Happy reading kids, this is a long one!
Thursday after work I hit the road and drove to Seattle to pick Nick up at the airport. The drive again was really easy, and there were no issues at the border going or coming. It was around 1:30am when we got back to my apartment, and we hit the pillows pretty hard.
Friday we got up, had some breakfast and jumped in the car and headed up to Grouse Mountain. The mountain is the one you can see from my window. It’s a really quick 20 min drive to get to the base. The only way to get to the top is to take the SkyRide tram. They pack around 150 people into the standing room only cable cars, and up and away you go. We had some lunch when we got to the top at the Altitudes Cafe. It was fairly cloudy at the top, but the temperature was perfect somewhere between 35-40 degrees all afternoon. The main activity for the afternoon was snowshoeing . This is my new favorite activity!! I have been wanting to get more involved in hiking and camping, and snowshoeing is the perfect winter counterpart. Most of the gear is the same, and requires only the investment in a decent pair of snowshoes, and possibly poles. Being able to run around in the snow, shuffle down hills, and run up others was a ton of fun.
On the snowshoe trails we stopped for a while and watched all the skiers and snowboarders coming down the mountain. This was my first time on a ski mountain and I was like a little kid watching everyone ‘whoosh’ down the mountain – smiling in total awe.
We also went on a ’sleigh’ ride, which was pulled by a big motorized tractor. It was basically a big loop, but something nice to do to keep you outside and see some of the mountain. There is also a small skating pond, but with new snow falling and our feet finally starting to feel the cold, we headed inside. We watched a high-def movie called Born To Fly, which showed airel views of Vancvouer and BC, and it was fun to point out to Nick where my apartment was in all th shots. We then cleaned up and had a drink while waiting for our dinner reservations. We ate the Observatory, which is the mountain’s fine dining restaurant. The food was very good, and as a bonus, if you eat atthe Observatory, they will refund your SkyRide tickets (which are around $30 each!).
We woke up the next morning to a Skype call from my Uncle in Holland. It was 8:30am in Vancouver, and 6:30pm in Holland. They were getting ready for a nice dinner of steak and red wine. We were just barely ready for OJ and cereal! It was great to see my Aunt and Uncle though. They invited us for dinner, and had we not been in our PJ’s, we may have gone!
We also received an email Sat morning from the website The Knot – apparently there are only 18 months until our wedding. ONLY 18…. We decided we were happy our countdown was smaller than the 2010 Olympic Countdown here in Vancouver, but still pretty absurd. We both agreed that there shouldn’t be a ‘countdown’ until 1 month away: sorry Knot.
Saturday was the big walk around the city. We were outside all day wandering around. After scaring Nick by taking him through a rougher part of Gastown, we had a much needed first meal of the day at The Keg. We weren’t planning such a serious lunch, but we were starving and it was the first place we saw, so we ran! We walked through Yaletown, checked out an indigenous art gallery, some wine shops and sat on the waterfront to rest out feet. Then we walked up Davie street and spent a while hanging out on the beach. We took a bunch of pictures up there, and both agreed it was one of our favorite spots in the city. That night we ate at Simbas, and Nick gave my African Fusion find 2 thumbs up. For dessert we stopped into Cupcakes. Another great find! We also stopped at one of the local wine shops and asked for recommendations to accompany our dessert. One thing Nick noticed that I love about it here, is that most business owners love talking with and helping customers.
Sunday we had breakfast at Cafe Ventura by my apartment, which serves huge cups of tea. I also snapped this cool pic from above our table. We then walked over into Stanley Park. The walk into the park is along the seawall, and Nick really liked watching the seaplanes, boats, yachts etc along the way. Once in the park we headed up to the Vancouver Aquarium to spend a day with the fishes. It was a lot of fun. The Aquarium has a tropical Amazon zone that is a real life habitat for birds, fish and turtles of the Amazon. It also has an area that shows the marine life in and around British Columbia. There are also some more exotic things like various type of jellyfish. There were also three outdoor pools, one with sea otters, one with dolphins and one with my favorite, beluga whales. We stayed and watched the Dolphin show (which is where we took our ‘fishy’ picture posted in the blog entry below).
We then went walking around the shopping district, which just a block over my from place. We ate at a neat little tapas place and had good food and an interesting beer. After resting our feet and relaxing for a few hours, we headed back out for dinner. We went to a place a few blocks from my apartment on the seawall named Cardero’s. It’s a steak and seafood place and the food was really good. We both really like the steamed muscles, and we tried an awesome British Columbian Riesling from Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery.
Nick also got a special treat Sunday night – he got to watch the new episode of one of his favorite shows, Studio 60, a night earlier than normal. For some reason a few select shows air twice out here. Once, a night earlier than the scheduled viewing in the states, and then again in the regularly scheduled time slot. Studio 60 happens to be one of these, so he was a happy camper. One less DVR for him to catch up on once home!
Well hopefully it took you less time to read that than it did for me to write it!
