Jelly Deli

We didn’t cover nearly as much ground today but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be exhausted. We were up early and had PB&N sandwiches on the floor of the kitchen for breakfast. By that I mean of course that 3 of us sat on the floor while we ate, and one of us took each piece off of her napkin and put it on the floor before eating it.

But we made it out of the apartment with minimal Nutella damages to our clothes and hopped a bus to Stanley Park, the 404 hectare park within the city limits that has miles of walking and bike trails, a miniature passenger train, and our destination, the aquarium. On the bus we met an adorable family from Ontario that was bubbling with excitement because they had won this trip to Vancouver in a sweepstakes to see, wait for it, One Direction. I wowed them with the story of our close encounter yesterday, both the mom and teenage daughter visibly swooned. I failed to mention that I had no idea who they were but may have given myself away by accidentally calling them New Direction, as I did a few times with Zach. Oops.

While we waited for the aquarium to open we wandered through what a prop guy called a “hot set” for the upcoming movie Big Eyes with Amy Adams. That poor guy waited there all day guarding the easels set up in the park from the hoards of tourists that thought it was an art show. So when the movie comes out and Zach and I don’t see it, we’ll tell everyone that does that we wandered through the scene with all the paintings. You know, in that movie about the painter. (Our many brushes with fame on this trip are clearly wasted on us.)
 
The aquarium in Vancouver is expensive, but impressive. We saw amazing jellyfish, beluga whales, dolphins, seals, another gargantuan octopus, and countless other cool things we hadn’t seen before. All of us loved the beluga whales, but other than that I most enjoyed the octopus, Zach the leopard shark, and Melina the arapaima, a crazy looking 7-foot sea monster from the Amazon. Diane was in heaven staring at the fish, her favorites being the sting rays (she would point them out to me every time), the sea lion (it literally roared, which prompted Diane to roar at everyone around her for the rest of the day just like she did at the Portland zoo), and basically anything else that swam, flew, or slithered. Now I feel bad that she slept through the last aquarium- I just had no idea a 16 month old would enjoy it so much! 

Another cool thing about this aquarium is that they do Sea World style shows with the animals to keep them mentally and physically engaged. While we were waiting for the dolphin show to start, the emcee asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for a jelly fish presentation (I later learned they called it the Jelly Deli). Volunteers must be old enough to drive and be free of any food or bee sting allergies. In my family that leaves only me, so with Melina’s encouragement I volunteered myself and was chosen. In front of the 200+ people waiting to watch dolphin tricks I ate three “secret” foods, the first of which had little taste and the texture of rubber bands and turned out to be boiled jellyfish, the “tofu of the sea.” The next was jellyfish salad, a bit tastier as it was more like rubber bands covered in sesame oil. The last was blue jell-o and I slurped it up, happy for something familiar, until the emcee told us what goes into jell-o, and I promise you, you don’t want to know. Let’s just say, I kind of prefer the jellyfish.

After the aquarium we took the circular ride on the miniature train, which tells the native american story of Spirit Bear, which was cool but strange as people dressed as totem-pole style bears acted out parts of the rambling story in the woods while we passed by on the train. Melina loved it, and Diane roared at every actor. On our way out we came across an amazing splash park so we stripped the kids down and put on the emergency outfits I had brought for them (I’m such a mom) and they played in the ice cold waterfalls and geysers until Diane melted down from exhaustion. 

Somehow we made it back to our neighborhood with what little energy we had left and enjoyed a delightful Japanese meal at the Gyoza King, which was recommended by our airbnb host. The girls went crazy for the dumplings, Osaka pancake, udon, and edamame. Melina now has a new interest in Japan, so we may have to watch Ponyo with her when we get home.

The day ended perfectly with Zach bringing Belgian waffles to the apartment for us to munch after the girls had gone to bed. If you’ve been to Belgium, you know how rare of a treat this is in the US (and no, they are nothing like the ones at IHOP). 

 Now on to the second half of our trip-the family reunion on Vancouver Island. I’m a bit sad this part of our trip is ending, but there is still lots for us to look forward to, and we are very excited!

Corollary: tonight is the first night of an international firework competition only blocks from our apartment at the beach. It started too late for the girls so we figured we couldn’t go, but the noise was so terrific that I finally talked Zach into walking to the waterfront in his pjs to see them without me , since he was bummed to miss out. He made it just in time for the last firework (just the very last one explosion in the sky) and for the 400,000 people gathered at the shore to turn around and mob the streets as he struggled to get back. Oh well, at least he said that one firework was amazing.

Kits is for Kids

Vancouver is amazing!! I love this town. We covered so much ground today that when Melina and I were recapping our time in Vancouver she kept referring to “yesterday” when she talked about things we did this morning. Vancouver is beautiful and packed full of fun, kid-friendly things to do. When I asked Melina what she thought of Vancouver she said she loved it and then thought for a second and followed with, “I would like to come here by myself.” Does that mean she’s already planning where she wants to live when she grow up? Or is she saying it would be more fun without dear old mom and dad weighing her down? I’m not offended either way.

We started the day with breakfast near our apartment in the West End. We typically self cater for breakfast since the girls get up so early but our apartment doesn’t have a kitchen table and I’m not about to risk Anna’s beautiful furniture by letting our girls get food anywhere near it. But lucky for us Canadians love Eggs Benedict (they call them “Bennys” and there are multiple types on every menu we’ve seen) so we got to indulge in what is usually just a mother’s day treat for our family. 

Then we wandered along the waterfront park skirting False Creek (not a real creek?) and met tons of dogs on our way to catch the ferry to Granville Island (definitely not a real island). Granville Island was hopping and the girls enjoyed putting together a picnic for later in the day and chasing pigeons near the docks. I bought an adorable hat for my new niece (!!!) Bridget. The Kids Market was cute but a little too Chuck-E-Cheese for our taste so we hurried through and then crossed the street to the much more enticing (for us) Granville Island Brewery. We sampled a few tasty suds while Melina sampled a cream soda. If only they had milk for Diane we may have stayed all afternoon. But she was getting tired so we bought a bottle of the Kitsilano Maple Cream Ale (they had been out of it on tap but we didn’t want to miss out) and a bottle opener and hopped the ferry again to Vanier Park. Zach is drinking that ale as I type.

One of my favorite things about traveling is how the best parts of your day are often the ones that were totally unplanned. We had a lot of these moments before we had kids (discovering a secret route to an overlook in Cusco and watching an Andean Condor soar right by us, finding ourselves on a beach in Italy covered with pieces of beautiful sea-smoothed tiles and pottery shards instead of sand, witnessing the most hilariously pointless balloon display in an underground cavern in Belgium, the list goes on…). You’d think that with kids you’d lose this sponteneity, but in fact you have so many more of these moments! It must be because locals let down their guard around children and will stop to chat and then load you with free advice, often going out of their way to walk you to a favorite playground, restaurant, or shop. Having Melina around never hurts since she is way more likely than Zach or especially me to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. 

So it wasn’t surprising to any of us that we ended up walking to Kitsilano (they call it Kits) with some locals who showed us the perfect place to picnic and ended up spending over an hour playing at an amazing playground right on the beach with the gorgeous city skyline as a backdrop. Diane, our slide junkie, nearly wore out the seat of her pants on the slide resembling those rollers you use in the airport to shove your bags through the x-ray machine. Melina made friends with locals and tourists on the teepee shaped merry-go-round that she pushed in a circle and then adeptly jumped onto, getting the kids to all chant, “FASTER! FASTER!” between hysterical giggles. Zach and I stood back and soaked it all in, our favorite part of the day.

We strolled back onto the ferry and hopped off at Yorktown, a trendier area that is probably much more exciting for most at happy hour. We checked out the roundhouse and climbed on train engine (more exciting for us) and then were all of a sudden surrounded by young girls pushing their way into a nearby hotel lobby and screaming. I asked someone what was going on and she yelled, “ONE DIRECTION!!!” as she snapped pictures above my head with her iPhone. “Oh!” I replied, and turned to Zach to whisper, “is that a band?” He says I’m “such a mom.” 

Melina was holding up quite well while Diane napped in the stroller so we hoofed it to Gastown, the old town area of Vancouver. Very cute and very touristy, but a fun change of pace from the glitzy modern buildings everywhere else in this city. By the way, can someone tell me why the buildings here seem so new and clean and modern? Was the building boom in the 1970s? Or did everything just get a facelift for the 2010 Olympics? We pondered this while we stopped for cappuccino and cheesecake. Melina lounged in the cafe window like a supermodel, watching the common folk on the street. The place was empty when we got there and packed when we left, so apparently she was good for business…!

Next was a walk to the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown since we had heard it was gorgeous. Meh. We paid a hefty admission price to a tiny garden with turtles but NO koi only to find out that the bigger gardens WITH koi were in a separate, FREE section of the garden. You should be able to tell by my use of capital letters that I am still irritated about this and disappointed that Lonely Planet didn’t steer us in the right direction. Plus, the gardens (both the free and expensive sections) were just kind of standard and really didn’t hold a candle to the attention to detail and peaceful vibe of the garden we saw in Portland. Not to mention that there was way less koi.

The rest of our evening was uneventful but nice- after washing the grime off of the girls (I’ve started calling Diane “my little match girl” for the dirt she inevitably streaks across her face each day) we had some yummy burgers at Vera’s in Gastown and then hopped on a bus back to the apartment. The girls took a bath before I let them touch anything, then again ended the day by singing each other to sleep. Best music ever.

There’s Always a Reason

When Melina was a baby she often cried for no reason other than some kind of cathartic release- like there were sobs inside of her and she just needed to get them out. Nothing could calm her down. Much to our delight we learned when Diane was born that not all babies are like this. With Diane there is ALWAYS a reason. It may take us hours or even days to figure it out but once you figure it out and fix the problem the crying immediately stops. Which is why it we were so confused when she cried and whined for nearly the entire 4.5 hour trip to Vancouver. We sang songs, rubbed her head, shaded her eyes from the sun, and handed her toys, milk, goldfish, water, and probably 20 apple slices but nothing calmed her for more than a few minutes at a time. And then, right at the 4 hour mark and upon entering the city of Vancouver, Melina figured it out.

But let me back up a bit…

We packed up and said goodbye to The Maple Leaf on Capitol Hill and walked a block to catch the bus into town. I was focused on ushering the girls onto the bus without causing too much of a bottleneck at the door when I heard the driver say “Well, hello everyone!” It was the super friendly bus driver from our first day in Seattle! We all laughed at the coincidence and it was nice to say goodbye to him like an old friend, making it seem as if our time in Seattle had come full circle.

Our plan had been to hang out in the city a bit before picking up our rental car at noon for the drive to Canada, but we were a little nervous of timing since our airbnb host let us know yesterday that we only had a half hour window to catch her if we wanted to get a parking pass. So we stopped in at Avis early to see if we could at least fill out paperwork in advance but lo and behold our car was ready so we installed the two car seats, picked up some coffee, and were headed out of town by 10:30am.

Neither Zach nor I enjoy driving, which is why we usually choose destinations with great public transportation. We would chose a plane, train, or bus over a car any day, especially with kids. It is so much more enjoyable for us to sit back and let someone else navigate the foreign roads and crazy drivers while we play with the kids and chew the scenery, so it’s usually worth it to us to forego the extra flexibility that comes with a car. Not to mention the hassle of having to rent two car seats. I know many people that won’t rent car seats because of cleanliness issues (like thinking about the last kid to puke in the seat), but that doesn’t worry me at all. I just hate having to pay for them and then worry whether I installed them incorrectly for the whole trip. But since the plans for this trip include a week on Vancouver Island where public transportation is rare, we gave in and got a car. 

The ride was actually easy and quite beautiful, and we even squeezed in a trip to Safeway to get the fixings for PB&N sandwiches (the N is for Nutella), which we enjoyed immensely in the car while waiting to get through customs. Other than Diane’s uncharacteristically foul mood the only annoyance was the fact that the GPS we brought from home that claims to cover all of North America refused to recognize the existence of British Columbia. In fact, when you set the country to Canada and then choose a province, the only choices you are given are “New Brunswick” and “Nouveau Brunswicke.” Thanks Garmin, but not even close. That will be soooo helpful next week while we maneuver Vancouver Island.

OK, back to our entrance into Vancouver. We entered via the Granville Bridge and the view is simply spectacular. The buildings are almost all the same honey-combed style from the balconies lining the outside walls which makes for a distinctly unique skyline. The sky was crystal clear blue and the sun sparkled on the water below, but our poor baby girl was just a mess. I was frustrated because I couldn’t see her in her rear-facing seat so I kept unfairly asking Melina to guess at what could be the problem. Melina was sick of trying to read a 16 month old’s mind so she was just making stuff up without even looking at the baby when finally she looked over and her eyes grew round and she said “MOM! I KNOW WHAT THE REASON IS! SHE THREW UP!” 

And that is how we entered Vancouver reeking of vomit. Poor Diane has been carsick before, but somehow we always forget her weak stomach until it is too late. On day one in the Virgin Islands I had to wash out her car seat in the ocean. Day one of a camping trip required borrowing the use of Nana and Grandpa’s washer in Winchester. So now you know why I don’t worry about the cleanliness of rental car seats…my kid is the one that pukes in them.

The poor girl that had agreed to let us stay at her adorable apartment managed to hide her horror at our stench enough to get us our parking pass and show us where she kept her detergent before fleeing to safety. I’m actually kind of shocked she didn’t kick us to the curb. It’s either because of her natural Canadian kindness, her bohemian love-everyone-no-matter-how-they-smell attitude, or the fact that the public areas in her building already smell of bong water that must have flooded the hallways and was then left to grow into a fragrant mold. Thank goodness her apartment doesn’t smell that way or we’d all be sleeping on the beach. 

Again, the selective amnesia took hold and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening in the West End. We dined on gorgeously huge mussels at Central Bistro and then walked to the waterfront where the kids splashed in the water and covered their last clean outfits with sand. We ate cupcakes as we strolled back to the apartment and the girls played on Melina’s air bed before singing each other to sleep. So incredibly cute. Now Zach is asleep already while I wait for the now clean car seat cover and clothes to finish drying in the laundry room downstairs and look forward to more adventures tomorrow. Oh, Canada.