Eating Our Way Through Van City

Wed. Aug. 15 - Sat. Aug. 18, 2007

After returning from Tofino, Cathy and F.Do only had a few days in Vancouver before leaving back to Toronto. So what better way to see the city than to eat our way through it(and see some sights along the way).

Vij's: For the last few years, it has been voted one of the top restaurants in Vancouver and they have the line-ups to prove it. It opens at 5:30pm but line-ups form way before 5pm. There are no reservations and wait times are usually 2 hours or more. Being the efficient Asians that we are, after laying on the beach all day, we went to the restuarant, put our name on the list, went home (fortunately for us, fi and jay's place is just right down the street) to get ready and came back 1.5 hr later. One of the benefits to waiting for a table at Vij's is that they serve appetizers as you wait!




Vij's: The reviews did not lie. The food here was awesome! It is an indian restaurant however, it serves it in a different style. The Lamb popsicles were to die for!! Here we are with Vikram Vij's: the gracious host. He has the brightest blue eyes I've ever seen on a brown man.




Granville Island: Just a few minutes from where Fi & Jay live. It's a public outdoor market which is right by the water.





Yama Something Japanese Restaurant (I don't exactly remember the name but it had some awesome sushi!). We met Fi for lunch that day... poor Fi had to work while we shopped the day away...



Chirashi: I usually get this whenever I'm at a japanese restaurant, but it never looks as good as this! Just look at the fresh fish!!! drool...



The Catepillar Roll. It actually looks like one too!





Girls' Dinner @ Sequoia Grill. Jay took some papparazzi pics of us.



Classic Hair Toss...





Sequoia Grill is rated the most romantic restaurant and rightfully so. It sits up on a hill and overlooks the water and mountains. The sunset is absolutely beautiful.







Dim Sum: Fi hasn't had Dim Sum in ages. So we made sure we went before the girls left.

Rose: "Hey girls let's do the classic asian fingers!"
Lien: disgusted look....



Everyone: whoo, asian pose!



Jay had to put up with 4 asian girls for a full week. We wanted to make him a tshirt that says on the front, "I was bossed around by 4 asian girls..." and then on the back have it say "and I loved every minute of it!"



The girls left later that afternoon. I have to say it was bittersweet since I was sad to see them leave but at the same time, them leaving marked the start of my life here on the west coast.

5,709kms on the RV and approx. 800km on the Es-Cap-e, we travelled 5 different provinces, dozens of cities, and experienced things that only few get to in their life. As predicted, we laughed, cried, felt scared, overcame fears, got annoyed, and learned. But all in all, we have memories (and more than 1500 pictures) to last us a lifetime. Sniff...

Sea Kayaking in Tofino

Tues. Aug. 14, 2007

We had one full day in Tofino and what better way to spend it than sea kayaking, eating great seafood and laying on the beach. Life is great!



F.Do & Cathy just as we're leaving the shore.



Starfish against the rocks. We saw a lot of starfish and Tyler (our guide) told us the various kinds but of course, I forgot the names.



Starfish become stiff once you remove them from the place they were resting. Tyler ensured they were put back to where he grabbed them. I guess they get disoriented otherwise...



Tyler killing a grab (I think he had some much needed frustrations to release). Apparently this was a red crab (or was it blue...) which was good enough to make 2 sushi rolls. I learned a lot about crabs on the kayaking trip, probably more than I needed to...



Here I am holding up seaweed. Sort of looks like some slimey hair.



Fi and myself made a great kayaking team!



After working hard kayking all morning, we worked up quite the appetite. SoBo, one of the top rated restaurants in Tofino. They have an actual restaurant that is opened during dinner, however, during lunch they just open this trailer and serve their food from there. At first I was weary about the food being good seeing that it was coming from a trailer, but damn was the food ever good.



F.Do and myself got margaritas and I swear I think the bartender wanted us smashed since our drinks were quite strong (and that is an understatement).



The spread. Crab cakes, oysters, soba noodles, fish tacos, tofu pocket, corn bread.... yummmmm







Welcome to Tofino!





Fi, doing a jumping heart. Yes, I'm being honest. A Jumping Heart. Though who am I to judge, I think I'm a kung fu fighter.







View from the sushi restaurant that evening. I have to say it was the best sushi I have ever eaten. The sashimi was so fresh and just melted in your mouth... I'm drooling right now just thinking about it...







The sushi restaurant was quite quirky. It had this buddha statue who was drinking from a liquor bottle and had eyeballs that moved. It was sort of pervy... similar to its owner...

Victoria: Mile 0

Mon. Aug. 13, 2007

After spending 2 full days in Vancouver, we were off to Victoria to reach that Mile 0.

View from the Ferry.



It took us 1.5 hrs to reach Victoria by Ferry. Hence it was time for us to nap.



It was scorching hot where I was sitting which is the reason for my crazy getup. And I wonder why no man would approach me when I'm travelling...



Victoria, BC: After picking up our car rental (the ES-CAP-PE) we went to have lunch at the Reef which is a Caribbean restaurant. They have the best corn bread EVER!!! They're so dense that I'm sure they're really supposed to be the size of a basketball but instead they are merely the size of a tennis ball. But boy are they GOOOOOD!!!



Victoria, BC: Mile 0. CFL has made it!!!! After 2 weeks and 5,709kms clocked on our RV, we made it to Mile 0!!! Whoop, Whoop!!!!



What better way to celebrate than to do some kung fu moves??!!!









After some convincing, Fi finally decided to join us in our crazy jumps...



Victoria is a quaint little town (well at least from the few hours I was there). It's definitely one of those towns where you should ride around in a horse and carriage.



Or do some yoga...





OMG!! It's Ogo-Pogo!!!





"Point of interest" on the drive from Victoria to Tofino. I don't know what is up with the west coast but they call their Scenic/Look Out Points, Points of Interest. Interesting...



At this particular Point of Interest, you can view various islands between Vancouver and Victoria. One of which is Salt Springs which Fi and Jay just recently visited.



No Comment...



Tofino is right on the Pacific Rim. Therefore, we saw many Tsunami Warning signs and Tsunami Evacuation Routes. In addition, we also saw a lot of fallen trees.

This particular beach was pretty cool because they had sand islands which you can just walk to. You can see it in the far distance in this pic.



Another Point of Interest. It reminds me of Legends of the Fall.





Tofino, BC: After 5 hours of driving along ridiculously windy roads, we finally made it to Tofino. I think the road to Tofino was worse than the Rockies and Whistler put together and we weren't even driving an RV this time. However, it was all worth it once we arrived. This is basically what you see anywhere you walked in Tofino.



Tofino, BC: View outside our Inn. It was quite the feat to find accommodations in Tofino. Even weeks ahead, it was booked solid and after calling over 30 places (many of which laughed in our face), we finally found a place to sleep.



Shelter Restaurant is rated one of the best resturants in Tofino. It definitely was delicious. I love seafood, so Tofino was definitely my heaven.