Vancouver Again

As I mentioned in my first post on my Vancouver trip (I just got back on Saturday! That red-eye flight back to NYC is great for squeezing extra time out of the trip, but not so much when you have a wedding to attend a mere 7 hours after you land!) we took a seaplane up to the Sunshine Coast for a weekend. There's our seaplane! It's very very small (I think it seats 6 total including the pilot). Note the floating Chevron station in the background; I don't know why I am so tickled by the idea of a floating gas station, but there you go. I thoroughly enjoyed our short flight; takeoff and landing all happens on the water and you get amazing views along the way. I wish I could show you, but my camera was in my bag, which was stashed in the tiny little cargo hold. The last time Py took the plane, he saw a whale! We weren't so lucky on this trip, but I thought it was utterly cool when we flew through a cloud.


Unfortunately, it was pretty rainy all weekend despite the Sunshine Coast name! Well, it's got to rain sometime, right? Anyway, this is the view from our friend's marina, and specifically from the back deck of his boat. It's beautiful in the rain, too. And guess what--THERE ARE SEALS LIVING IN THE BAY!!! I kept seeing a seal (although I think there are two that live here) popping his head up above the water, looking around, and then diving back down again. Never did get a photo because I was too busy squealing. Man, I love seals.


Given the rain, we mostly ate and relaxed but we weren't the only ones--on our way to dinner we saw this deer skulking around. Apparently this is the culprit that's been munching on the recently planted shrubbery around the marina. But it's so cute! Who would begrudge it some leaves, I say.)


It was a very short trip, but fun! And too soon we were being dropped off at the ferry back to Vancouver, where I found this absolutely terrifying statue in front of an ice cream shop. This does not make me want ice cream.


Back in Vancouver, I wandered around Denman St. one day and got myself a falafel sandwich for lunch. It was a beautiful day and I thought I was being very clever, carrying my lunch over to the beach at English Bay. Wrong! The beach is very scenic and relaxing, to be sure, but it is also full of seagulls. Very aggressive seagulls! Seagulls that will walk right up to you and wait for you to put your sandwich down or look away. Even after I wrapped mine back up and stashed it in my bag, this guy just stood on the log next to me and watched my bag! I tried to shoo him away; no dice. In the end, I gave up and took my sandwich home to finish. Hmph, darned seagull.


A more successful lunch from Japadog; my oroshi on the left and Py's kurobuta terimayo (billed as the Kobe beef of pork!) on the right. Delicious, of course. I've said it before--these hot dogs are genius! After this particular lunch, Py went back to work and I wandered accidentally across the set of Fringe (a show which I now feel compelled to watch). I saw Joshua Jackson! (He'll always be Pacey to me.) It was strangely exciting, and the film crew were much nicer than the film crews in NYC (who tend to be serious jerks; yeah, I'm talking about you, film crew for Premium Rush.)


Okay, one more photo before I stop (this is getting really long)--here's my caramel banana waffle from Miura Waffle Milk Bar which I had for a between-meals-snack one day. (Hey, wandering around and being a tourist is hard work!) Caramel and bananas is a perfect pairing and combined with a crisp waffle? Oh boy. I'm sort of glad that I'm separated from this place by an entire continent; otherwise I would be eating way too many waffles. It's a cute little shop and they have savory waffle sandwiches as well, not to mention flavored milks (and Yakult!) I'll definitely revisit this place when I go back to Vancouver.

I think my next post will be entirely about food :) Tomorrow's my first day at my new job, wish me luck!

Read the first part of my Vancouver trip here