One last note about Vancouver (2010)

The 2010 Olympics are going to be held in Vancouver. There's no way you could avoid that fact walking through the city as Olympic merchandise is EVERYWHERE. There a big countdown clock in the middle of the city too. 500 and some days to go!

Having said that, I gave into the hype and bought some of the overpriced stuffed mascots for the kids. The mascots are a little bizarre--are they always so? I remember the '88 Seoul Olympics and they just had tigers dressed in traditional Korean clothing. No franken-mascots or anything...

From left to right:

Sumi: the "animal spirit" who lives in the mountains of British Columbia. He wears the hat of an orca whale, flies with wings of the thunderbird and runs on the legs of the black bear. Kinda weird, right? Sumi is the mascot for the 2010 Para-Olympics. This one was the least favorite of the kids.

Quatchi: He is my personal favorite. A young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Cananda. He aspires to be a hockey player (position: goalie).

Miga: A young sea bear--part killer whale, part bear (WTF?!)--who lives in the ocean with her family pod. She likes to snowboard and eat salmon.

No whales here, but how about some gigantic chocolate creams instead?

It was our last day in Vancouver and we spent most of it on bus or ferry: we decided to go on a tour to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Victoria is located on the southern tip Vancouver Island, which boasts a land mass larger than the UK. I'm not entirely sure why the province would place their seat of government on an island, but I'm sure they had a good reason other than the nice view.


We saw a few seals frolicking in the water, but unfortunately, no whales.

Our first stop was Butchart Gardens, where this wealthy cement baron's wife, Jennie Butchart, had gardens built out of an emptied stone quarry. The highlight is the Sunken Garden right in the center of the old quarry.

Victoria has a lot of beautiful mansions and the city center was very quaint. We picked up some Victoria Creams from Rogers' Chocolates--they have been making these gigantic cream-filled treats since 1885. Supposedly the Queen gets them shipped to her.






<--- Actual size of Victoria Cream (45g = almost 0.1 lb)

Canadiasians

After Toronto, Vancouver is the most multi-ethnic Canadian city. There are a lot of Asians in Vancouver, making up over 35% of the population. The Chinese alone make up about 17%.

The first Chinese came over in the mid-1800's for the gold rush, and then the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

As Jamie put it, Vancouver's Chinatown is spread out and not as crazy as New York's. I thought it was a bit desolate and we walked by a few uber-sketchy crackheads on our way over there. However, there is a very nice Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese garden which was quite well done.

Why Sun Yat-Sen, you ask? Well, apparently, the "father of modern China" spent a lot of time in Vancouver while touring the world trying to raise awareness and funding for the Chinese Nationalist Movement. British Columbia helped fund the movement's overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 and Sun Yat-Sen became the first president. The garden was built in 1985 and utilizes principles of feng-shui and taoism. Good ol' yin and yang balancing each other out. My favorite part was actually this turtle stretching out his back leg in arabesque.

On our way home we were starving and stopped by this Japanese hot dog cart. In Vancouver, most of the hot dog carts are run by Asians. This one, the JAPADOG stand, was voted the best in Vancouver. Or at least that's what the guy in front of us said. They have your standard hot dog, but also some crazy toppings, including one with japanese mayo, teriyaki sauce, fried onions and nori (seaweed) strips. I got the miso-mayo dog, with special miso sauce, japanese mayo, and sprouts. I have to say, it was quite delicious!

Vancouver: No one told me it was this hilly

The conference wrapped up with some chocolate croissants and a relieved sigh. I always expect to walk away from these sorts of things with at least a few new ideas, but they always fall short and all I can hope for is an engaging speaker and some tasty snacks. Oh, and Jamie got hit on at a gay bar by a former president of the association hosting the conference! Not surprising, the guy was uber creepy and had recognized Jamie from the conference. Granted, this wouldn't be that difficult since about 90% of attendees were overweight, middle-aged women.

The remainder of our time was spent exploring Vancouver and eating as much food as possible.

Granville Island and Kitsilano--before this long day of walking and more walking began, we ate at Hon's Wun-Tun for some Chinese food, supposedly one of the best cheap eats in Vancouver, and conveniently located near our hotel. Their pot stickers were good (albeit not as good as mine, of course) and the food was plentiful and cheap:

After we stuffed ourselves we waddled our full bellies over to the water and took a mini-ferry across to Granville Island, which has a large market kind of like a cross between Pike's Place in Seattle and my favorite, Reading Terminal Market in Philly (sans the Amish people.)

OMG, a loaf of cinnamon bun!!!

We then proceeded to walk for what seemed like eternity. A woman at the conference was a Vancouver native and had recommended walking through the Kitsilano neighborhood as it was "cool" and fun. I wouldn't really say it was that fun, but we did make our way through the main park and beach in that area. It was nice to sit in the sun and people watch. What wasn't so nice was the many blocks uphill we had to walk to get back to our hotel. Vancouver sure is hilly.