for $18, $28 or $38 (depending on how nice of a place you want to visit).  The menus consist of 2-3 choices for appetizers, entrees and dessert.  We sampled the selections at three $18 places; here’s a look at what we ate.

Chilli House Thai Bistro

Appetizers: Chicken Satay (chicken marinated in a mixture of Thai spices and coconut milk) and Beef Lettuce Wraps (lean ground beef with fresh basil)

Entrees: Horw Mok Maprao (boneless chicken with red curry sauce and coconut meat) and Matsaman Curry Ostrich (ostrich in matsaman curry topped with ground peanut)

Dessert: Deep-Fried Banana with Mango Ice Cream (like it says) and Black Glutinous Rice Pudding (black rice in a salty-and-sweet pudding mix)

The Calling Public House

Appetizers: Butternut Squash Soup (with sage and parmesan croutons) and Mixed Greens Apple Salad (with creamy cheddar dressing, candied pecans and crisp proscuitto)

Entrees: Seared Trout Filet (with snow crab risotto and vegetable salsa) and Wild Mushroom Ravioli (with pommery mustard sauce and pecorino)

Dessert: Blueberry Cheesecake with Warm Buttered Peaches

Darby’s Pub

Appetizers: Roasted Butternut Squash Fondue (dipping sauce of spinach, edam and 3-year-old cheddar served with garlic bread) and Spinach and Egg Timbale (with fresh-cut salsa and sour cream)

Entrees: Darby’s Mac ‘n Cheese (with chicken, broccoli and 3-year-old cheddar) and Fish Curry (catfish, carrot, potato and parsnip in garam masala sauce with jasmine rice, yogurt and naan)

Dessert: S’mores Torte (graham crust, chocolate ganache and homemade marshmallow topped with toasted almonds and coffee caramel)

Shane and I are HUGE fans of eating out, so we certainly enjoyed all of our Dine Outs.  I will say, however, that the Thai Bistro and Darby’s were far superior to The Calling.  (Because there is no way cold, canned peaches sprinkled with cinnamon counts as “warm buttered peaches”.  Bitches.)  Oh, and the s’mores torte?  Absolutely to-die-for good.

Shane and I were fortunate enough to watch the inauguration of our 44^th President on the big screen yesterday.  The local chapter of Democrats Abroad (which hosted the Election Night we attended) teamed up with Canadians for Obama to reserve the Rio Theatre (at Broadway and Commercial) for the viewing.  So, since Shane had taken the day off, we both left early on Tuesday morning to catch the SkyTrain out there.

We arrived around 8:30 a.m., just about the time the ceremony was starting in D.C.  The theatre was not packed, but fairly full (considering it was a weekday morning), and included a bunch of Canadian reporters with video cameras, digital cameras and notepads.  We grabbed a couple of prime seats near the front and settled in.  

When Vice President-Elect Biden entered the stage, the crowd applauded enthusiastically and a few people whistled.  But once President-Elect Obama arrived, everyone in the theatre rose to their feet, clapping and cheering without reservation.  And this outpouring of excitement (and, I think, relief) continued throughout the ceremony.  We stood respectfully when President Obama took the oath of office; we reacted with positive exclamations to his speech (and his shout-out to the nonbelievers – yay!); we all sang the national anthem together at the end.  It was, as you might imagine, incredibly moving.

I am not ashamed to say I was teary-eyed through most of it.  From the instant CNN announced that Obama had officially become President (which happened at noon, even though he had not yet taken the oath of office), I was overcome with emotion at the awesome history of it.  There was simply so much meaning loaded in that moment – for me as a liberal, yes, but also as an American and as a human being – it filled me to the brim with pride.

So a big thank you to the folks who organized this gathering.  I’m grateful that January 20^th, 2009 will go down in my personal history as a day of sharing hope with a community of like-minded souls, smiling and crying (happily) in the warmth of a small Vancouver movie theatre.

I meant to get this post up before our week-long trip to Minnesota and Washington, but all the last-minute packing (not to mention the endless construction going on in our apartment) kept me from doing it.  (There may have also been something involving napping instead of Photoshopping, but whatever.)  So please indulge me as I write one last Xmas-themed post - or, you know, skip this one and come back later for my overdue 9-month reflection.

On the last weekend before all our holiday traveling, Shane and I made one more stop to see Xmas lights in Vancouver.  For this excursion, we drove up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Van to experience the Canyon Lights display. 

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a huge tourist trap destination (which is why we normally take our visitors to the Lynn Canyon one), so we hadn’t been there since our first trip in 2001.  Luckily, a combination of non-tourist season and unusually cold weather resulted in a low turnout that evening, with everyone in good, friendly (and well-behaved) spirits.

The lights were spread out on both sides of the canyon.  We started by walking around the main area, enjoying the totem poles illuminated in red and green lights and one particular tree hung with moving, blue, vertical lights that looked like falling snow.  The suspension bridge itself was illuminated beautifully, so we took our time crossing over, stopping along the way to appreciate just how high (70 metres or 230 feet) above the Capilano River we were.

On the other side of the canyon, we took a leisurely stroll around a small, colourfully decorated ice rink pond, lit mostly by hanging paper lanterns.  We also got to go up into the Treetops Adventure, an exhibit consisting of suspended wooden bridges stretching between enormous old trees (similar to the UBC’s Canopy Walkway, except much tamer).  Each bridge section was covered in lovely lights, and we got a great bird’s-eye view of the “wildlife” (read: Xmas-light deer) below before finally heading down and back over to the other side.

All in all, it was yet another fantastic night of Vancouver Christmas celebration.  I am already anticipating doing many of these events again next year, including the ones we missed out on due to weather (the Egg Nog jog, the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival, Christmas at Canada Place).  Hats off to you, Vancouver, for making the most of this dark time of year!

A few hours before the snow started falling this weekend, we made our way over to the VanDusen Botanical Garden for the Saturday night showing of the Festival of Lights.  This is a yearly Vancouver holiday display of epic proportions, which transforms much of the garden into a magical, colourful landscape of light.  I have known about (and looked forward to seeing) this event for years, so my expectations were pretty damn high.  Thankfully, the garden lived up to them.

We started off by procuring hot drinks for both of us – hot cider for me and hot cocoa for Shane – as it was a pretty chilly evening for Vancouver.  Then we began our journey wandering up and down the paths within the garden.  Many sections had a particular theme, like the yellow-lit Golden Chain Walk and the red-and-white Candy Cane Lane.  But all shared a similar, impressive (read: MASSIVE) number of lights.  It was absolutely beautiful, and I hope the pictures give you at least a hint of what the experience was like in-person.

Adding to the fun was a live community choir, the requisite Santa Claus and a toy train track.  We also enjoyed the Candle Shrine, a small hut with tealight candles set in the walls, each representing a child’s wish.  (I overheard one little boy light his candle and wish that Santa would “be healthier and lose weight” – very amusing.)  And there was a wonderful, 15-minute Dancing Lights show held every half hour around one of the garden’s ponds, which we made sure to witness twice.

Overall, I am really impressed by the magnitude of Vancouver’s holiday spirit.  It’s been easy to get in the Xmas mood this year, even before we got dumped on by all this freaky snow.

We woke up on Sunday morning to the most intense downpour I have ever experienced here.  It was the kind of deluge for which the phrase “sheets of rain” was invented.  But within 15 minutes, not only had the rain stopped, the clouds had cleared to make way for the sun – a good thing, since we had plans to spend the afternoon outdoors.

Yes, Sunday was the day of the big Rogers Santa Claus parade in downtown Vancouver.  We made our way (through the puddles) over to Georgia Street to stake a spot for the 1 p.m. event.  While not nearly as crazy as June’s Pride Parade, the show was still a lot of festive fun.

The two main themes of the parade were Christmas (obviously) and music, music, music.  There were TONS of groups performing along the route – bagpipes, carolers and marching bands galore (some all the way from Washington state)!  I found something quite humorous about hearing each play their version of “Frosty the Snowmen” (you haven’t lived until you’ve listened to that on bagpipes).

Other highlights included:

Mounties marching in full dress (with mascot!).

The cheesy Tim Horton’s float (Canada’s most popular donut chain).

The dancing Chinese dragons.

A public bus dressed up as Rudolph.

The parade lasted a good two hours, after which we were both shivering from the constant, chilly breeze.  But a big thank you to the sun for shining down on us for the afternoon; I’ll gladly take the (relative) cold over getting drenched any day.

As promised, here are some pictures from Bright Nights in Stanley Park (the event we attended with Ian over Thanksgiving weekend).

Ian drove up on Thursday to spend part of the Thanksgiving weekend with us.  Although, given that Canada’s Thanksgiving has long been over, it turned into more of a Christmas weekend than anything else!

We kicked off the fun with a Thanksgiving-style meal at Rooster’s Quarters on Denman.  Being the non-cooks that we are, Shane and I thought this “homestyle” restaurant would be perfect for eating some poultry.  The three of us ordered chicken and beef entrees, accompanied by an appetizer of poutine (which, you may remember, we tried for the first time at the PNE with Carrie).  It was a decent meal, although a far cry from the traditional dinner (plus cinnamon Jello salad!) we’re used to enjoying courtesy of my mom.

On Friday, we spent the day shopping inside Pacific Centre Mall and along Robson Street.  Shane and I were mostly on the hunt for Xmas presents, while Ian was hoping to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate to buy a few gifts and some clothes.  We met with varying degrees of success, although one notable moment for me was buying a little stuffed Mukmuk (the fourth and final 2010 Olympic mascot sidekick, released last week)!

That night, we went to Stanley Park to check out Bright Nights, one of several holiday light displays set up here for December.  This is located in the same area as the pirate-themed Halloween exhibit we saw in October.  The plaza was much more decorated than last time, and I plan to go back in the next couple of weeks to take some goddamn pictures (the rain has made me unbelievably lazy in this department).  We visited the children’s farmyard again – where the animals were MUCH more active than before – then hopped on the train to see the elaborate Christmas decorations along the railway route.

I have to say, the rain definitely enhanced the lights.  The wet leaves twinkled in the dark, and the fine mist falling from the sky almost looked like snow!  My favourite part of the ride was the ice-skating polar bears hovering on top of the water we when crossed over a small pond; it really did look like ice, albeit ice with occasional raindrops.

After a night of games and drunken debauchery Bailey’s consumption, we all took it easy on Saturday morning.  We grabbed lunch at Blenz with Ian before he left, then got back into our regular routine.  Not to worry, though, we did make one more Thanksgivingy stop that evening, when we went to Steeps (it's the new TeaSource) for a pot of tea and a perfect, delectable slice of pumpkin pie - mmm.  Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to everyone back in the States!