Damn, Canada isn’t on sale anymore

Alternate Post Titles:

• Cuban cigars and wine from a plastic bag on the beach – claaaaassy!
• We have to be at least halfway around the park by now.
  

Three days in the great white north was just as anticipated, fun, exhausting and soaked in liquor.  Just when I thought I couldn’t swallow another drop I did.  The Amtrak to Vancouver from Seattle is the only way to travel and I have no idea why we didn’t do it on previous trips.  No traffic, no waiting at the border, no driving through the countryside looking for the truck crossing that’s “always” faster and no getting lost leaving Vancouver. I doubt we’ll be driving up again any time soon, just look for us on the train!

Friday
Morning comes early when T-bone and Trixie are picking you up at 6:40am.  We arrived at the King St Station to get our tickets and seat assignments.  After only a few minutes in line we boarded the train and settled in for the four hour ride to Vancouver. Scenery was seen, books were read, coffee was drank and suddenly we were at the Vancouver station.  We breezed through customs and stopped to change some money. That was quite a shock, the dollar is so weak against the Canadian dollar right now that we lost money in the exchange instead of gaining money like we usually do (I gave the woman 132 US and got back 124 Canadian). After we moaned and groaned about days gone by when the US dollar would have given you 1.50 Canadian we hopped in a cab and headed to our hotel in the West End.  We arrived at the Sylvia Hotel to find it was truly one of the old dames of Vancouver, covered in ivy and reflecting the charm of an earlier era. Bryan and I fell instantly in love (the girls had stayed there before) and will be staying here again in the future.

We threw our bags into our rooms and headed out for lunch. We walked down Denman Street looking at all the options and quickly settled on the Banana Leaf, a Malaysian place.  What a great choice and the perfect way to start our mini-vacation in Vancouver.  We had the spring rolls and the Roti Canai (a naan like flat bread with curry) to start and they whet our appetites for the main course. I had the Mee Goreng a Malaysian fried egg noodle with beef, shrimp, egg, tomato, bean sprouts, choy sum and tofu. It was delicious and I could have eaten another serving of it with no problem.  My liver’s vacation ended with lunch on Friday and my first drink in several weeks. After a round of drinks and a pleasing lunch we headed back towards the hotel. We had to make what turned out to be the first of many diversions to the Original Cupcake store. There’s a reason the girls had to stop by and get one – they’re the best freaking cupcakes on the planet. After a quick sugar rush we headed out into Stanley Park to take a stroll along the seawall.  It was a gorgeous Pacific NW day and the seawall and beach were crowded with people catching the rays, walking, roller blading and biking around the park.  The scenery was beautiful and we walked along admiring the views and chatting. We knew that Stanley Park was huge, but we were unclear as to exactly how big it is.  We arrived at a map showing the trail system thinking that we were about halfway around only to discover that we weren’t even one quarter of the way around the seawall trail.  A consensus was reached that we really needed to head back to the hotel and retire to the comforts of the Sylvia’s bar. On the stroll back we noticed these stacks of rocks that people had created on the rocky part of the beach, quite amazing really.

We arrived at the hotel’s bar and settled into what quickly would become our table in the corner of this comfortable old bar.  A small table with a couch and two chairs right next to the fireplace with a view of English Bay out the windows – it was heaven. We perused the menu and found many interesting liquid concoctions and quickly began trying out many of them. Three rounds in we were sufficiently relaxed and ready to go shower and change for dinner.

T-bone had the forethought to make us reservations at the Raincity Grill where we planned to celebrate not only Bryan and my anniversary, but also Trixie’s birthday which happened to be that day. Freshened up we headed out for the 1/2 block walk to the restaurant and were immediately seated.  As we looked over the menu we all commented that so much of it looked good that we just didn’t know what to select.  Luckily the waitress arrived and reinforced a suggestion that T-bone had made only seconds before, try the 100 Mile Tasting menu. All items on the menu were grown within a 100 mile radius and all were organic as well.  We also decided to do the wine pairing option so that the wines were matched to each course. This was one of the meals that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, the food was equisite truly unforgettable.  I also had the chance to try a few things I’ve never had before – coddled egg (YUM), pork belly (YUM), black sausage (blood sausage by another name – no more for me thanks) and fava beans (just ok).

Drinks with lunch, afternoon cocktails and wine with dinner most people would be ready to call it a night, but you’re dealing with Olympic level drinkers here.  We decided that nothing would complete the evening better than a bottle of wine, a cuban cigar and the sunset over English Bay.  We left the restaurant with the address of a nearby wine shop and cigar shop and the knowledge that it was completely illegal to drink wine on the beach, but as long as you were discrete it wasn’t a big deal. We found the cigar shop and procured four smooth cubans and headed out for the wine shop. After more searching than was technically necessary since we had already walked past it once and missed it we found the wine shop and got an Argentinian Malbec.  We then appropriated a bench in Stanley Park to watch the sunset, cracked open the wine and lit up the cigars.  Nothing really says classy like passing a bottle of wine wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. The cigars were smooth and tasty and the Malbec the perfect compliment.

So ends the first day in Vancouver, we were all tired and very well lubricated so headed off to bed.  Saturday’s adventures will include cupcakes, long waits, mediocre sushi and a big red bus.