Labor Day weekend in Canada’s fair city. Lance and I headed out for a long weekend to hang out with Theone (Lance’s sister) and Bobby (her boyfriend). It was cloudy and kind of rainy, but that didn’t stop us. Our first adventure was meeting Bertie, Bobby’s son. A lot of energy, that one! Once he went home, we headed out to one of their favorite Thai restaurants.
Up the next morning and out to the botanical gardens. One of the most interesting I’ve ever been to. Plantings by the door shared all relevant information and showed on the map in which garden it was growing. They had the Himalayan Gardens, the Asian Garden, the dried flower garden, the cutting garden, the vegetable garden, etc. Made all of it more engaging for sure. First stop was at the large outdoor maze – one of only six in North America.
and yes, we made it to the monkey tree in the middle:
and enjoyed so much of the varied gardens and exhibits:
and sculptures all over the meadows:
Back home to clean up for dinner, at Burdock & Co. Put it on your list! It was #2 of best new restaurants for 2014 and man, they deserved it. We shared about 7 dishes, and then of course I had to order a few desserts:
How good was it Johnny?
He’s been hanging around with me too long for sure.
After dinner, we headed to the “Bard on the Beach”. Theone had bought us tickets to see one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, “Cymbeline.” A very small venue, and a most enjoyable performance, particularly by the clowns by the entrance:
Next morning, after some good Sunday morning chill time, we headed out to the Museum of Anthropology. Proved to be way more interesting than I first expected. Lance and I joined a free tour
and found out not only did the indigenous people claim to use every single part of a cedar tree as a great resource, they built boxes by soaking planks and bending them into shape.Amazing what people can do when they use their imagination. Part of the tour was outside, with the beautiful totem poles and authentic community houses. Theone and Bobby outside:
After that, we buzzed over to the aquarium. Jellyfish, reefs, coastal habitat – you name it, we saw it. A couple of clown fish:
Along with a “4-D” movie that was a real unusual experience. A couple hours and I had to put my feet up and waited in teh sunshine for everyone else. As we left, we took the mandatory (but really nice!) group shot:
of course, this one is so much more fun:
We’re all pretty tired, so we take a cab to a rooftop bar (oops, I forgot to say that today we were traveling exclusively by the efficient Vancouver metro system):
And enjoy cocktails and nibble before dinner. What a fun space!
Dinner was good, but not serving Dim Sum in the evening – and that’s why we had come – but we somehow managed to enjoy ourselves and roll back downhill to the subway and back to the house. And time for a game of scrabble. Incredibly close the whole way, but Theone triumphed in the end.
Breakfast Monday morning, then back to the airport and to the hotel. TTFN!