We leave our hosts' place
around 10:00 am and walk to Fraser Highway. We buy some day-passes
at Mac's, the local convenience store, and catch the next bus to the
King George SkyTrain Station. We take the train into the city and
get off at Chinatown, which is one of the largest historic Chinatowns
in North America. We walk around Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Public Garden and
browse around the colorful shops. From there we head into the
neighboring Gastown, which was Vancouver's first downtown core.
After walking around for a bit, we hunt for an all-you-can-eat sushi
place around downtown. We end up at Shabusen Yakiniku on Burrard and
Alberni, where we eat our hearts out. We have miso soup, sashimi,
nigiri, sushi rolls, veggie tempura, gyoza, and teryaki chicken.
It's delicious, and once we're done we take the SeaBus to North
Vancouver and lay down on a park bench with the Vancouver skyline in
front of us.
After recovering from our food-coma, we walk around the
Lonsdale Quay Public Market filled with fresh produce and tasty food
that we can't bring ourselves to look at quite yet. We take the
SeaBus back to downtown, and since it's raining we take the SkyTrain
and start our way back to Surrey. We stop at the Main Street
Farmer's Market that's in a park in front of the Pacific Central
Train Station. We check out the local booths filled with meat,
cheese, olive oil among others. After chilling out at the park for
awhile, we go back to Surrey.
We wake up pretty early
the next day and leave our apartment around 9 am on our bikes. We
bike to the SkyTrain station and take the train into the city with
our bikes. We get off at the Main Street/Chinatown station and bike
to Granville Island on the south shore of the False Creek facing the
peninsula of downtown Vancouver and its innumerable skyscrapers.
Granville Island is actually not an island but a peninsula, and
Granville was the name for the city until it got changed to Vancouver
in 1886. Granville Island is impressive. It's an amazing
concentration of the arts: a huge public market, various performing
art theaters, art galleries, the Emily Carr University of Art and
Design, an active community of craft studios, and of course a
brewery. The place is so cool that a bunch of people are living on
houseboats on the side of the island. We eat our lunch in the midst
of the busyness of the market, keeping an eye on the many buskers
performing.
Then we cross Granville Bridge and bike through Yaletown
and Davie Village until we reach Stanley Park. It's a beautiful day
and lots of locals and tourists are taking advantage of the weather.
We bike along the waterfront which turns from beach to rocks and back
to beach again. After biking for a couple of kilometers, we discover
that the bike path has turned a one-way, and we are going the wrong
way. We decide, shamefully, to keep going. Yes, we are those
annoying tourists. Upon finishing the loop, we see that it's close
to rush hour and decide to head back to Surrey without stopping at
the Alibi Room for a local beer. That evening we are invited to
share a dinner with our hosts. We eat some soup made from fresh
garden vegetables and enjoy the company of our hosts. We are sent
off with some rhubarb-strawberry jam, some ground green beans, and
some more of the soup.
The next day we deliberate
about going to Vancouver Island or not, and we decide to go despite
that it's the long weekend in Canada and Labor Day in the US.
Yellow's mom has some relatives living on the island, so we try to
get a hold of them. After doing some internet stalking, we find
Larry who is Yellow's mom's cousin, and we call him at work. With
much flexibility, we arrange to get together for dinner, so we make a
reservation for the 9 pm ferry and take a nap. Larry meets us at the
ABC Country Restaurant in Surrey. It's great to connect some family
and enjoy some delicious burgers. Red is very excited, as each
burger comes with a free Coke float. We talk about family history
and travels. Larry calls his brother Ron, who still lives on the
island, in order for us to connect once we're there. After leaving
Larry, we drive to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. It's a beautiful drive
at sunset with a view of the Vancouver skyline that is backed by the
mountains. We board Bertha onto the ferry and arrive to Swartz Bay
at 10:30 pm. After a short drive, we pull into our hosts' place and
briefly meet Verna before going to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment