Having Fun Around Vancouver With My Mom

I've said it before that having visitors here in Vancouver is a fabulous reason to be a tourist in my own city. My mother's visit this past weekend was no exception! Before she arrived, I made a big list of potential things we could do. By the end of her visit, there were several items crossed off - plus some bonus activities that I hadn't even thought to put onto the list!

After arriving from Seattle in a rental car on Thursday evening, we hilariously (not) spent about 20 minutes circling all around my neighborhood looking for a visitor parking spot before we gave up and parked her car in a parking garage for the night.

I'd taken Friday off from work so that we could spend the day exploring. My big idea was to take her to Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is a big suspension bridge inside of a great wooded park in North Vancouver. There are shuttle buses that leave from several points throughout Downtown Vancouver that will take you right to the bridge for FREE, and we were fortunate enough to score the best bus driver ever for the trip - a lively, microphoned gentleman by the name of Jimmy (who I hope to never forget). Once at the bridge, it is a big costly to gain entrance - $35.95 for adults - but completely worth it. BC residents: For the price of an adult admission, you'll receive an annual pass that will allow you free entrance into the park for the next year! Just show a BC-issued piece of ID at the Visitor Center. This is an awesome perk and you would be a damn fool not to take advantage of it! I've gone to Capilano Suspension Bridge three times now on my initial $36 purchase.

Anyway, enough about the cost of admission - here's a bit of what you can see on the inside of the park!

Here is the bridge itself, which you can walk across to get from one side of the park to the other. 

It's 450 feet long and 230 feet above Capilano River below:

Once you cross the bridge, you're in the middle of a beautiful rain forest of tall green trees, ferns, and both dirt trails and boardwalks leading you throughout the park. Looking up, you see that there are also bridges strung high up in the air between the trees - the park's Treetops Adventure!

.  treetops adventure, featuring ya girl... me!  .

This is the "Cliff Walk" - a walkway built directly into a cliffside. The walkway juts right out from the cliff over the Capilano Canyon below. Not for chumps.

Later that day, we stopped into the Vancouver Marathon's Health, Sports, and Lifestyle Expo, where marathon runners could collect their race packets and check out a bunch of vendors. There, I saw more "energy food" than I ever knew existed, tried coconut water for the first time, and was given a free pair of socks. Not bad.

On Saturday morning, we went to Abigail's Party for breakfast (one of my favorite breakfast spots) and then set off on an adventure to try to get to Grouse Mountain for a ride on the mountain's Skyride gondola. We knew it was rainy with no view at the top, but we happily took the gondola up the mountain anyway...

Once at the top, there is a lodge with lots food options, a theater (where we watched a few short films about the mountain), a gift shop, and a large fireplace that was a perfect place for drying our sopping wet shoes later that afternoon. Through the lodge, there are a series of paths leading hither and yon (there are plenty of random things to do up there), but the activity we were most interested in was checking out the grizzly bear habitat.

YUP. 

Two BC grizzlies (one from the West coast and one from the inlands) have been taken care of by the people here for about 15 years now. The two bears were hanging out in their "post-hibernation" fenced-in habitat area that day. We spent a good amount of time watching them and taking pictures. I'd never seen a bear like that before - especially not that close!

Sunday was marathon day! I dropped my mom off at the starting line around 7:45 in the morning and then headed back to my apartment to wait till her part of the race was running through my part of town. Around 10:30, I headed out to join the crowds of people cheering on the runners who were passing through my Kitsilano neighborhood. About an hour later, I spotted my mom coming through:

She was looking pretty good, if you ask me! This was at around the 25 km mark (in Canada, marathons are marked in kilometers instead of miles, and 26.2 miles is about 42.2 kilometers), so she still had quite a ways to go. But looking good, nonetheless! After I saw her here, I made my way to the finish line downtown, to make sure I wouldn't miss her finishing. Here's a look at the course map...

I did manage to see her finish, though she didn't see me or hear me yelling for her amidst the crowds... 

That isn't her official time, I'm sure she'd want me to tell you. I think that her official time was closer to 4:25. I'm sure she would also want me to tell you that her best time for a marathon is 3:14 (ish... I might be off by 5 minutes or so).

She was pooped after the run (obvi), so we took a cab back to my apartment and put her straight into a hot shower. It was a rainy, chilly day, so she was chilled to the bone after running 26 miles! After relaxing for most of the rest of the afternoon, we took a walk to Granville Island so she could see the Public Market there (it's amazing), and then we enjoyed a delicious dinner at The Sandbar. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might know that The Sandbar is one of the best restaurants in Vancouver - a top notch place to get incredible seafood. I ordered a few oysters, and an entree of scallops and prawns in a citrus cream sauce, served with coconut rice and vegetables. #nom

Monday morning, bright and early, my mom get into her rental car and set off back towards the US to catch her flight out of Seattle. It was a great trip - I'm so glad that she got to see the beautiful place that her daughter has been living for the last year and a half! I will return the favor next month, when I take a trip back to Massachusetts to visit as well as attend a wedding AND a bachelorette party. Speaking of which... I have some fun outfits to plan for that trip. Hey-o!

Do you have any visitors coming your way soon?
Any trips planned for yourself this summer, or weddings to attend?
What's your favorite local place to take a visitor?

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Weekend Love & Workouts of the Week

Whoooooo I am exhausted! This morning we set off on a decently-paced hike up Mt. Seymour, and spent about 2.5 hours on the mountain total. I got to set the pace on the way up and did my damnedest to make it brisk and fairly unrelenting. My body is definitely tired now, and my feet are aching a bit - but in a totally good way. Check back here tomorrow for photos from today's hike!

It's been a good weekend around here. On Friday night we went down to the beach for a bit and threw our football around with Dave's friend Evan. It was the first football pass of the season! WHOO! From our beach, we could see a rain cloud across English Bay that was actively pouring rain down onto West Vancouver...

 

So that was pretty cool to see.

Yesterday I went to pick up a package at a Purolator, and in the process discovered an entirely new-to-me shopping center in Vancouver - the City Square Shopping Center. I swear I stumble upon a new mall every week. Of course I picked up a few things - a sage green fleece vest (on sale for $8.80!), a basic white long-sleeve tee with blue stripes, and a lavender bandana to use while hiking (which I immediately put to use today on Mt. Seymour).  Oh, and the package I was picking up at Purolator? THESE BAD BITCHES*, which you may have seen me post on Instagram:

.  you can find them here!  .

I'M OBSESSED. They're from Forever21 and they were on sale for $25, so it was kind of a no-brainer. And by that I mean, a total impulse purchase that I happened to not regret.

Last night we went out to dinner at The Sandbar, which I've been to (and written about) several times now. For Christmas this past year, David's brother's family gave us a gift certificate to the restaurant, and we were excited to finally get around to using it. I ordered some to-die-for salmon with citrus butter and jasmine rice, and Dave had a salad full of crab, shrimp, egg, avocado, and god knows what else. We also shared some oysters... and both wished that we had ordered way more. #SOGOOD.

We also watched a bunch of movies the last few days - one of my favorite things to do on the weekends. We watched The Fast & The Furious, 2 Fast, 2 Furious, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Have you seen Wolf yet? I really liked it!

Alright, now on to my workouts from the past week ~>

3/30 - 5 mile power walk to Stanley Park

3/31 (lower body and core)

10 mins elliptical

60 bridges

40 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

60 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

40 diamond clamshells each leg

50 Brazilian crunches

15 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

60 alternating forward lunges

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

4/1 (upper body and core)

16 mins biking

12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 weighted crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

12 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

30 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

12 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 reverse crunch + leg raise

15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

40 plank knee to elbow

12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 5 lbs

12 upright row + lateral tricep extension, 5 lbs each hand

12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

30-second side planks each side

60 bridges

4/2 (cardio)

20 mins ellpitical

0:00 - 3:00 - warm-up

3:00 - 4:00 - all-out

4:00 - 6:00 - moderate

6:00 - 6:30 - sprint

6:30 - 8:00 - recover easy

8:00 - 9:00 - all out

9:00 - 11:00 - moderate

11:00 - 11:30 - sprint

11:30 - 13:00 - recover easy

13:00 - 14:00 - all out

14:00 - 16:00 - moderate

16:00 - 16:30 - sprint

16:30 - 18:00 - recover easy

18:00 - 19:00 - all out

19:00 - 20:00 recover  easy 

4/4 (lower body and core)

5 mins elliptical

40 side lunges + plyometric push-off (each side)

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 calf raises, 15 lbs each hand

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

60 alternating forward lunges

50 Brazilian crunches

60 bridges

40 reverse crunch + leg raise

40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

40 Russian get ups, holding 5 lbs

20 deadlifts, 15 lbs each hand

50 plank knee to elbow

15 squats, 15 lbs

15 squats, 20 lbs

15 squats, 25 lbs

30 cobras

How are your workouts going?
Do we share any of the same common exercise moves?
Seen any good movies lately? Share with me!!

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Parents Visit + Touring Vancouver

This past weekend, David's parents came all the way from Massachusetts to visit us here in Vancouver! We had a packed weekend full of tourist-type activities and LOTS of amazzzzzzzzzing food. No, seriously. Did you see how many z's I put into the word "amazing"? The food was all really that good. So here's a little breakdown of our time very well-spent last weekend:

Friday

Tony and Pauline arrived in Vancouver mid-afternoon and settled into their room at the downtown Marriott hotel, where they stayed on the 28th floor and had an impressive view of downtown and the Coal Harbour/Gastown area. David and I met them at their hotel and the four of us walked a few blocks north to the waterfront and ate dinner at The Cactus Club Cafe. I've eaten at 3 different CCC's around the city and they're all completely lovely as far as I'm concerned. This time I ordered a roasted butternut squash soup that came with seared scallops, apple curry foam, and basil oil. (I just realized this is what I ordered the first time I went to CCC, way back in October 2012.) I also had a salad of seasonal greens with almonds, feta and a lemon-thyme vinaigrette. All yummy!

After dinner we walked around by the water, but it was quite cold and rainy and the view of North Vancouver wasn't too great, so we walked back to the Marriott to have a nightcap for an hour or so before Dave and I grabbed a cab back to our apartment. We don't "grab cabs" often at all - we usually walk or bus it everywhere - so this was a treat that we kind of indulged ourselves in all weekend long!

Saturday

On Saturday we picked up T &P at their hotel in the morning and we drove north of the city to Squamish to show them some of the views along the Sea-to-Sky Highway. Again, it wasn't as clear as we were hoping, but we did get some patches where the clouds would part and show us a towering mountain peak or two:

.  david admiring the mountains  .

From there we continued just north of Squamish to the town of Brackendale, where we stopped at a tourist viewing area for nesting bald eagles. It's apparently the home of one of the largest congregations of bald eagles in North America. We got to see an eagle up close right away - in a tree above us right as we were getting out of our car in the parking lot!

The eagle viewing area, known as Eagle Run, is atop a long dike with a stretch of the Squamish River between us and the eagles in the trees.

We probably ended up seeing around 15-20 eagles (and also a couple of seals!) that day. Apparently there'll be waaaay more eagles in December and January, so I hope to go back then and hopefully take some better photos. For now, you can sorrrrrta see the eagles in the pictures below - just look for the bright white spots in the trees!

On the way home from Brackendale, we stopped in Horseshoe Bay, a small community in West Vancouver. There, we took a few pictures...

.  tony took this picture with his ipad. ayo technology!  .

... and then grabbed some lunch at Troller Ale House, where I ordered a quinoa/black bean veggie burger with a side salad. The burger was ENORMOUS. Like the size of my face.

We began making our way back to Vancouver (via a detour around Stanley Park to show Tony and Pauline some big trees), and went back to our Kitsilano neighborhood to give an extremely brief tour of our apartment before heading back out for a nice afternoon walk in the lingering daylight.

We're in love with our Seaside Bike Path, so we knew we wanted to take Dave's parents along it so they could see the beautiful views it affords of the city. We walked along the path from our apartment for a half hour or so before eventually turning around and heading back towards Granville Island...

On the island, we got some tea, showed Dave's parents around the bustling Public Market...

... and then we all split up for a couple of hours to refresh and regroup before our 6:45 dinner reservations at The Sandbar (just recently voted the Best Restaurant on Granville Island).

Dave and I had been to the Sandbar twice before, but this was the first time we were eating inside on their second floor, rather than out on their third floor's heated and covered patio. Totally different vibe than being on the patio, but - good news! - being surrounded by four solid walls inside the building does not detract from the incredible food. I ordered pan roasted prawns with citrus cream and a chile-rice that were just as good as you'd imagine them to be. I really love this restaurant, and I'd recommend that anyone who likes seafood head there if they're in Vancouver.

Sunday

For their final day in the city, we took Dave's parents around the UBC campus, where Dave gave us all a tour of the lab building where he does all of his research everyday (I know I don't talk about it much here on the blog, but Dave is in a graduate program in the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department at UBC - that's why we're living here in Vancouver!).

For lunch we did a quick walk up and down 4th Ave in Kitsilano before deciding to stop in at Burgoo. I'd been to Burgoo just the week prior for a solo lunch, and it was yummy food with a nice atmosphere. This time I ordered their Gooey Grilled Cheese Grillers - a generous portion of grilled cheese made on angle-sliced baguette with mozzarella, gruyere, Swiss and white cheddar cheeses. It's a yummy sambo, but a LOT of fried cheese!! Burgoo has a great soup-and-sandwich combo option so I added a cup of butternut squash soup to my order. (Are you picking up on the fact that I love butternut squash soup?) The soup is filled with warm spices and maple syrup and garnished with toasted hazelnuts. I actually hate hazelnuts, but that wasn't Burgoo's fault. I should have asked for the soup without them! #Oops

On Sunday night we made sure to bring Tony and Pauline to Kibune - arguably our very favorite restaurant here in Vancouver. It's a deliiiicious Japanese restaurant that's right around the corner from our apartment, and I'm actually perpetually appalled at myself for not having written a blog all about it yet. Someday, I swear! I've entirely lost count of the number of times that we've been to Kibune at this point.

We ordered an amazing spread of different Japanese dishes - sushi, sashimi, gyoza, vegetable and prawn tempura, spicy beef and lots more! Really, the food is worth an entire blog post so I won't go into it too much right now. Suffice to say - if you're in Vancouver and looking for some Japanese food that will knock ya socks off, head to Kibune!

After we'd stuffed ourselves with Japanese food, we took a quick walk up the hill to 4th Ave so that we could then walk back down the hill and check out the view of the city. I didn't snap any pictures of the view that night, but this is basically what you can see walking down the hill from 4th Ave to my apartment:

And that was the end of our evening and our eventful and food-filled weekend with Tony and Pauline! It was so much fun to show them all of our favorite spots and be a tourist in my own city. Having visitors is a great excuse to really take advantage of all of the awesome things that Vancouver and BC have to offer.

I can't wait to go back to Brackendale in a month or so to see some more eagles, and I've been re-inspired to spend more time in the Granville Island Public Market because there are so many talented vendors there.

Have you had any visitors lately? Anyone else want to come visit us? :)

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The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver

On a recent warm and rain-free evening in Vancouver, Dave and I went out for a walk along the Seaside Bike Path in Kitsilano. As we approached Granville Island Dave announced that he had quite a hankering for some crab so we ducked under the Granville Bridge and continued our walk by winding through Granville Island's paths and streets, looking for the ideal crab-serving establishment.

We scoped out a few restaurants' menus before deciding to eat at The Sandbar - a seafood restaurant next to the big Granville Public Market building. The menu looked expensive, but we don't eat at truly expensive restaurants too often, so we thought #WHATTHEHELL. #TreatYoSelf. If my guy wants some crab, by all means, let's get him some crab.

.  the sandbar / false creek / granville island  .

And, um, yeah they certainly had crabs there. Full tanks of the little guys greet you at the downstairs entrance of the 3-story restaurant. We immediately wondered if we were not dressed well enough to be eating there but #psht #whateva. Not like we were wearing rags. Passing the sushi chefs who were hard at work on the first floor, we climbed up a flight of stairs to the second floor where we were greeted by the hostess... who then invited us to dine up on the third floor on their covered, heated patio. So many stairs. They were all worth it.

The patio upstairs at The Sandbar was absolutely perfect and was bumpin' with well behaved yet totally happy people. The building itself is right on the water beneath the Granville Bridge, so we had views in several directions via the partial glass walls on the False Creek side of the patio. We happened to be able to sit at a two-top right against the glass wall - probably one of the best seats in the house :)

.  view from the patio  .

The patio also featured tall, West-coast style heaters, two fireplaces with beautiful (probably fake) fires, a good sized bar, and lots of low wooden tables with Adirondack-style cushioned chairs. We opted not to sit at one of those, thinking that maybe the low seats would be too awkward to sit and eat at. (They'd probably be perfect for enjoying a drink with a buddy on a nice night, though.)

.  under the granville bridge  .

For dinner I ordered pan seared scallops, which were served with citrus butter, jasmine rice and a broccolini/cherry tomato medley. It was all really effing good.

.  i ate the shit out of this  .

Dave ordered a 1/2 Dungeness crab with French fries and the broccolini/tomato veggie side. He attacked it with fervor and appeared to enjoy it.

.  dave ate the crab out of this shell  .

We were both, seriously, very pleased with the entire evening at The Sandbar. The patio's atmosphere was a great balance between comfort and luxury, the food was worth every penny, and the waitstaff was really friendly and professional. I'm pretty sure we'll happily go back again sometime!