Vancouver

The last time I was in Vancouver, I was doing a cross border run to renew a visa stamp for my aunt. This time, I'm here for a work conference. I flew United Airlines up to Vancouver. It has been awhile since I've flown a regional jet plane especially for three hours. I was upgraded to "first" but it really is only slightly better than Economy Plus on a bigger plane. Since I knew that the plane was going to be small, I opted to bring a regular sized suitcase and checked it in. I was taking a mid-day flight and forgot how quickly one can get through the airport when no one is really flying. I'm not sure if I broke a world record by traveling 20 miles from work to airport, parking facility, checking in, getting through security and in the Club Lounge with drink in hand in under an hour. If it isn't, I sure hope that it is a close second. I will say that I had the advantage of going through TSA precheck helped cut the security wait down. One of the new benefits of the domestic United Club Lounges is that there are complimentary alcohol similar to the international locations. Of course, the selection is mostly well but still nice to have. I would have opted to go to the International First Class Lounge if the United Club was overrun. As it turned out, I was saved from walking further down the terminal since the Club was half full.

When I landed into YVR, I was half expecting the whole place to be mostly Asian people running around. I was surprised to see an actual mix of people and made the determination that I must have missed the Asian arrivals. I could have taken the Skytrain but opted to take a cab to downtown. The cab was $45 and the Skytrain would have been $9. Luckily, it was a work trip and I didn't mind spending the money.

I checked into the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. Location was convenient in downtown and the hotel facilities was very nice. There are two towers to the hotel and I was placed in the north tower. I did get confused how to walk from one tower to the other after check-in. I was quickly pointed the way after asking the porter. After settling in, I realized that it was pretty late even though the sun was still out. The long daylight hours in Vancouver made me think it was only 6 pm but in reality it was closer to 9 pm. I decided to stay in and order room service. I typically don't order room service but the prices weren't awful and the taxes and gratuity are already included in the actual price listing.  The chicken burger was actually tasty and of good quality.

The next day, I mostly stayed in to work on work issues but I did make one foray outside to Twisted Fork for lunch. It is a small restaurant known for all day breakfast which was perfect since I didn't have any yet. I had an order of scones and baked eggs. I was hoping the scones would be more European but it reminded me of scones made in the US. The baked eggs were interesting but I don't know if I would get it again. I ate at the bar since I was dining alone. The folks in the restaurant were super friendly and I instantly felt comfortable.

For some reason, I was pretty tired and decided to take an afternoon nap after lunch. I was woken up by my sister who was supposed to arrive that evening but was delayed due to aircraft issues. I missed some of the pre-conference activities trying to resolve her flights over the phone but made it to the reception. And really, that's probably the most important part of the day! :) My sister eventually arrived five hours later sans luggage to the hotel. Luckily, I had ordered a sandwich from room service since the reception was all snackfoods and she scarfed the half I left. The turkey sandwich was plain but was still very delicious. I like the fact that simple foods taste well especially through hotel room service. It may seem like a weird thing but it is surprising how simple things like that are done so poorly in food service. On a side note, I later complained to United Airlines about the travel delay on my sister's behalf. I had used miles to book her flights and the five hour delay was a little out of control. The Mileageplus folks did comp me most of the miles back to my account for that segment. I was pretty happy with the quick response via email.

The next night, I went out to dinner with my sister after the conference activities were done for the day. We went in search of Indian food and realized that the quality of Indian food would be lacking in Vancouver. Apparently, Toronto is where you want to be for good Indian food. So we dined at Japadog and had hot dogs Japanese style. If you are a fan of Japanese food, you would find the hot dog items palatable. If not, it is an acquired taste....

After dinner, I wandered over to Relish where the conference was hosting an event for attendees. The bar was way too small for the number of people but it seemed like a fun sports bar on a normal night. Grabbed a few free drinks and  turned in for the night.

The next day was the last day of the conference and it was a half day. I was able to confirm a late checkout at the Sheraton and went to Granville Island for lunch. I remembered liking the soup at A La Mode and ordered a clam chowder. I especially like the puff pastry baked over the soup. It is pricey for a bowl of soup compared to traditional sit down restaurants but the quality was worth it. I also grabbed donuts from Lee's Donuts. I only had the mango filled donut and it was really good. My sister had the plain unfilled donut and she thought the filled was better than the plain.

Checked out of the Sheraton and went to grab my rental car from Budget at the airport. I wasn't sure what "compact" would be given to me. I was assigned a Mazda 2 which I didn't know existed. The Mazda 3 is already a pretty small car. I had decided that if I was going to rent a car to tool around Vancouver, I would switch hotels. I found a decent rate at the Hampton Inn Vancouver Airport. After settling in, I went out for dinner at GuuOriginal on Thurlow in the West End area of Vancouver. From what I can tell, it seems that this area is where all the Japanese folks like to gather. The izakaya restaurant was really good and priced much more reasonably than the izakayas back home. After dinner, I had dessert at Bon Crepe ordering the green tea parfait. I was supposed to order a crepe but the picture of the green tea parfait at the counter made me want to get one.  Marketing at its finest! The parfait started with corn flakes on the bottom, layered with sponge cake, green tea ice cream, with some whipped cream and boba, topped with red beans, wafer cookie, and a slice of green tea cake. It doesn't sound appealing but the whole thing was super good. :)

Guu

Bon Crepe

After dinner, we walked to Granville street where the bars were located. It must be a popular spot because the police blocked the roads and people were just walking around from one bar to the next. I don't remember which bars I walked into but the common theme was no dress code and no cover charge. I was surprised that one bar asked for two forms of ID but otherwise the crowd was pretty mellow and friendly on the street and inside the bars. I was also surprised that the bars closed down around 2 am, I thought it was only a LA thing that bars closed that early.

The next day was my last full day in Vancouver and we went out to the Richmond area for dim sum. Wandered into the Fisherman's Seafood Terrace Restaurant at 3580 - 4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC V6X 4J7 and instantly liked the whole place. Big, efficient, and quality foods. In this particular dim sum restaurant, you order off the menu and they bring you the food. The restaurant is located in the Aberdeen Centre, a big asian mall that was actually full of people. In most of the Asian malls I have been, it is either empty because it is all high end stores or super crowded from all the cheap stores inside. This was actually a nice mall that just happened to be all Asian. I wonder if that is because I'm in Canada. After dim sum, I was too groggy from eating and the night before to do much more and went back to the hotel for an afternoon rest. I did make a pit stop at New Town Bakery on 6360 No 3 Road, Suite 4, Richmond, BC V6Y 2B3 to try out some of the desserts at this Filipino Chinese bakery. It was decent but nothing special.

After the rest, the weather improved and the sun was out. Even though it was 7 pm, there was still plenty of light and we decided to do the scenic drive between Vancouver and Squamish. It is about an hour's worth of driving along the coast and the scenery was gorgeous once you get outside of city limits. The highway reminded me of PCH in California except that there are islands nearby because the coastal drive is along one side of a bay. Returned back to Vancouver around 10 pm and the dusk was finally settling in. We went to Lotus on 4131 No 5 Road, Richmond, BC V6X for some pho near the hotel for dinner. It was the only Vietnamese restaurant still open and it turned out well.

After dinner, the International Night Market near the Hampton was still open and we went to check it out. It was a typical night market with retail and carnival like rides/activities. The night market was such a find for Asian fair food! Most people go to fairs for the fried oreos or twinkies but this night market was an Asian food haven. I found fried milk and dragon beard candy. These kinds of foods are not typically made in the US.

Crystal milk!

Making dragon beard candies

On our last day in Vancouver, we decided to return to Fisherman's Seafood Terrace Restaurant for dim sum. It was that good we had to return. After dim sum, went by Cartem's Donuterie for  some fancy doughnuts. Pricey and interesting, I found the cake doughnuts better than the yeast ones. I would rather go to Lee's Donuts if given the choice.

Last dim sum meal!

Doughnuts from Cartem

Returned the rental car at the airport and checked in at Vancouver Airport. I bumped into a few colleagues in the security line and was able to chat my way through customs. I checked out the Maple Lounge before boarding and was pleasantly surprised to find an empty lounge. Grabbed some drinks and enjoyed some leftover foods before boarding the regional jet plane home.

Air Canada Maple Lounge at YVR