Busy, Busy Sunday

...Checked out Kitsilano Farmer's Market for the first time - amazing organic produce selection and cuts of grass fed beef

...Played family soccer at Roundhouse Community Centre's "Picnic in the Park"event

...Scoped out Vancouver's Latin Summer Fest in East Vancouver and discovered Dominicanissima Dance Group , which was a nice surprise for Melvin

...Took the Aquabus to Granville Island's Water Park, also known as North America's largest free spray park (it was a blazin' hot day)

...Cooked some dinner, ate, and put the kids to bed!

WE ARE BEAT!

Howe Sound

This morning, we packed up a small cooler, and the kids, and took off for Horseshoe Bay, which is located in West Vancouver approximately 25 minutes from downtown (on the way to Whistler off the Sea to Sky Highway).  Our plan was to rent a 15' foot boat for a couple hours, explore Howe Sound, have lunch and then head back for naps.  It's very rare that plans work out perfectly, especially with kids, but it was one of those days when it did!

We had an amazing ride with a very nervous Captain Mel.  As I told him, it's perfectly fine to be nervous because the lives of his family were in his hands.  The water was a bit choppy this morning, so they upgraded us to a 17' boat, which was perfectly fine with me.  We stayed south to avoid the choppy waters and missed out on the island up north with the sea lions, but hopefully we'll have another chance to explore the islands a bit north of West Vancouver.  Instead, we headed in the direction of downtown and saw some multi-million dollar homes along the coast, some beautiful islands, fishing boats with fishermen hoping for some salmon, Snug Cove at Bowen Island, a float plane coming in for landing, and some huge ferries taking Vancouverites to the many island destinations surrounding the city.

At the end of our ride, Melvin received a compliment on his wonderful parking job at the dock.  Then, we headed to Troll's Restaurant for their famous fish n chips.  We ordered the catch of the season, Basa Fish (type of catfish, super tasty), and it was definitely the best fish n chips I ever had.  This is coming from one that lived in London for 6 months, so kudos to Troll's!

We headed back for naps, then went to Stanley Park to take some professional family pictures in the afternoon.  I am hoping they turned out well and will be sending them out to friends and family in the upcoming weeks.  Stay tuned...

Afghan Horsemen

Tonight, I went to my first Afghan restaurant ever and the food was AMAZING. My ride to the restaurant was on a very peaceful boat across False Creek to Granville Island. I looked around at the towering buildings, people riding bikes along the seawall with their kids in their bike trailers, and the sun hitting the water in such a way that is indescribable.  I realized that it will be very hard to leave this place, if we choose to do so in the future.


I went to dinner with a few girls I met here and it was just really nice to have a meal with others and not be discussing children the entire time. I love my kids, but I can't remember the last time I went a whole night without talking about them.  I realized how important it is to surround myself with friends of all different life situations.


Anyway, that is not the point of my post...The restaurant was called Afghan Horsemen and we sat on the floor at these low tables and had pillows all around.  A belly dancer came out for a performance around 8:45pm and showed us some skills by balancing a sword on her boobs and head (while I laughed in her face).  I learned this is the first and only Afghan restaurant in all of Canada.  I found the cuisine to be very similar to Greek, Turkish and even Lebanese food.  Excelente!

I am so going to bring all our visitors to this place for a night out.

Here are some more...

My last entry was so well received that I decided to include some conversations we've had with some of the locals.  Mind you, I hope they never see this blog.

Conversation #1

This conversation transpired in our garage between our neighbor (very nice people) who is a cop (very important detail) and Melvin.  The names of these people have been purposely altered to protect their identities.  =P

Melvin: Hey Man

Man: Hey Melvin, how's it going?  Did you manage to get your car insurance and all that set up yet?

Melvin: Nah, I need to get an inspection first.

Man: Oh well, you really should remove the tint off you car's front windows.

Melvin: Really?  Why?

Man: Well, you know, it's illegal because only gangsters really have tint on their cars.

Melvin: Ok,..

Later on...Melvin says to me: "Gangsters? I haven't heard that word since the '80s"

LOL - much to Melvin's dismay, we were forced to have our tint removed as it is actually illegal here.  BOO!

A WEEK LATER

Man's Wife: Hey Coleen, how're things going?

Coleen:  Oh, things are going well.  Tell Man we had our tint removed finally.

Man's Wife: Yeah, that's a good thing because the gangsters here really took the tint to the next level.

Seriously, it sounds so much funnier in person.

Conversation #2

There is a certain someone Melvin encounters on a regular basis and apparently he's extremely anti-American.  Melvin doesn't really care for him.  Here are some comments he has made.

Annoying Man: Gosh, Americans are so fat, the food portions there are ridiculous.  I worked there for 10 days once and gained 15 lbs.  (this man is like 300 lbs)

Melvin: Oh ok, whose fault is that!  (he didn't really say this but was thinking it)

I was actually about to write more comments Melvin had shared with me, but decided I don't want to piss people off or leave a bad taste in your mouth regarding Canadians.  This guy is actually the first one we've met that has this attitude about Americans.  It's actually quite interesting to hear people's stereotypical thoughts.  Often times, Americans are the ones stereotyping others.  It is almost fascinating to hear the other end of it.  Here is one example that I encountered.

Conversation #3

Coleen: I'm having a hard time finding organic meat here and I'm noticing that there is no organic yogurt for babies.

Fellow Mom: Yeah, you have to go to certain specialty shops to get more variety and I don't think I've ever seen organic yogurt for babies.  Are you sure the labels are legit in America though?  I mean, when they say organic, does it truly have proper guidelines to be classified as such.

Coleen: Um, yeah!  (in my mind, I was thinking the same thing about Canadian products.  Go figure.)

Conversation #4 - this transpired when we were opening our mailbox in Washington State in Blaine, WA.

Coleen:  Are you familiar with this town?

Woman: Yeah, kind of, are you looking for something in particular?

Coleen:  Just a place to grab lunch.  It doesn't look like there's much around here (we were right over the border and it was a VERY small town).

Woman:  No, not much in Blaine.  You'd have to drive 15-20 minutes south to find more things, but there is a Subway that they just opened and there's a Little Caesar's pizza shop here.

LOL - remember Little Caesar's?  Pizza! Pizza!  love it.

Funny

Conversation #1
Julian: Look what I got from school mommy! (holds up toy dinosaur)
Coleen: Julian, you know that belongs in school. We'll have to return it on Tuesday.
Julian: Ok


Next Day: Coleen enters Julian's room and finds 10 toy dinosaurs


Coleen:  Julian, where did these toy dinosaurs come from?
Julian:  From school!
Coleen:  Sigh (he's been putting one in each pocket and bringing them home for weeks)


Conversation #2
Melvin: How was your day?
Coleen: Pretty good, you know, usual tantrums...
Melvin: Cool, what should we have for dinner?
Coleen: I don't care, what are you in the mood for?
Melvin: OMG! This guy just took all his clothes off on the 2nd floor of that building! (hands over eyes)
...gotta love floor to ceiling windows!


Conversation #3
Julian:  I have to go pee pee mommy!
Coleen:  Okay, let's go.  Do you want to try peeing standing up?
Julian: No, I don't want to pee pee standing up.  I'm a girl.  Big girls pee pee sitting down.
Coleen: Sigh
Update: Julian started peeing standing up this past Sunday!  PHEW!

Shiatsu

I had an amazing discovery on the next block from our apartment - a clinical training center for the Canadian College of Shiatsu Therapy.  What does this mean exactly?  It means that they offer 90 minute massage treatments with student masseuses for $40!  There's also an option for a professional therapist at a higher price, but you can't really beat that deal.

Off I went for a much needed break from the kids and a relaxing treatment yesterday.  I also signed a petition to add Shiatsu Therapy to the national healthcare plan, as there's been a movement to add it, so fingers crossed.  Our national coverage starts on September 1st, so looking forward to the world of "no co-pays" pretty soon.

WTF!!

We just ordered Chinese food and it didn't come with rice!! ARRGGHH!  I know there is a rice shortage, but who does that?  


That's like going to an Italian restaurant and not getting bread at the table or going to a Thai restaurant that doesn't have Pad Thai or going to a biergarten and ordering wine or ordering a Filipino Vegetable Spring Roll that has pork in it...oh wait, that does happen. 

Which Address Do We Use?

The clouds have moved in a little bit and there is a 20% chance of rain tomorrow, so we're rescheduling our boat rental from Horseshoe Bay and trip to Bowen Island to next weekend.  Instead, we're going to do a road trip to Washington State to (very exciting) open a mailbox, so we have a U.S. address.

We're doing this for a number of reasons:

1) Packages - if we want to shop online, shipment to Canada is SOOOO expensive compared to the U.S.  This way, we can continue to shop on gilt.com, ruelala.com, and wherever else, guilt free :)

2) If you have over a certain amount of money in your U.S. bank account and have a Canadian address, the U.S. will send your interest earnings to Canada and double tax you.  Since we're taxed enough, we will be giving the Washington State address to our U.S. bank.

3) Washington has no state taxes, so this will further decrease our shipping charges when we shop online!

4) People won't have to pay for Canadian postage, if they are feeling really cheap, and want to send us a letter.

5) Some online U.S. systems/accounts don't recognize Canadian addresses (i.e. Verizon)

Some of you are probably wondering how far our mailbox will be from our home.  It's only a 45 minute drive, so no big deal...It's just like going to Garden State Mall in NJ on a Saturday afternoon....and we can visit Tar-jay (Target) while we're over the border :)  

Anyone going to be in Seattle this Saturday?

Restaurants in Vancouver

I can't believe we've been here for over a month and I have not rated any of the restaurants we've been to!  All I have to say is that it's a good thing we have kids that follow a bedtime; otherwise, we'd be broke eating out at all the wonderful places to dine here.

It still feels like we're on vacation and don't actually live here, so sometimes I get this frantic feeling of "I have to try this place, we have to go here, why haven't we seen this place yet, etc."  I need to take a step back and realize we have plenty of time and this is not NYC, so I "might" be able to keep up and try a majority of the really good restaurants here.

In the meantime, let me write about the noteworthy ones we've already checked out.  If any of you are planning a visit, take note of the places you may want to try, so we can take you there!

Coast Restaurant - The epitome of seafood heaven (for those that know me, know I could live off seafood if it were affordable, especially peel n eat shrimp!) - located in the financial area of downtown.  The ambiance was nice and felt new/trendy; however, you could feel that most were paying for their meals with their corporate cards. The New England Clam Chowder tasted SO fresh, it was more on the broth side rather than creamy and deserves 5 stars.  We shared the Signature Seafood Platter, which included B.C. cod, wild sea tiger prawns, sockeye salmon, Qualicum scallops, fried Brussels sprouts & potato gnocchi.  AWESOME and the Brussels sprouts were surprisingly amazing.  Of course I had the bread pudding for dessert, which couldn't touch Blue Ribbon Bakery's, but was good enough.

Sanafir - Part of the same restaurant group as Coast, Judy & I had an interesting meal here.  It was all "tapas" sized plates, but was a mish mosh of flavors - North Africa, Asia and Middle East.  Judy felt the menu was "confused", but we definitely enjoyed our dinner.  The decor was Moroccan themed and since it was a Monday night, we were the only ones there, but were not rushed at all.  In fact, our server was great (I think he was drunk/tipsy by the end of the night) and gave us our calamari and tea for free.  I would return.

Sandbar Granville Island - We actually went with the kids and had an amazing view of the water.  Melvin ordered several appetizers for he and Julian and I got 1/2 a Dungeness Crab (wanted a whole one but it was expensive).  What I REALLY wanted was this: Mussel Mania! Every Day 4-7 p.m. in the Lounge $10.00

Fresh mussels & frites with a pint of Granville Island Brew Tomato Provençal, Thai Curry or Vindaloo style

BUT, we were with the kids and not in the lounge, so I'll have to return for that.  Who wants to join me?

Milestones - one of the more popular chain restaurants...they did a good job.  We got their  "famous" hot artichoke & spinach dip, which was fine but nothing to rave about.  I got a seafood salad, which was really good, as well.  We would return for a casual dinner, possibly with the kids.

Provence Marinaside - We went here the first time we used our babysitter and had a date night as it is only a block from our apartment.  With that being the reason, we didn't expect much, but this was one of our better meals.  Very, very good, but for some reason, neither Melvin or I can remember what we had.  We just remember liking it a lot, so we'll have to go back.

Boathouse at Kitsilano Beach - We couldn't have asked for a better table - on the patio, over the beach and during the pink sunset glistening off the water.  The food, on the other hand, barely subpar.  I had another seafood salad and I think it is what made me feel sick after and the bread pudding was a disappointment.  I would go back for another view of the sunset, but would probably stick to wine and a few appetizers, not a full meal.

The above doesn't include the pizza place we frequent, or take out/delivery places we've tried, but I just wanted to document the above as they reflect my first impressions of eating in Vancouver.

Olympics Fact:  Vancouver opened over 40 restaurants in preparation for the Olympics, so we came at the right time!

British Columbia Day...

...was yesterday, August 2nd.  We spent the long weekend in Whistler, B.C.


Unlike New Jersey's claim to being the "Garden State", it is quite clear why the plates here say  "Beautiful British Columbia".  It was a blast and we hope to explore more of the province!

What's in a name?

This past Friday, we had a family BBQ at Julian's pre-school.  It is far more multicultural than we ever thought it could be.  There are kids from not only of Canadian descent, but of Japan, China, Turkey, India, England and I don't even know where else.  It is definitely a different dynamic than Julian's class from New York; I'm not really sure how to describe it nor do I have the energy to analyze it right now.  Anyway, in case you are expecting a child any time soon and need some name ideas, here are a bunch from Julian's school that I found rather different.

Cairo, Caelum, Kai, Kenzo, Piper, Pepper, Teah, Talullah, Heston

DMV

Today was a sad day...we had to "surrender" our New York State driver's licenses for our B.C. licenses.  I have no idea why this is a requirement, but after 90 days, we are required to have a B.C. license, so off we went to the ICBC.  This is what they call their DMV here - it stands for Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.  Apparently, it's a provincial thing.  We officially have our first Canadian I.D.  Scary!

On a similar traffic topic, we learned a very interesting tidbit.  You know those construction people holding the stop signs on the street, controlling traffic and pedestrians?  Well, we noticed they are all women in Vancouver for a very important reason.  Vancouver has saved this job for single moms...Apparently, they make a ton of money and have flexible hours and it's a job guaranteed to single moms only.  Crazy, right?

So, for any straight, single guys out there planning to visit us...you can start with the women holding the stop signs on the streets of Vancouver =P

Long Weekend

This coming weekend is a long weekend, with Monday being British Columbia Day.  We've been asking everyone what people typically do around here, before making our own weekend plans.  I would hate to be stuck in any kind of Hamptons-type traffic or even worse, Jersey Shore traffic on the NJ Turnpike, with two kids screaming in the back.  Mind you, we have a 2-door GTI and I'm usually sitting as far up as the seat would go with my face practically leaning on the windshield, so all these things need to be considered!  We figured, if anything, we could avoid any large crowds and unpack the last two boxes we have or hang up some picture frames or something...

Anyway, that's not how they do around here...Apparently, everyone spreads out and (gulp) goes camping.  Those that know me know the likelihood of me going camping would only come close if I could pitch a tent on the lawn of a Four Seasons Resort.  I say that now, but things may change after a few years of living here, so I won't say never though.  =)

With that said, we decided to book a hotel room in Whistler Saturday night.  Before I continue, I just wanted to say that it's so weird to me that Whistler is no big thing here, being that it's so close.  It's like saying, we're going to the park or we're going to the playground next weekend.  Makes me feel like we have much more exploring to do and there may be bigger/better things out there!  For now, we'll start with Whistler though.

Anyway, today came a very fun invitation...a couple moms (plus kids and hubbies) I met are going to one of their vacation homes in Whistler for the long weekend and invited us!  Well, that's a no-brainer - I cancelled our hotel room with the quickness.  We're SO excited!

I hope to have some pictures and stories (hopefully good ones) early next week.

Happy Birthday in Heaven, Mom

We sang Happy Birthday to you during lunch today and even in the middle of a tantrum shortly thereafter, Julian goes, "Nana is my friend".  I showed him pictures of the surprise birthday party we threw for you last year.  It's amazing how many changes only one year can bring...It is so great we got to celebrate with you and I am so happy Julian remembers you.

You are probably having your best birthday yet, possibly reuniting with old friends and making new friends in heaven.  I picture you playing Mahjong, just as you would over here, feasting on your favorite foods - palabok, bangus, halo-halo and even lanzones, which you could never get in America!  We have them here in Canada and when I pass them in the supermarket, I think of you.

Anyway, I know how you worry, but don't worry about us...we are doing great, living life the way you taught us how to.  We'll make sure Julian and Amélie know who you are and we'll raise them well.  Promise...

Random updates

Yesterday, we had an atypical Sunday as we chose to be the ultimate tourists and ride the hop on/hop off bus.  Note to Self:  Do not do this again with 2 kids, while hungover.  Let's just say, Julian had fun.  It was good to see other parts of the city like Gastown and the main part of Chinatown.  We've already covered the rest of it already on our own, so if anything, it was a good way to occupy Julian for 90 minutes. =)

I met this Filipino mom, who is a native Californian, awhile back.  She and her hubby had moved from NJ two years ago - he is from England, but his family resides here, so here they came.  She's been super helpful with the ins and outs of relocation, good doctors, tricks over the border, cheap supermarkets, etc.  A plus is her kids are the same ages as our kids, so instant connection.  Anyway, they live up in North Vancouver (15 minutes away, 2 blocks from Capilano Suspension Bridge) and we had dinner at their house last night.  It was nice to BBQ and they are fellow hospitality majors, so food was guaranteed to be good =)  It is interesting that only 15 minutes from downtown, they have bears climbing into their backyard!


Amélie had her first major milestone today (Monday) - rolled over from back to tummy (right side) and now she does it every time we lay her on her back.  Sigh.  I remember when Julian used to do this in the middle of the night, get stuck on his face and woke himself up...Boy, I can't wait for tonight.


Oh - and Julian knows how to blow his nose now!  The things in life that excite us as we grow older :P

We found one!

We were excited to attend HSBC's Hispanic Latin Diversity Committee BBQ today in Stanley Park.  The weather was glorious once again (we haven't seen rain since June 28th).  After our first hour there, Melvin turns to me with a long face and says, "There are no Latins from the Caribbean here".  Yes, it is true, most were from South America but heck, that's neither here nor there, these people knew how to grill meat!  It was a very multi-cultural event with a lot of Asians and even white people.  Good times for everyone...No matter what country they are from, Latins love music and even though they forgot to include the Dominican flag on their display, they were rockin'  merengue the whole time.  Towards the end of the picnic, Melvin discovered there was ONE Dominican there - hooray!  They do exist in Vancouver!  LOL

Afterwards, we took a drive while the kids slept (we live for nap time) and explored Stanley Park further and drove to Kitsilano Beach & Pool, which was a treat to finally see. Not a bigger treat than Aphrodite's Cafe though - http://www.organiccafe.ca/ - which serves up some kick ass organic blueberry pie (we discovered that B.C. is one of the top three blueberry producing regions in the world).  Come and visit us and we will take you there!

Just to make our day even longer, I got invited to a party that one of my old vendors was throwing and we called our babysitter to come watch the kids while we had a night out.  The lounge happened to be a half block away - how convenient!!!  Nothing like free wine and hors d'oeuvres to end a fun, but tiring, day!

Battle Wounds

Melvin came home alright last night - he conquered the Grouse Grind in 1:21 and was the 2nd in a group of about 10 to make it to the top.  Everyone was shocked - I think he was so determined not to be embarrassed that he walked extra fast (just kidding!).

I, on the other hand, am not in as good a shape as I'm STILL recovering from my traumatizing soccer game. I decided to take a pic of my battle wounds (notice the bruise on the right leg continues down) - won't be wearing shorts or skirts for awhile :(   I also decided that I will not be returning to that "co-ed recreational" soccer group, as the thought of it is quite embarrassing and painful.  :)

Grouse Grind

Melvin is conquering the Grouse Grind right now as I'm blogging about it, after putting the kids down and on my 3rd load of laundry for the day (how nice).  What is the Grouse Grind you ask?  Well, it's basically a hike up Grouse Mountain (yes, the same one you saw in the 2010 Winter Olympics) and locals call it "nature's stairmaster."  The mountain is located 15 minutes from downtown Vancouver and is a great place for winter and summer activities, featuring a gondola with spectacular views. A quick getaway from the city if too lazy to drive all the way to Whistler. Anyway, it's a heck of a hike and Melvin's co-coworkers do it every week after work during the summer months (whatever happened to going to Happy Hour?).  Let's just say they expressed concern about him joining them today.

Above is a picture Melvin text me at the halfway mark.  His message indicated that he's "literally about to collapse" - it took him 42 minutes and he has another 1.5km to go.  Hmm, I hope he makes it home okay.  I will let you know tomorrow!

New Home

It has been exactly 4 weeks from today that we made our move to Vancouver.  There was no better way to spend it than with some new friends (or at least acquaintances for now).  We got our first dinner invitation and spent a lovely evening getting to know some new people in the next building.

Even better, we got some homemade Indian food out of it...completely off the hook.

Verizon

...you've always been so good to me!  How could you have let me down like this?  We've been together for 12 years...even when we broke up and I left you for AT&T, we reunited with no regrets.  It seems we could not make this long distance relationship work.  How could you do this to me?  I hate you!

Stand by for a new cell phone number....