Vancouver Cherry Blossom

We’re now into our fourth month in Vancouver and we are well into spring – my how time flies.

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite things about Vancouver so far, and no it’s not something you can eat…

It’s cherry blossom.

Being a hayfever sufferer you might be thinking I’m mad, but to be honest, I would put up with it for the cherry blossom. It’s just so pretty.

Everywhere you go, nearly every road is decorated with the beautiful candyfloss trees, which sprinkle pink confetti every time the wind blows.

 

Why are there so many cherry trees in Vancouver?

More than 37,000 ornamental cherry trees were generously gifted to the City of Vancouver from Japan in the 1930's. The city even celebrates these trees with a Cherry Blossom Festival each year.

 

Just gorgeous.

 

You can view all my pictures here:



Created with flickr slideshow.

Day trip to Whistler skiing – thank you Greyhound!

So I'm sure you’ve all read our skiing adventure to Mount Seymour. We now fancied ourselves as quite the skiers and wanted to go to Whistler before the season ends. As Whistler is pretty pricey we found we could get the Greyhound bus there and back in a day with a ticket that included our lift passes and rental –awesome!

There are no floodlights at Whistler so the slopes close earlier than those with lights. The last lifts are at 4pm. With that in mind we booked the early coach at 6.30 am to get us to Whistler before 9 am.

The road to Whistler from Vancouver is supposed to be one of the most scenic routes in the world. I have to say it really is. It’s just stunning. I tried to take some pics for you... 

But as you can a see our camera did not like the speed or the coach window – so you will all have to either believe me or go see it yourself. 

As we knew the view was going to be impressive, we made sure we sat on the left side of the coach (ocean side) to get the best views (well done Dave). Unfortunately for me I can’t keep my eyes open on a coach so feel asleep for a great deal of the journey, but woke up refreshed in Whistler!

As the Greyhound tickets included our lift passes and rental gear we were given a voucher from greyhound which you can exchange for you rentals when you book your tickets. You can get your rental at several of the rental places in the village.

When we arrived we queued up for our rentals and you could tell strait away that the staff were not Canadian (English actually) so the customer service was non-existent. They were all hung over and couldn’t organise anything. So after about 30 minutes of waiting around filling out forms etc. we finally  got our gear and lift passes and headed for the lift.

There are two mountains Whistler and Blackcomb that your pass gives you access to. 

Dave had conducted a bit of research and found out that Whistler Mountain was the best for green runs (the easy ones) and slow zones, so we packed into the Garibaldi lift to take us up the mountain.

The lift made a stop and I was about to get out and everyone in the car was like “you don’t want to get out there that’s for beginners”. Before I could say “I am a beginner” the door closed and we carried up the mountain. The view was amazing, but the lift went on and on and I was having a slight de-ja-vu of the last time I was in a lift for ages…

We got our at the top and it was packed of people, such a great vibe. As you can see it was such a beautiful day!

The view is just breathtaking. You can literally just see mountains for miles and miles. 

We clicked on our skis and headed to the start of the first green run.

Er de-ja-vu indeed. Oh my goodness. I really think I should have got out at the beginner. For anyone thinking of going to Whistler that hasn’t skied much, the green runs here are like blues ones on Mount Seymour!

There are lots of nice sections which have a nice gradual gradient where you can practice, then you get to a part (still a green run) and there’s a big sign which says “Easiest Way Down”.

Easiest way down my arse.

My poor arse indeed. It took quite a few tumbles. I did also manage to fall onto my front with my legs out again. Apart from there was no teacher present to help me.

Luckily two guys took pity on me, as Dave my loving BF was nowhere to be seen (he said it was because he can’t go as slow as me).

It took a good five minutes to get me up, with both men pulling me up.

Oh dear.

The views were breathtaking, but when you are skiing you feel like there’s a sheer drop to the side of you, so I felt more petrified of going over the edge than enjoying the views, which was a shame. 

We took a break at a cafe as I needed to get some sugar. Still some great views from here.

On the next section I was a bit more confident to take some pics along the way.

 Although Dave kept telling me off for being a safety hazard. No change there then!

We skied down to the beginners section which was empty. We literally had the whole run to ourselves. 

It was awesome and the smile quickly returned to my face.

As hard the experience was skiing right from the top, it actually made me better. I was able to build up lots of speed and confidence.

We had to get our rental gear back by 4 (the last lift is at 4pm as there are no floodlights) so we headed down the last few runs. The glorious weather was unfortunately melting the snow  on the lower sections and the runs were full of orange jacketed wardens waving everyone to slow down.

Slushy snow, is really hard to ski on and not go fast. So I did what I knew best... I fell over. Ha.

The thing you have to remember when you go skiing is, there are only two ways down. To ski or in a skidoo if you have broken you leg, neck etc. As much as the latter sometimes feels that it might even be the easiest option, I did the former. I feel proud.

The village was buzzing with life, with people spilling out all of the bars.

I did fancy a whisky, but after I had taken off all my gear I was quite ready to get on the Greyhound and crash. We managed to get on a earlier bus home. 


Happy days.

You can see all the pictures here:











Created with flickr slideshow.

Fatburger - the last great hamburger stand!

The first time we visited Vegas, we had a Fat Burger. I think you might remember this picture:

 

ooh what a blondie! 

I’m not sure if any of you remember me going on about these burgers from Fatburger with sizes that went up to 24Oz – yes 24OZ of beef?!

So this time when we headed to Vegas on our route to Vancouver it was on our list of places to visit. We walked all the way up the strip from the Flamingo to be faced with this rather disturbing site:

 

Noooooo!!!! Why God why??!!!

We were terribly upset to say the least. 

After looking on their website to see if there was another Fatburger in Vegas we could visit we realized… Vancouver. 

They have not one, no not even two, but three, yes three in Vancouver.

So what started off as a very saddening revelation of not getting our Vegas treat, we had at least six months of the ability to eat Fatburger when we chose. Hoo bloomin’ ray!

So what makes Fatburger so special. OK apart from the fact that you are able to get a burger that is 24OZ, hamburger people are said to develop a cult-like devotion to Fatburger. 

Well I can tell you it’s true. Devotion. 

Fatburgers are made with real beef burgers made when you order it with FRESH, LEAN BEEF; dressed to your specifications with the best quality condiments.

We were slightly worried that after nearly two years of eating a Fatburger we may have built this amazing taste sensation up in our heads. Especially now as we have had tasted some pretty awesome burgers since living in North America. Would it stand up to what we we remembered it to be?

Dum dum duuuum…

We headed to the Fatburger on West Broadway. It was a lot smaller than what we had expected. But still we shuffled in and ordered.

Dave ordered a Bacon and Cheese and I chose the California burger.

We were given our number, filled up our drink container with root beer (we have both become slightly obsessed with root beer) and we waited. 

Burgers were coming out and we were salivating. Finally our number came.

Well tell me what you think, I think these pictures show their glory…

The California Burger, with lashings of guacamole, maple bacon and cheese.

Dave's bacon and cheese with homestyle fries.

Sorry the lettuce got in the way a bit but Dave wouldn't let me take any more pictures as he needed to bite it.

Ahhh. I don't know why we were worried. Fatburger lived up to what we had remembered. 

Devoted.

Next time though, I will be attempting the 24oz burger (I heard you get a Tshirt).

Next time.

Alexandra Road in Richmond aka Food Street - Cattle Hot Pot.

Our last night in Richmond, and what a better way to celebrate than heading down to the heart of Richmond's Golden Village to Alexandra Road - Vancouver’s "Wai Sek Kai" or "Food Street." In all the guide books and websites I’ve read, Richmond is said to have the best Chinese food outside of China.

Alexandra Road has over 200 Asian restaurants packed into three short blocks, including all different types of Asian cuisine including Cantonese, Szechuan, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and more.  

We asked Lui (the guy who’s house we are staying in) which was a good place to eat. His answer was pretty simple. “They’re all good! If they weren’t, they just wouldn’t survive here. It’s all Asian people eating in them and if they suck, they close down.”

So we were pretty excited about the prospect of this “Food Street.”

It was unfortunately pouring with freezing cold rain (not an odd occurrence in Vancouver), so we didn’t take too much time walking around the restaurants. Some apparently don’t even look like restaurants. 

We found one that looked really busy, the Cattle hot pot, which we thought was good stuff for a Tuesday night.

A hot pot or steamboat is where you have a simmering metal pot of stock at the centre of the dining table on a hot plate - usually built into the table).  

The Cattle hot pot offers an ALL-U-Can-Eat menu, where you choose your soup – and then you can have unlimited amounts of thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. 

The menu is a bit like ordering dim sum, where you have a pencil and just tick away.

They bring the hot pot with the soup to your table and the raw ingredients. The hot pot is kept simmering on the table and you cook the ingredients yourself in the hot pot. 

We chose the satay soup. 

We had already had a few hotpots in Thailand so we knew what we needed to do this time!

On this image you can see sliced sirloin steak, marinated beef, chicken.

Fresh kings prawns, lotus root, rice noodles.

Medley of mushrooms.

Feshly made lobster balls, goyoza, wontons.

You also have a metal scoop each and a ladle for the table to scoop out your food when it’s cooked. You are also given extra chili to add to season your dish in your bowl.

In the background is bok choy and spinach.

The trick is to not chuck everything in at once (which is what we did the first time!). Think of what takes a bit longer to cook and add that first. You also just keep adding new bits of food in as you eat so the food is so freshly cooked the way you like it.

The waitresses are constantly coming around topping up your green tea and the soup which is great. You can also keep ordering more food to add to your hot pot.

The food was totally delicious. I was stuffed.

Double thumbs up for Food Street!

Shoop, Shoop, Shoop: Skiing at Mount Seymour

Snow shoeing was such a fun day, that we couldn’t wait to get back up the mountain and try out skiing. Dave had been some 15 years ago so we both decided to take the Discover Lesson – which is a two hour introduction to skiing. There had been a lot of new snow so the conditions were pretty good:





Luckily as Dave had been before we were able to get our boots and skis on without help and have a little pre-lesson walk around to get the feel for the boots.








We had a small group of four which was great so we managed to progress quite quickly. We started with walking up hills, which apart from getting up when you fall down, is probably the hardest thing to do when you ski.


First we practiced our pizza’s (or plough as some of you might know it) and our turns on the small slope surrounded by five year olds whizzing around us on snow boards. I wasn’t jealous of them at all. Honest. It’s similar to ice skating in the way that you can’t move your ankles at all, so it’s all movement from the hips and the knees. I found it hard to make a big enough pizza at first, so I zoomed into Dave nearly knocking him over, I also fell over on my arse. After that I tried not to fall back on my arse by learning forward, but must’ve leant forward too much as I ended up in a reverse snow angle position, face down with a mouthful of snow. To top it off I had no idea how to get up from that position and I had to wait for my instructor (lovely Madeline, who was only about 15 and half my size) come over and help. We tried several attempts to get up and in the end, due to the position I was in, I had to step backwards with my hands sticking my arse out to the whole crowd of people waiting to go up the magic carpet (the baby slope lift). You leave your dignity at the door when you start skiing.


I’m not sure what people are like I other countries, but thankfully in Canada they are nice, polite and helpful and don’t seem to laugh and point. Also snow doesn’t hurt when you fall in it – well not at the speed I was going anyway.


We all perfected out turns and our pizzas and ended our lesson with a couple of tries down the Rookies run and I didn’t fall down – I know, I was so impressed with myself!

We were shown (thankfully) how to use the chair lifts. I was just as excited about getting on the chair lifts as I was skiing, but it’s a bit tricky to use them first and both of you trying to line your skis up!





Our lesson ended and we tried to go down the run from the top, I fell in about two seconds of the starting and my ski popped off. I just couldn’t get it back on as the snow was too deep. It was really frustrating being stuck at the top of a really steep slope with one ski off. In the end we both had to take our skis off and walk back up to the top! After a nice warm coffee and some chips, sorry fries, we were back out and the sky cleared.





We decided after a few runs to make it up to the next slope taking the mystery chair lift.





The lift went on for AGES. I started to realize how high we were actually going up, the wind really picked up the higher you went. Just as we got to the top we stopped for ages blowing in the wind, I really wanted to get off at that point. Finally it was our turn to get off and we both fell over as soon as we hit the snow. They had to stop the lift until we could get out of the way – which took a while to say the least. I just couldn’t get up. I was laughing so much which made it even harder. In the end I had to ask another skier to help with Dave to pull me up. I finally made it upright with my pants full of snow. The view from the top was amazing.





But it made me realize just how far up we were. When we got to the top of the slope (sorry no pics at this point, as I was too damn petrified and couldn’t maneuver a camera and my poles). I felt like we were in heaven, literally and the only way down was to ski down this really steep slope. 


We both zoomed down trying to keep our pizza’s but within seconds were both over in the snow. I managed to get up easier this time as I used the angle of the slope. I was so scared and thought to myself, why I had gone up a really big slope when I had been skiing for about three hours and also scared of heights? But you know what, I’m so glad we did it. It took us a long time to get down, but after that the smaller slope was so easier and looking back even though I was so scared, it was such an adrenalin rush.





As the sun started to set we started to realize how absolutely knackered we both were and also that we were pretty cold, so decided it was time to call it a day. 


And what an awesome day. We can’t wait to go back. 


I’m just aching so much today. I ache in places I didn’t even know I had muscles.


You can see the full set of pictures on Flickr.




Created with flickr slideshow.

BB3XDY9UPCEU

Vancouver food crawl... dougieDOG's, WINGS and La Belle Patate Poutine!

As we hadn't quite had enough junk food from Vegas, we thought hey why not have another afternoon of beer and good Canadian fast food?!

Starting off our mini crawl was dougieDOGs. We'd seen this guy on the Canadian version of Dragons Den. He didn't get the money, but his dogs looked and sounded amazing! Dougie had re-invented the hotdog and introduced all-natural dogs, free of hormones, preservatives and chemical additives.

Styled on the European hotdog recipes using only meat and seasoning and married these beautiful wieners with weird and wonderful toppings, like their signature DougieDOG with Italian Pastrami, grey poupon, mustard, horseradish and cheddar cheese – you can check out all their weird and wonderful concoctions here on the menu.

The Coney Island dog was the dog of choice. All natural hotdog slathered in homemade beef chili, chopped onions and mustard.

The first thing you notice when you bite, is the "pop". mmmm just tasted so good, and I didn't have to worry about biting on a piece of something I wasn't sure of - which is generally what puts me off eating that type of meat. The chili in a Coney Dog should be bean-less - just meat and spice, which it was here. Even though I do prefer beans, I was happy Dougie is keeping it real!

Next was WINGS. Yes the actual place is called WINGS, so I'm sure you can guess what their specialty is...

We also hit the jackpot when we arrived as between 3-5 is happy hour for wings, only 35 cents a wing - woohoo!! Not only are they award winning wings, but they also offer 21 flavours ranging from mild to the Bobby Wing where you have to sign a release form to eat them.

OK, so we weren't that brave, but opted for the original Buffalo wings ( I just can't get enough of that flavour) and some Texas Dry Rub. All washed down with a pitcher of Sleeman Honey Brown lager.

I'm sorry this picture doesn't quite do the wings justice, but to be honest the wings were so damn good that I couldn't wait another minute before I shoved them in my mouth. You could tell these wings were not cooked in the fryer as the meat just fell off the bones, and as good as the dry rub was, the Buffalo style sauce is still my favourite.

We had a bit of a break after to watch the Canucks (Vancouver's nhl team) vs the Predators, which they won. I'm starting to really like watching the hockey...

After the game victory and another pitcher of beer, we needed another food high and what better that Canada's own Poutine? We had walked past La Belle Patate a few times who boasted 24 different types of poutine, so we just had to make a stop there. You can get anything from smoked meat poutine to breakfast poutine.

Lots of places have game day deals, where of the Canucks are playing they have awesome deals on food and drink and La Belle Patate was no exception. Two poutines for $8, we slightly considered the "all you can eat for $19.95" but decided you would need to be able to eat a lot of poutine to make that worth while!!

We sat and waited and after about 5 minutes a very red eyed guy came over and said he had forgotten about the fries and burnt them. Hmmm, I think this sort of thing must happen quite often in Vancouver judging by the general green aroma. But we didn't mind at all and he even offered us two larger sized portions to say sorry for the wait.

Now the picture below may or may not tickle your taste buds, but until you have tried poutine... you just don't know what you're missing. I'm totally hooked.