Pink Salmon Festival

This afternoon, we hit the beach after Amélie's nap. I LOVE the fact we can access several beaches within 5-10 minutes of our apartment. First we went to Kits Beach and that was WAY too packed, so then we wandered over to Vanier Park, which I had never been to before (but Melvin had passed on a bike ride). It had a sliver of beach, which was enough for our little family of 4. The best part is the kids are so self-entertained at the beach that it is an easy activity for all.

We could see the downtown skyline, north shore mountains and Stanley Park from where we sat. And this, my friends, is why Vancouver is so amazing - water, mountains, beach, city all within 5 minutes from each other. The map below is a good reference. Our apartment is over the Burrard Bridge and to the right and we were sitting on the coastline by the Vancouver Museum.

Moving on, we were VERY lucky to be at Vanier Park during the Pink Salmon Festival!! It was organized by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and promoted pink salmon as a sustainable seafood choice.  We had no idea it was here today and who cares, one may ask?

Well, free pink salmon for everyone!!  We played on the beach until the line whittled down, which was right in time for dinner. They had some of the best seafood chefs in the city making pink salmon 3 ways. We had salmon baked, grilled and poached (I think) with potato salad, green salad and coleslaw as sides. 

DELISH!

Salmon: another reason to love B.C. 

Chocolat

Melvin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend. We typically go on a trip, but we have so many trips we've committed to that we decided to keep it low-key this year. In addition, his company had so many events the day of our anniversary, so it was good to be around for that.


Anyway, we decided to indulge in Fleuri's Chocolate Buffet. It is held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with 2 seatings - 6:30pm and 8:30pm. We went on Friday at 8:30pm after having a picnic dinner with the kids by the seawall. I made some stuffed peppers and pan-fried some wild rockfish. The buffet was pretty insane and we felt pretty bad about ourselves afterward, but whatever. You really can't beat chocolate bread pudding as a dessert.


Yesterday, we had HSBC's annual Latin Diversity BBQ and the spread was pretty impressive. Tomato Salsa, Chickpea Salad, Guacamole, Salad with Homemade Dressing, Grilled Ribs, Steak, Sausages, Corn, Yuca and Watermelon. It was super organized and the weather was spectacular. After the picnic, we got ready to host one of the manager's from the U.K. and another coworker, plus their wives. We had beer/wine at our place and walked over to Hapa Izakaya for a great dinner of Japanese Tapas.


I think me and the kids will hit the beach today, while Melvin's out for a bike ride with his friends. It's so hard to believe that Hurricane Irene is hitting the east coast right now!

Grindin' Grouse

I'm not sure why I keep coming back to him...Grouse Mountain, I mean. He certainly leaves me breathless and when I'm on top, I feel wonderful. 

I attempted the Grouse Grind for the 2nd time today with a friend, fellow mother of two, fellow Filipina with short legs like me. On a serious note, it's a good workout, and you're sweating bullets 1/4 of the way and I've cut my time miraculously and finished it in 1 hour, 12 minutes. 

I just think that when you can feel your heart beating in your ears and you feel light-headed, you got problems. Nevertheless, I finished, am happy with my time and probably won't do it again until next year. I much prefer taking the red gondola up the mountain. :)

Destination: Lynn Canyon Swimming Hole

After a few weeks of atypical summer Saturdays, this morning started off the way it usually does.
- Wake up
- Breakfast
- Load of Laundry
- Leave for Julian's soccer activity while laundry is drying
- Drop Mommy & Amélie at Farmer's Market, while boys go to soccer
- Mommy & Amélie take bus to soccer and load up the cooler in the car 

It's a process and it works. Usually, we'll proceed as a family to wherever we need to be - birthday party, BBQ, whatever. Today, we decided to go to Lynn Canyon Park & Ecology Centre for a hike to its swimming hole. The best part is the park is completely FREE!

Julian was our "hike leader" and he took his job very seriously with map in hand and always making sure he was in front of our pack. It was very cute. Anyway, the hike was well worth it and this is what we arrived to...We ate our baked goods from the West End Farmer's Market and snacked, while dipping our feet. We also watched the crazies jumping in from the cliff above.

Stupid Inventions

...Play-Doh
...Face Painting
...Markers
...Crayons

Bright colors and toddlers just do not mix!!!

Cougar Sightings

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/alice_lk/We're planning to go camping with friends over Labour Day Weekend (my first time, should be VERY interesting) at Alice Lake, which is just north of Squamish. 


Check out the headlines: Hunt for aggressive cougar closes select trails in Alice Lake area

Read more: Click here

LOVELY!

Post-Visitor Blues

J&M left Vancouver for New York today and R&R left on Wednesday....they were our last set of "scheduled" visitors for the remainder of the year, so it was quite sad to see them go. We had such a blast with them though, as did my belly - we ate so much and certainly indulged. Phnom Penh Monday, Afghan Horsemen Tuesday, Cobre Thursday and I finally decided it was time for a home cooked dinner on Friday (sockeye salmon, quinoa salad, grilled chicken breasts and avocado with my favorite B.C. gourmet find, Ají Sauce). Taking people around always reminds us of what a wonderful city we live in now and how it's such a shame we can't share it with friends from back East and family on a regular basis.

J&R totally hooked us up with goodies from the program they were working on. Aside from the free massages, round of golf, bike rentals, canoe rental, cocktails at 21 Steps with my old colleagues, dinner at Quattro, Nitro Ice Cream & a Champagne saber at Bearfoot Bistro, etc. - tons of cereal, popcorn, applesauce, local goodies, a bottle of Grey Goose, about 20 bottles of local beer, 13 bottles of red/white wine. I think I need to have a cocktail party now...

Melvin and Julian brought J&M to the airport this morning and once again, it's back to the grind. Not the Grouse Grind, but the daily grind...We went to Costco right after the airport drop-off, did 3 loads of laundry and then met up with the Brown Family for a 15-mile bike ride through Stanley Park and a homemade picnic dinner at the spray park, while the kids ran through the sprays. It was a beautiful day, despite the departure of our guests from back home.

Whistler Part V

This past weekend marked the 5th time we went up to Whistler. My friends / ex-coworkers were up there since July 28th working on an 850 person incentive. Knowing we lived close by, they decided to fly their husbands up this past Friday, the same day we drove up. We all spent the weekend together and this week we're entertaining each couple separately (one couple went to Tofino while the other started the week with us).

Whister was a BLAST with these guys...first off, my friends got the hook ups on everything after bringing such a big group to Whistler - massages, golf tee times, bike rentals, breakfast, 11 bottles of wine, dinner for 10 and other goodies. Nothing like freebies a la client.

Now, my friends R&R are with us until Wednesday and we're showing them our beloved city. Yesterday, we started with Capilano Suspension Bridge, Granville Island, Happy Hour in Yaletown, Gastown drive by and dinner at Phnom Penh in Chinatown. J&M arrive on Thursday from Tofino and we'll do it all over again gladly when they arrive. These are our last set of "scheduled" visitors this year, so it'll be sad when they leave.

Who will be next!?

Kid Updates and then some...

Kids change so much each month, each week, each day...It's very hard to chronicle everything without feeling you're enjoying the moment....especially when that moment is called "teething".


This summer, Julian has...
* learned how to ride a 2-wheeler!  straight from his Strider to a 2-wheeler. so proud.
* rode the seawall with his mommy for the first time
* started writing his name, over and over and over again, backwards, forwards, upside down...
* discovered a love for art...always taking paper from our printer and taping his art on walls
* started piano lessons (actually I think that was in the spring)
* continued to love his swim and soccer activities


This summer, Amélie has...
* a new molar...tooth #9
* discovered a love for jewelry...she snatched the bangles in H&M and shows them off daily
* showed her love of shoes
* started to climb the stairs in the playground and attempt the slide by herself
* started saying: mama, papa, bye, hello, thank you (we think)
* kept her morning and afternoon naps, despite mommy's attempts to drop her morning nap. Don't get me wrong, I love the down time!


On a completely separate note, Melvin's company announced they will be doing 30,000 layoffs this past Monday. It will be over the span of the next couple years, but of course, we're not protected. Conversation of the month: where should we move to next? Spain, perhaps?

I'm back...

So, people have been encouraging me to keep writing (even if mainly for myself) and I keep coming across things this summer, I want to write about so it just makes sense to keep doing so!

Our one-year anniversary in Canada has come and gone and this summer is vastly different from last. The main reasons for this difference is we know more people and feel like Vancouver has become more our home. It's been so great going to BBQs, festivals with people, birthday parties, etc. At the same token, we are certainly feeling that "all things familiar" (family, NY, bagels, Americans and all their idiosyncrasies, etc) are SO far away. Even though America is just 45 minutes and a border crossing away, Canada and its people are still VERY different!

Since I "closed" the blog, we had the unfortunate incident of the Vancouver Riots over, what else, but The Stanley Cup Final. What do I have to think about that? LAME. The cops here were a sorry bunch...half had the day off and the "reinforcements" sent from the suburbs consisted of two police cars (which we saw racing across Cambie Bridge) 30 minutes after a lot of the fires started. It's been a bit funny hearing of the stories of people getting fired from their jobs, the arrests of spoiled rich kids, etc since then.

NOT TOO FAR FROM OUR APARTMENT!

Fast forward after the riots and we enjoyed a wonderful time at this year's International Jazz Festival, which is held all over the city. The nice part is the final weekend is a huge festival at David Lam Park which is a block from our apartment. We went both days and sat out in the hot sun with friends...The first day, we were out for 6 hours and I got a nasty farmer's tan on my arms...Typical mother: makes sure everyone is lathered up with sunscreen and then slaps some on herself carelessly. I'll be paying for it til the fall, I'm sure.


What else? Hmm, we saw Wicked, the musical.  Absolutely amazing and surprisingly funny. It was our first time at Queen Elizabeth Theatre, which is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, fairly new and pretty impressive. It was nice to go to a musical without fighting huge crowds, longing for free parking or dealing with massive amounts of tourists. 

The weekend after we watched Wicked, we packed up the kids and went to Kelowna. All I have to say is AMAZING. It was about a 3.5-4 hour drive and Napa North welcomed us. Melvin and I agreed that it was actually more pleasant than Napa though because of this beautiful lake and a number of beaches that were accessible. Also, it was less commercialized and touristy...residents were abound with their local produce stands on the road, family vineyards and wine shops. We hope to go back again soon.

July's weather has been a disappointment on most days. It's been warm but quite grey. August seems to be making up for it though and I don't think I prefer to be in the East Coast's stifling heat either. At least we are able to go outside in comfort....If most of the year weren't so grey and rainy here though, we have to admit that it's the perfect climate to live in.

This is quite a long blog post, so I'll save more for later, especially all kid updates. We also have more visitors in town next week, so more fun in the sun (I hope) is to be had!


It feels great to be back :)