Relatives & Road Trips

Disclaimer
The 'G' button on my laptop is misbehaving so any misspellings involving that particular letter are not entirely my fault. I do, however, remain responsible for any other errors.

Foreword
I do not believe I am in possession of the mental stamina necessary to detail all of the adventures of the last week or so in one superblog. I have therefore decided to split it up into as many chapters as I feel are required. This may be two, or it may be more. I ask for your patience and understanding and in return hope to provide you with not only interesting (if one-sided) conversation but also a powerful tool of procrastination.

Chapter One

Ritchie and Gaby arrived on April 16th and since then I've been playing host and guide, and been taking another look at Vancouver through tourist eyes.
I went and claimed them from the Greyhound Station around lunch time and safely delivered them to their lodgings at my house. After relieving themselves of the burden of baggage we took the bus to Robson and had a wander about the shops before going for dinner at the Templeton, where Debbie took me and Greg when we first arrived. I think the Templeton was a hit and I certainly enjoyed my pesto lasagna.
I was working on Friday so I needed a plan that would keep them occupied in a foreign city for a few hours, and they needed a map. The answer came in the form of a trip to the Granville Island Public Market were they could sample the veritable feast of fantastic foodstuffs and tourist tat. Once we'd had our fill, they headed off to the Aquarium and I went to work my (what seems to have been my final) shift at work. They swung by Steeps for some dinner location advice and once I was done earning we reconvened at Save on Foods. Ritchie seems to have a bit of a softspot for Save on Foods and in particular, the bulk foods section, where you can take as much flour/granola/pasta as you need from pick 'n' mix-style dispensers. Simple pleasures.
Saturday was a day I had been waiting for since I first researched things to do in Vancouver, even before I arrived here! It was time. The weather was good and it was time to go to Sun Yet Sen Classical Chinese Gardens. Although small, and requiring a visit to the outskirts of Cracktown, the Sun Yet Sen Classical Chinese Gardens are awesome. It costs $10 adult admission but for that you can spend as much time in the gardens as you want, get a 45 minute guided tour of the place AND complementary tea! I daresay I was in my element.
The Gardens themselves are beautiful and -unlike the Chinese Park next door, which is free- composed of materials mainly imported from China. The tour was informative and, primarily because the guide was Dutch, funny. It was definitely worth the wait and I highly recommend a trip here for anyone visitin Vancouver.
After this, I was pretty keen on taking advantage of the $2 swimming at the Aquatic Centre so we had a brisk walk to English Bay and I swam my heart out while Ritchie and Gaby took a boat tour of False Creek. This was followed by Spaghetti Bolognese at home (masterfully cooked by Ritchie, and without any pepper no less!) and a few drinks with Ralph, Leah and Neil at The Railway Club. Ritchie and Ralph are consequently BFFs, all thanks to their shared brand of extremely low-brow humour. What can you do?
Sunday was another busy day; I really noticed how long it takes to do things in Vancouver, due to the distances between everything. Gaby was pretty keen to go to Gastown to buy some tourist souvenirs and so that's what we did. I took this opportunity to get my tourist on and buy some of the unnecessary space-clutter that I didn't buy on arrival- the cosiest hoodie on the face of the planet and some magnets. Some planning of our road trip commenced at the Tourist Information Centre and since we'd got that sorted we treated ourselves to some of 'Vancouver's Best Cheesecake' at Trees Organic Coffee on Granville Street. It was pretty good, but I think the tiny Cheesecake I had at the Public Market was better.
For dinner, we had some proper sausages from the Public Market with mashed potato and onion gravy. I thoroughly enjoyed this, as they just don't have proper sausages in the supermarkets over here and it makes me sad. More trip organising accommodation booking followed this. Plus vodka and Cats of the World card games.
On to Monday, which was a day of little tourist tasks; a walk around the shops on Main Street (which don't open until 11am, by the way) and the Totem Poles at Stanley Park. I discovered that the digital zoom function on my camera is actually pretty good and so took pictures of the totem poles for the third time in 5 months. We were going to dinner at Vij's and they don't take reservations so you have to get there early (5.30pm) to be sure of a table so we just headed home for a quick-change after the totems. The food at Vij's is fantastic. We had the paneer (a type of Indian cheese similar to mozzerella), portobello mushroom, and pakora dishes to start and all of these were pretty damn good, especially the paneer. For mains I had lamb with a fenugreek sauce on a bed of spinach potatoes, Ritchie had beef in a tomato sauce and Gaby had the pork with dates and cashew nuts. The meat was the most tender and well-cooked I've ever eaten and I think the meal overall might have been the best I've had, it's certainly up there among the best. It was pretty pricey but definitely worth it. I'll be thinking about that for a while yet.
Gerhardt, the Dutch tour guide at Sun Yet Sen Gardens had informed us of a suspension bridge in the Lynn Valley in North Van., which serves as a cheaper (free) alternative to the Capilano Suspension Bridge which costs $40 per person. Tuesday was a fusion of families as we teamed up with Debbie and her parents to go over on the Seabus to see what it was like.
The suspension bridge itself wasn't particularly spectacular but the forest it was in was pretty and it was a warm and sunny day. It definitely made a nice change from being in the city and was nice to get some fresh air. On the way home from that, we took another quick walk through Gastown for some more tourist shopping and then we stopped off for a visit to the Queen Elizabeth Park to see the impressive view of the city. We didn't have long here either since we had a dinner reservation at Lombardo's (the downtown branch of Debbie's work) for another great eating experience but I wanted to show it to Ritchie and Gaby while they were here. As I said, dinner was fantastic and then we headed home to prepare for our excursion to Eastern B.C., which shall be documented in the next installment.

A 75Lb chocolate egg at Granville Island Public Market

Me at the Sun Yet Sen Classical Chinese Gardens

Sun Yet Sen Classical Chinese Gardens

Me exploring the digital zoom at the Totem Poles in Stanley Park

Seabus banter

The downtown Vancouver skyline from the Seabus; The Harbour Centre Tower and Canada Place

Downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park from the Seabus

The Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge

Debbie, her dad Billy, Ritchie, Debbie's mum Annette and Gaby on the bride

A tree growing out of a tree stump

Gaby and Ritchie at Queen Elizabeth Park

I have to eat now so that's all you're getting for the time being. I'll take a day or so to recover from that regurgitation and will get right on to Chapter Two...