Seattle/Vancouver Oct 2011 - Part 4: Vancouver (Cont.)

Day 2 - 

The second day of Vancouver started with Stanley Park.  It actually started with another taste of Vancouver traffic.  Wow.  We made it through the park, and then missed our turn off of the highway which took us into North Vancouver.  We got to see a little extra of the city.  We finally made it back to Stanley Park and started at Prospect Point.  This is in the northwest part of the park.  We had lunch at the Prospect Point Cafe.  This was pretty tasty.  I had halibut fish and chips and Lisa had a salmon burger.  They were both pretty good.  The cafe had an open feel to it,but was inclosed in plexiglass so it had a view out to the water.  They also had "World Famous" ice cream, but we'll come back to that.


We finished with lunch and walked out to the point.  There was an area that was dedicated to a wind storm that they had several years ago and there was still damage to trees in the area.  The point was very pretty.  It looked out over the water and the suspension bridge that goes to North Vancouver (remember, we saw that earlier).  There were also some stairs that led down the point to see more of the water.  We were looking out at the water and someone said they saw a whale.  Surely enough there was a whale down in the bay.  It was hard to tell what type, especially for me, the blind kid.  Lisa thought it was a dolphin.  The guys that saw it said it was a grey whale.  I'm going with dolphin.  

Do you see a whale?  I don't.

After the point, we headed towards the Vancouver Aquarium, which is in Stanley Park.  We stopped at a beach on the way over, but it was not very exciting.  The aquarium was pretty cool.  We started in the tropical and amazon animals.  In the Amazon area they had several fish that I had seen on River Monsters, a great show on Animal Planet.  There was the arapaima, the piranha, and the redtail catfish.  All three would be fun to catch.  Anyway, moving on, they also had sloths, monkeys, caimans, and snakes.  This was new for me to an aquarium, normally it is just fish and the like.  The tropical area had the standard seahorses and fish from Nemo.  They also had a large sea turtle.  It was really cool to see.  I didn't realize how large they are.  We moved on to the pacific northwest area of the aquarium.  This was pretty cool because it was local exhibits.  They had it broken down almost to the bay/river/creek/etc.  There were salmon, rockfish, eels, halibut and the like.  It was actually making me hungry.  The most interesting creature I thought was the giant octopus.  This was creepy looking.  And the tank they had it in was not big enough (my thoughts).  It seemed cramped, but maybe that is what it likes.  We went on to the outdoor area where there were dolphins and sea lions.  They also had a fur seal in with the sea lions that had been rescued.  Supposedly it ate its fish backwards which could kill the seal if the fins of the fish got stuck in its throat.  This was an amazing thing the aquarium did.  They rescued/saved a lot of animals and all kinds.  They stated that they saved over 100 animals last year.  That is pretty impressive.  Then we saw a show with beluga whales and there were a couple of cute otters that we watched for a while before we left.  Lisa really liked the fur seal and the otters.  Overall, it was a pretty good aquarium.  

Mr. Otter just hanging out

We left the aquarium and headed to Gastown.  This is a trendy area just east of the Downtown area.  If you get to Chinatown you went too far (don't worry, Lisa didn't let me get to Chinatown).  Gastown was a cool little area.  We walked around there going through the shops for quite a while.  There were a couple of shops that we liked that had some native american art and other items in them.  There was one store that had a bunch of short, but still large, totem poles even.  They were pretty impressive up close.  We bought a few souvenirs in the shops and then decided to look for a dinner spot.  We walked by a place called Cork and Fin.  This was a small industrial foodie type place.  They had the deal of the trip too:  Happy Hour $1.50 Oysters. We got a dozen.  Yummy.  We also got a couple of baked oysters with bacon and worcestershire   They were good too.  For our entrees, Lisa got the scallops, which were pretty good, and I got the miso glazed salmon.  It was good, but nothing spectacular.  The portions were also very small for the price.  Other than the happy hour oysters, I probably wouldn't go back.  

We did ask the waitress about any local wine bars though.  We do like wine and bars so it was worth a shot.  She recommended a place called Salt, which she told us to go out of the restaurant and hang a right down the alley called Blood Alley.  Sounds lovely, right?  Well, we made it to Salt.  It was actually a pretty nice alley with several people walking down it.  We were not the only ones waiting to be mugged.  Salt was a very cool place.  It was all wine and cheese and meat.  We sat at the bar and the waiter explained that you picked from the chalkboard on the wall.  First pick 3 choices from the meat and/or cheese sections.  The pick 3 condiments to go with them.  Then they will actually pair the wine tastings with your choices.  Or if you want to pick the 3 wines, they will do it backwards.  It was a pretty cool idea.  We picked 3 cheeses.  They were pretty tasty.  The other thing we noticed was there were a bunch of pig figurines on the bar and they would come and go.  Come to find out, they used these pig figurines as they table holders for reservations.  If there was a pig on the table, it was reserved.  Kind of funny if you ask me.

Sitting with the Piggies

Granville Island

Day 3 -


Day 3 of Vancouver started at Granville Island.  Another place that is not easy to get to in Vancouver.  Granville Island is basically a public market with a bunch of shops and restaurants around it.  It was a pretty cool area.  It was lunch time so we went Tony's Fish and Chips.  Lisa got fish and chips, and I got the oyster burger.  Mine was ok, and I think Lisa thought the same about hers.  We started off in the shops.  These shops are more of the boutiquey artsy unique shops.  The only store that I had heard of before was Ten Thousand Villages, and that is not a very common store.  They had everything from Canada souvenirs to Andean clothing to a 1920s hat shop.  If only I could wear hats like that.  Lisa said I either lived in the wrong city or I was not old enough.  I'm going to wait a couple years and try again.  We also went to the Granville Island Brewery.  It was pretty tasty.  It was strange though because they could only serve 12.5oz per customer.  Since it was the tasting room for the brewery, I guess that was all that their license would allow.  Across from there was a store called Woofles and Meows, which happened to be in a caboose car.  It was a very small shop, but they had some different snacks for pets.  We got the pups a couple of bones made out of salmon skin and some treats made from dried sardines.  Yummy.  This was a large area so it did take a while to see all of the sites at Granville Island.  After the market, we went back to the hotel and decided to walk along to seawall down at the water close to the hotel.  It was a pretty walk.  We got to see more of the city than expected.  We walked basically south from the hotel.  One of the things I had wanted to see in Vancouver was remnants from the Olympics.  We stumbled upon the Olympic Cauldron that was lit by Wayne Gretzky and then we walked to the Canada Place which is where a some of the side events happened.  There were a bunch of nice hotels in this area.  We walked by 2 Fairmont hotels among others.  We then walked back toward the hotel.  On the way though, we might have stopped at Miku for a snack at a drink.  We decided we had to go to Miku one more before we left.  We got some more sake, the same kind as before, and a couple of more rolls and aburi.  We sat at the sushi bar and were talking to the chef. He was from Japan originally, but liked being in Vancouver more.  He asked what our plans were for the evening and we told him we had dinner to go to after Miku.  He could not believe us.  

Miku Round 2

Speaking of dinner, this might have been the highlight of Vancouver.  We loved Miku.  It was fun, friendly service with great sushi.  West in Granville on the other hand was luxury and foodie heaven.  To sum up the restaurant, they have a temperature controlled wall for their wine.  That's right, temperature controlled wall.  It was unbelievable.  But that doesn't even begin to tell it.  I started with the wine menu.  We had had some very good BC wines and we stuck with that here as well.  The thing of it is, this wine menu rivaled most Vegas restaurants.  They had bottles from $50 to $6000.  This was a very small, probably 30 customers at a time, restaurant and they had this kind of wine list.  We decided we wanted pinot noir and we wanted it from BC.  I left the page open on the wine menu and moved on to the dinner menu.  Within a couple of minutes, the sommelier came over and asked if we needed any help with the wine list.  I told him what we wanted and he gave us a couple of options.  We asked him a little more about the BC wines and he explained that the majority of the wine comes from the Okanagan Valley about 5 hours east of Vancouver.  They do not export their wine either.  It is all consumed domestically.  That was pretty surprising to us.  We wanted to get some at ship it home, but we could not.  The wine was very good.  It was a little different than an Oregan or Washington Pinot, but still very good.  We both decided we wanted to do the tasting option of the menu.  There were actually two tastings:  one seafood heavy and the other land food heavy.  I took the seafood and Lisa got the land food.  I'm not even sure where to start.  First was an amuse bouche.  It was a risotto fritter with a local mushroom on top.  Wow, great first bite.  It set the stage.  I am going to list the tasting menu below this, because there is quite a bit and I don't want to forget it.  The highlights were the scallops, the quail, the cauliflower soup, lamb risotto and ribeye.  Great meal.  I put this at the top 10 dinners I have had.  The service was great.  They were there when needed and nothing more.  Very friendly and helpful.  As we left, Lisa said something about how the service was great and even the hostess stood out.  They have a coat check and she remembered which one was mine without the claim ticket.  This was a great experience.  

West - Granville

October Tasting Menu

AMUSE BOUCHE

DUNGENESS CRAB SALAD
LYTTON PEARS, CREME FRAICHE, RED ONION MARMALADE

NORTH ARM FARM CAULIFLOWER VELOUTE
FLORETS, MIMOLETTE CHEESE CRISP 16

THIESSEN FARM QUAIL

POMEGRANATE GLAZE, BULGAR AND GRAVENSTEIN APPLE SALAD, CIDER JUS

HAIDA GWAII HALIBUT

SOISSONS BEAN CASSOULET, DOUBLE SMOKED BACON, WILTED SPINACH
MANILA CLAMS, PRESERVED LEMON VINAIGRETTE

PRE DESSERT

HAZELNUT BROWN SUGAR CAKE, LIME BAVAROIS
CANDIED HAZELNUTS

Chef’s Tasting Menu

AMUSE BOUCHE

SAWMILL BAY SCALLOPS
CORONATION GRAPES, SQUASH, CHORIZO VINAIGRETTE

WEST FALL TERRINE
FARMCREST CHICKEN CONFIT, ROUGIE DUCK LIVER
ORGANIC VEGETABLES

FRASER VALLEY LAMB RISOTTO
BIODYNAMIC 1yr AGED RICE, BRAISED PEACE RIVER LAMB
RADICCHIO, MANCHEGO

28 DAY AGED CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF RIBEYE
BRAISED OXTAIL TARTELETTE, CARAMELIZED PARSNIPS
PORCINI MUSHROOM VINAIGRETTE

PRE DESSERT

CHOCOLATE POT DE CREME, BLACKBERRY COMPOTE
SPICED ORANGE ESPUMA

Day 4 - 

We checked out of the hotel and decided to go to Tim Horton's for breakfast.  I have been to Tim Horton's in Ontario and have had good donuts.  This was not a good experience.  First of all, they only accept MasterCard.  I don't have a MasterCard. Lisa and I each got a donut and I had a coffee.  It was around $9 and I barely had enough Canadian money to pay for breakfast.  The donuts were old and the coffee was not very good.  

After our stale donuts, we headed back to Seattle.  We had to navigate through the Vancouver streets and highways to the US border.  Thankfully we allowed extra time to make it to the Seattle airport because there was a significant wait to cross the border.  We waited around half an hour (we found out later that the line can get up to 4 hours).  After crossing the border, it is a nice, somewhat scenic drive to Seattle.  The Cascade Mountains are to the east and the Pacific ocean can be seen occasionally to the west.  We made it back to SeaTac and flew home safely.  

An overall great vacation.

Back in the good ol' USA