Vancouver in January

Sylvan at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park

Yes, it is rainy and cold in Vancouver in winter.  Still, I have a favorable impression of the city.  We arrived around 10 pm  and had no trouble taking the skytrain downtown to within a block of our hotel. Around 7:30 am Friday we set off to look for Breka Café, a few blocks away (chosen after an internet search for cafe/bakeries nearby).  Distracted by the sights, a few extra blocks took us through a residential neighborhood of mostly modern apartment buildings with an occasional Victorian era house seemingly forgotten amongst the newer buildings.  Many buildings had lushly planted streetscapes.  I was impressed that there were no puddles on the streets – a sign of well thought out drainage I think, or just significant topography.  For my first vacation breakfast I had to go with the chocolate almond croissant.  I love almond and chocolate croissants, and the combination was just as tasty as I might have imagined. And my café latte came with a pretty design swirled onto the foam.  Jake’s croissant breakfast sandwich left something to be desired though. We ended up breakfasting here the next day and can also recommend the apple fritter.

After breakfast we walked down to the modernized waterfront – glass and steel buildings, parks, and reasonably clean looking water.  We saw the largest float plane docks we had ever seen.  Several kinds of ducks bobbed in the water.  The wet wind chilled us though and it was a little too early for shops to be open.  We stopped in another café to consult our maps and warm up. 

Our route to Chinatown took us along a few sketchy blocks with methadone clinics and panhandlers, but you know you are in Chinatown when the streetlamp posts are all painted bright red and the flags all have pandas on them.  The shops were just opening and we wished we had a kitchen so we could buy some lesser known items to try.  Lots of stores had trays of what looked like salted and smoked mussels and oysters, tiny dried shrimp, and the aptly labeled “greenstuff”.  We wandered through the Sun Yat Sen Park, a small Chinese garden, and then over to Gastown, a hip older revitalized part of town.  We got a tour of a company, SmartyPantz, that offers “escape rooms”, an apparently new fad in Vancouver by way of Asia.  You are ushered into a themed room and given a scenario and clues that will allow you to escape the room.  For instance, there is one room decorated like a submarine and another like a 1940s detective office.  We decided it would be more fun to do with other people. We watched the steam powered clock in Gastown strike 11:30.  Steam forced out of metal pipes plays a few notes of the Westminster Abbey clock tune. 

Gastown steam powered clock

We happened across Gyoza Bistro about the time we were thinking about where to lunch.   We were glad we got there early because it turned out to be a very popular place.  We both got steaming hot ramen noodle bowls and pork gyoza (a Japanese dumpling).  The restaurant features a hip atmosphere meaning wood and exposed brick walls, wines and sake on tap, and loud with a relatively young crowd.

Late afternoon the sun came out and we strolled through Yaletown, a converted warehouse district.  There were lots of very specific service shops there.  One place specialized solely in eyelashes, another in eyebrows, and others waxing (the “Alaska” – just a little off the sides).  Jake described it as the self-indulgent neighborhood.  We walked across a long bridge that takes you over False Creek and Granville Island (not really an island).  A cement mixing facility has decorated its silos and some of the trucks are decorated too.  The island has lots of shops and restaurants including the Public Market with all kinds of food stalls.  We wished we were hungry!  The shops all closed at 6pm though and we were hanging out to go to an improv show at 7:30pm.  We had a leisurely dinner at the Vancouver Fish House right next to the improve theatre.  Jake got a very good fish and chorizo pasta dish and I got a nicely pan fried piece of salmon with steamed vegetables.  I tried one of the local wines, Screaming Frenzy Sauvignon Blanc.  A very pleasant white and not at all frenzied.  We shared the compressed pineapple with coconut sorbet for dessert while we speculated what association the group of 14 people at  a table in front of us had to each other.

Cement plant on Granville Island

The comedy improv groups were really good.  This performance was titled the Improv Massacre and features 2 teams competing with each other for points.  Three people in the audience had been randomly chosen as the judges and could give a score from 1 – 5 for each skit.  There was lots of audience participation in choosing themes and details and some onstage participation.  One of the funniest was the group that chose “Surprising Canada” as their theme.  The audience got to choose what 3 provinces would be represented and in the dialogue they were supposed to reveal surprising things about their province.  The actor who got Saskatchewan was from there so he did particularly well. It appears Saskatchewan is the Kansas of Canada. The woman who got Yukon came back wearing a sort of bear rug on her back but she really didn’t know anything about Yukon and gave more facts about Newfoundland.  The third actor represented Quebec and spoke with a heavy French accent and acted like a New Yorker might when faced with the provincials. Fortunately we sat at a table with a local couple who could explain a couple in-jokes to us. The winning team will go on to an international competition held in the same venue and I think the final event is on Valentine’s Day (the Valentine’s Day Massacre). 

Totem poles at Stanley Park

Saturday morning we took a brisk walk around the seawall path to see the totem poles in Stanley Park.  It looks like a really pretty park, but neither of us felt like staying out in the cold and wind for more than an hour.  There’s a reason why we are headed to summer in the southern hemisphere!  We are now pleasantly ensconced in the Air Canada lounge where we can while away the time before our flight.

Things that maybe we'll do next time - visit one of the many interesting sounding museums in town (I'd like to check out the Biodiversity Museum for instance), walk across the gorge on the other side of the water, explore one of the botanic gardens, bike ride around Stanley Park... hmm, sound like mostly warmer weather activities!