It Was Long And Hard
...that's what my day was. Very long. Hard (as in, trying to keep cool). But good. I woke up at 6:30am yesterday and did the following...
First up, I went on a quick drive out to Port Moody to hang with Deborah (betty_bgirl) to watch some World Cup action. We'd not seen each other in nearly two weeks; it was nice to see my dear friend again. :) Sadly, the game we were watching featured Germany and Sweden, and Sweden lost, big time. If it wasn't for their goalie, they would have been totally schooled.
"They should've selected us for the team, Henrik. We would've been good on corner kicks."
"Yah, Daniel, this is true. Crow always said we were great in the corners. Bork, bork, bork."
The game I really did want to see was the tilt between Mexico and Argentina, but alas, it wasn't starting until I had to leave.
What WAS cool, though, was the fact that our server, Char, remembered us from the last time we were there two weeks ago. Friendly as always, but even moreso this time: they just got a new ice capuccino machine at the bar and we got to do some taste-testing for her, absolutely free. What a nice server we have. Big tips were aplenty. :)
Yes, and we actually tip in foreign currency sometimes. I once gave a server at the Landing one peso!
During the game, Deb off-handedly said that she was too busy to officially be dating anyone this summer, from the looks of it. Yet, we still have many prospective plans - the World Cup stuff and so forth. Works for me, I suppose. At least the answer is out there. :)
Anyway, why I couldn't stay for the Mexico/Argentina game is because another LJ friend of mine, hereinparis (Angela), was coming into Vancouver that morning and I'd promised to be her host for her time here. She was supposed to come a few days back - hence the days I took off work - but alas, Air Canada screwed her over, so instead of a four day layover in Vancouver, she's getting barely 24 hours.
She was coming in on a flight from Beijing; I recalled the picture she had sent and figured she'd be easy enough to spot, being one of the few caucasian people I'd see getting off this flight. Unfortunately, I didn't think about all the other flights that would be coming in from Manchester, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and various other international locations.
In the meantime, I caught some of the Mexico/Argentina game; turns out Mexico lost. I was actually miffed, and it looked like most of the people in the airport were rooting for Mexico, too. *ABRAZOS PARA lara_luna* In four years, maybe it'll change. Maybe you'll get to beat up on my country if us Hosers make it in. :)
Angela's flight was delayed a bit but I had yet to fall asleep so it couldn't have been that late. I was lucky enough to recognize her (and be recognized) immediately. We made it out to the car and the tour of Vancouver had begun.
Welcome to Vancouver / Bienvenue a Vancouver!
For Vancouver, it was a hot day - the hottest so far this summer. It hit about 31 degrees, which for me, is perfect summer weather around here. Angela loved it but said this was not the heat she was accustomed to - she was used to being in China with 40 degree temperatures with terrible humidity. I guess we get off lucky here in Van-City, eh?
The first thing she wanted to do was get to Chinatown, which happens to be the second-biggest Chinatown in North America (besides that in San Francisco). She'd neglected to buy some people some gifts while she was in China, so she figured this would be the next best thing.
We parked downtown next to GM Place, which was packed; it took me a second to remember that at that very time, the 2006 NHL Entry Draft was happening just across the street. I don't know if the picks my teams (Habs and Canucks) made were any good, but damn, I'm just happy to see Bertuzzi and his ugly mug off the Canucks. Have fun in Florida, dude.
After watching a couple of kids berrate their dad for not being able to work the parking meter machine - calling him a retard and idiot and such - we made our way to Chinatown. I swear, if Angela and I weren't there, those kids would've been bitchslapped to Victoria, by the way their dad was glaring back at them. Such brutal children.
"I'd like to thank Steve Moore for making this move not only possible, but a necessity..."
Walking through the above gate, the Chinatown Gate on Pender Street, the two of us browsed through a handful of shops in the area, checking out their wares. I won't buy one here, but if I'm ever in the far east, I think I'll want to buy a silk kimono. Seriously, that silk is so...deliciously awesome. More of a girl thing I think, but still, there must be a masculine version out there somewhere.
I hadn't set foot in Chinatown for quite some time prior to yesterday; usually I'd just driven through or gone by on the bus. I forgot just how...truly Chinese it is. I mean, that's the only language you hear being spoken, and the entire area is like a giant open-air market with all the various smells. Angela dared me to eat a lizard on a stick, which I declined; however, I did cave in and eat a sweet, messy-as-hell fruit, known as a "leechee". (I'm not even going to bother trying to spell it, but phonetically, that's how the word sounds.) The fruit has a harder outer shell that can be peeled, and underneath, a very sweet watery centre - they're about the size of a human eye, and just as gooey, I'd imagine. Angela bought a whole bag because she thought they were the bee's knees.
I was also fortunate enough to accidentally enter the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. For those that don't know the area, this is the cruddiest, dirtiest, and absolute poorest part of all of Canada - ironically located only minutes away from the richest. City planners are trying to find ways to put a blanket over the problem before the Olympics are held here in just under four years, but it'll never happen; there is just so much desolation there. Hookers and drug addicts are visible everywhere you see in broad daylight, often sleeping or passed out on the sidewalk. It's a sad sight.
Angela DID like the bag one of the hookers had, though; too bad her attire and posture didn't match.
Of course, she did get spotted after leaving the free drug clinic, so that could explain the posture thing.
One thing of note - all the street lamps in Chinatown are red. I noticed this since I was a kid; I never pieced together, until recently, that it made sense, since that is the colour of the Chinese flag, and the colour generally associated with communism. *SMART*
Next up on the agenda was going to Vancouver's #1 landmark and tourist attraction, Stanley Park. We didn't stop anywhere as we drove by; no aquarium, no zoo, none of that fun stuff. I just took her on the perimeter driving tour along the Seawall, where we were still able to see Deadman's Island, the Totem Poles, the 9 O'Clock Gun, the Little Mermaid statue, and so forth.
That big chunk of green is Stanley Park. Named after Lord Stanley - the same guy after whom the Stanley Cup is named - it is 1000 acres in size, features centuries-old old growth forests, and is the largest urban (city) park in all of the world. (Take that, New York.)
The Lions Gate Bridge. The city connects Stanley Park (Vancouver) to the North Shore Mountains. Once the longest bridge in the entire British Empire, the bridge also marks the entrance to Vancouver Harbour. This is the bridge after which the Lions Gate Films studio took its name.
Our next stop - another prime thing to do in Vancouver - was ascend Grouse Mountain. I really, really wanted to do the Grouse Grind - that being a trail (read: non-stop stairs) that ascends the 853m climb to the top of the mountain. Had Angela not been climbing the Great Wall of China just a few days before, she may have been up for it - but not today. Instead, we took the skyride to the top. A gorgeous ride, to be sure.
Up top, we finally got to chill out; I was sweating because of the heat and my car hasn't any air conditioning. And I was chaffing. Yeah. After our breather though, we went to a video presentation called "Animal Tracks", which featured the grizzly bear habitat that is atop the mountain. I loved watching da bears. Who doesn't like da bears? Thus, after the film completed, we went searching for da bears in person.
On our way to find the bear pen, we stumbled across a place called "Beaver Tails". I had never heard of it. Angela was floored, and dragged me to it.
What these things are, my friends, are pastries that are rolled out like pizza dough - but in the shape of a beaver tail, and then a whole bunch of crazy sugary crap is thrown into the middle. Mine, for example, featured maple syrup and chocolate. It was delicious and messy!!!
While there, we also witnessed a robbery. A squirrel came bounding across the mountain and snuck into the Beaver Tails storage shed, and ran off with something. We didn't quite know what it was; I thought it was a dinner roll. A few minutes later, the squirrel returned. And again, and again, and again. After watching him for a few minutes, we realized he was stealing ice cream cones and taking them back to his lair underneath the gondola. What a cute squirrel! What a...theif.
AWWW!
After I cleaned up the stickiness of my hands - first leechees and now Beaver Tails - we made our way to the Grizzly Bear Habitat. The bears were huge and adorable! They were both fighting to see who would be king (or queen) of the last remaining snow patch/mountain in their pen. I loved da bears!
"What? Are you kidding, referee?"
All in all, our Grouse Mountain adventure was excellent. It was well worth the $30 it cost to get up here. It's a tourist trap but a dang good one.
Grouse Mountain, at night, overlooking the city of Vancouver in the background. Taken in the winter, when the ski runs are open.
After crossing back over the Lions Gate Bridge, we re-entered Stanley Park for the driving tour of the other half of the park. We stopped at Prospect Point, and once there, realized that my old friend Rocky the Raccoon had crawled up to the car. This is the same raccoon that bunnychicken and I met in January during her visit here. This time, however, Rocky had two friends - Rocky 2 and Rocky 3, or as I called them, "Adrienne" and "The Russian Guy".
We didn't have any typical raccoon food, like bottlecaps and such, but we DID have LEECHEES! Those little guys loved them. All the other tourists there loved the raccoons, too. They're pretty tame - and their hair is pretty soft (like an unwashed dog). So cute, indeed!
You can't to Vancouver and not run into some of nature's goodness. It's the one thing the city has in spades!
After that we went for dinner on Granville Island, at Bridges. Angela wanted something Vancouveresque for her one night here, so we had to find a place that specialized in seafood. Even I got in on the action, eating some grilled sockeye salmon.
Now, if only that chef could get Angela's soup just right...and if only I didn't spill nearly every drink or salt shaker within a ten foot radius of myself...then it would've been a perfect experience. At least the weather and the view were nice!
The view from the restaurant.
After that, I took Angela back to my house and showed her to where she'd be staying overnight. I'm surprised she managed to stay awake all day, after flying across about seven time zones and living through Saturday twice.
The next morning (this morning), she finally got to chat with my parents at length, and hang out with Mr. George P. Puglet, before we were off to Timmy Ho's for breakfast. After that, we hit up the post office, so she could finally send the postcards she meant to send from China, and then the border, so she could zip across and say she was in the USA on her travels, too. After that, we made it to the airport about 30 minutes before her flight to Calgary was set to leave. A hug goodbye, and that was that; it was great fun to see her, and I hope to do so again some time. Maybe next time I'm in Ottawa, eh?
And now...time for a nap. I'm zonkled!
-Tim
First up, I went on a quick drive out to Port Moody to hang with Deborah (betty_bgirl) to watch some World Cup action. We'd not seen each other in nearly two weeks; it was nice to see my dear friend again. :) Sadly, the game we were watching featured Germany and Sweden, and Sweden lost, big time. If it wasn't for their goalie, they would have been totally schooled.
The game I really did want to see was the tilt between Mexico and Argentina, but alas, it wasn't starting until I had to leave.
What WAS cool, though, was the fact that our server, Char, remembered us from the last time we were there two weeks ago. Friendly as always, but even moreso this time: they just got a new ice capuccino machine at the bar and we got to do some taste-testing for her, absolutely free. What a nice server we have. Big tips were aplenty. :)
Yes, and we actually tip in foreign currency sometimes. I once gave a server at the Landing one peso!
During the game, Deb off-handedly said that she was too busy to officially be dating anyone this summer, from the looks of it. Yet, we still have many prospective plans - the World Cup stuff and so forth. Works for me, I suppose. At least the answer is out there. :)
Anyway, why I couldn't stay for the Mexico/Argentina game is because another LJ friend of mine, hereinparis (Angela), was coming into Vancouver that morning and I'd promised to be her host for her time here. She was supposed to come a few days back - hence the days I took off work - but alas, Air Canada screwed her over, so instead of a four day layover in Vancouver, she's getting barely 24 hours.
She was coming in on a flight from Beijing; I recalled the picture she had sent and figured she'd be easy enough to spot, being one of the few caucasian people I'd see getting off this flight. Unfortunately, I didn't think about all the other flights that would be coming in from Manchester, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and various other international locations.
In the meantime, I caught some of the Mexico/Argentina game; turns out Mexico lost. I was actually miffed, and it looked like most of the people in the airport were rooting for Mexico, too. *ABRAZOS PARA lara_luna* In four years, maybe it'll change. Maybe you'll get to beat up on my country if us Hosers make it in. :)
Angela's flight was delayed a bit but I had yet to fall asleep so it couldn't have been that late. I was lucky enough to recognize her (and be recognized) immediately. We made it out to the car and the tour of Vancouver had begun.
Welcome to Vancouver / Bienvenue a Vancouver!
For Vancouver, it was a hot day - the hottest so far this summer. It hit about 31 degrees, which for me, is perfect summer weather around here. Angela loved it but said this was not the heat she was accustomed to - she was used to being in China with 40 degree temperatures with terrible humidity. I guess we get off lucky here in Van-City, eh?
The first thing she wanted to do was get to Chinatown, which happens to be the second-biggest Chinatown in North America (besides that in San Francisco). She'd neglected to buy some people some gifts while she was in China, so she figured this would be the next best thing.
We parked downtown next to GM Place, which was packed; it took me a second to remember that at that very time, the 2006 NHL Entry Draft was happening just across the street. I don't know if the picks my teams (Habs and Canucks) made were any good, but damn, I'm just happy to see Bertuzzi and his ugly mug off the Canucks. Have fun in Florida, dude.
After watching a couple of kids berrate their dad for not being able to work the parking meter machine - calling him a retard and idiot and such - we made our way to Chinatown. I swear, if Angela and I weren't there, those kids would've been bitchslapped to Victoria, by the way their dad was glaring back at them. Such brutal children.
"I'd like to thank Steve Moore for making this move not only possible, but a necessity..."
Walking through the above gate, the Chinatown Gate on Pender Street, the two of us browsed through a handful of shops in the area, checking out their wares. I won't buy one here, but if I'm ever in the far east, I think I'll want to buy a silk kimono. Seriously, that silk is so...deliciously awesome. More of a girl thing I think, but still, there must be a masculine version out there somewhere.
I hadn't set foot in Chinatown for quite some time prior to yesterday; usually I'd just driven through or gone by on the bus. I forgot just how...truly Chinese it is. I mean, that's the only language you hear being spoken, and the entire area is like a giant open-air market with all the various smells. Angela dared me to eat a lizard on a stick, which I declined; however, I did cave in and eat a sweet, messy-as-hell fruit, known as a "leechee". (I'm not even going to bother trying to spell it, but phonetically, that's how the word sounds.) The fruit has a harder outer shell that can be peeled, and underneath, a very sweet watery centre - they're about the size of a human eye, and just as gooey, I'd imagine. Angela bought a whole bag because she thought they were the bee's knees.
I was also fortunate enough to accidentally enter the Downtown East Side of Vancouver. For those that don't know the area, this is the cruddiest, dirtiest, and absolute poorest part of all of Canada - ironically located only minutes away from the richest. City planners are trying to find ways to put a blanket over the problem before the Olympics are held here in just under four years, but it'll never happen; there is just so much desolation there. Hookers and drug addicts are visible everywhere you see in broad daylight, often sleeping or passed out on the sidewalk. It's a sad sight.
Angela DID like the bag one of the hookers had, though; too bad her attire and posture didn't match.
Of course, she did get spotted after leaving the free drug clinic, so that could explain the posture thing.
One thing of note - all the street lamps in Chinatown are red. I noticed this since I was a kid; I never pieced together, until recently, that it made sense, since that is the colour of the Chinese flag, and the colour generally associated with communism. *SMART*
Next up on the agenda was going to Vancouver's #1 landmark and tourist attraction, Stanley Park. We didn't stop anywhere as we drove by; no aquarium, no zoo, none of that fun stuff. I just took her on the perimeter driving tour along the Seawall, where we were still able to see Deadman's Island, the Totem Poles, the 9 O'Clock Gun, the Little Mermaid statue, and so forth.
That big chunk of green is Stanley Park. Named after Lord Stanley - the same guy after whom the Stanley Cup is named - it is 1000 acres in size, features centuries-old old growth forests, and is the largest urban (city) park in all of the world. (Take that, New York.)
The Lions Gate Bridge. The city connects Stanley Park (Vancouver) to the North Shore Mountains. Once the longest bridge in the entire British Empire, the bridge also marks the entrance to Vancouver Harbour. This is the bridge after which the Lions Gate Films studio took its name.
Our next stop - another prime thing to do in Vancouver - was ascend Grouse Mountain. I really, really wanted to do the Grouse Grind - that being a trail (read: non-stop stairs) that ascends the 853m climb to the top of the mountain. Had Angela not been climbing the Great Wall of China just a few days before, she may have been up for it - but not today. Instead, we took the skyride to the top. A gorgeous ride, to be sure.
Up top, we finally got to chill out; I was sweating because of the heat and my car hasn't any air conditioning. And I was chaffing. Yeah. After our breather though, we went to a video presentation called "Animal Tracks", which featured the grizzly bear habitat that is atop the mountain. I loved watching da bears. Who doesn't like da bears? Thus, after the film completed, we went searching for da bears in person.
On our way to find the bear pen, we stumbled across a place called "Beaver Tails". I had never heard of it. Angela was floored, and dragged me to it.
What these things are, my friends, are pastries that are rolled out like pizza dough - but in the shape of a beaver tail, and then a whole bunch of crazy sugary crap is thrown into the middle. Mine, for example, featured maple syrup and chocolate. It was delicious and messy!!!
While there, we also witnessed a robbery. A squirrel came bounding across the mountain and snuck into the Beaver Tails storage shed, and ran off with something. We didn't quite know what it was; I thought it was a dinner roll. A few minutes later, the squirrel returned. And again, and again, and again. After watching him for a few minutes, we realized he was stealing ice cream cones and taking them back to his lair underneath the gondola. What a cute squirrel! What a...theif.
AWWW!
After I cleaned up the stickiness of my hands - first leechees and now Beaver Tails - we made our way to the Grizzly Bear Habitat. The bears were huge and adorable! They were both fighting to see who would be king (or queen) of the last remaining snow patch/mountain in their pen. I loved da bears!
"What? Are you kidding, referee?"
All in all, our Grouse Mountain adventure was excellent. It was well worth the $30 it cost to get up here. It's a tourist trap but a dang good one.
Grouse Mountain, at night, overlooking the city of Vancouver in the background. Taken in the winter, when the ski runs are open.
After crossing back over the Lions Gate Bridge, we re-entered Stanley Park for the driving tour of the other half of the park. We stopped at Prospect Point, and once there, realized that my old friend Rocky the Raccoon had crawled up to the car. This is the same raccoon that bunnychicken and I met in January during her visit here. This time, however, Rocky had two friends - Rocky 2 and Rocky 3, or as I called them, "Adrienne" and "The Russian Guy".
We didn't have any typical raccoon food, like bottlecaps and such, but we DID have LEECHEES! Those little guys loved them. All the other tourists there loved the raccoons, too. They're pretty tame - and their hair is pretty soft (like an unwashed dog). So cute, indeed!
You can't to Vancouver and not run into some of nature's goodness. It's the one thing the city has in spades!
After that we went for dinner on Granville Island, at Bridges. Angela wanted something Vancouveresque for her one night here, so we had to find a place that specialized in seafood. Even I got in on the action, eating some grilled sockeye salmon.
Now, if only that chef could get Angela's soup just right...and if only I didn't spill nearly every drink or salt shaker within a ten foot radius of myself...then it would've been a perfect experience. At least the weather and the view were nice!
The view from the restaurant.
After that, I took Angela back to my house and showed her to where she'd be staying overnight. I'm surprised she managed to stay awake all day, after flying across about seven time zones and living through Saturday twice.
The next morning (this morning), she finally got to chat with my parents at length, and hang out with Mr. George P. Puglet, before we were off to Timmy Ho's for breakfast. After that, we hit up the post office, so she could finally send the postcards she meant to send from China, and then the border, so she could zip across and say she was in the USA on her travels, too. After that, we made it to the airport about 30 minutes before her flight to Calgary was set to leave. A hug goodbye, and that was that; it was great fun to see her, and I hope to do so again some time. Maybe next time I'm in Ottawa, eh?
And now...time for a nap. I'm zonkled!
-Tim