I didn't even bother writing a blog post for my 36th birthday. As I grow older, each and every birthday seem less and less important. With summer break coming to a close, it's time to blog about the trips I took this summer!
We started off with a day trip to Vancouver on Thursday July 3rd. Tickets were relatively affordable going to and from, while hotel prices were not so much. Since it's not our first time being in Vancouver, we decided to settle for a single day trip.
After catching the first flight that WestJet had from Calgary to Vancouver, we quickly departed to Granville Island to get clam chowder from A La Mode. I think I've gotten it every time we went, and perhaps it was due to hunger, but it tasted better than I've ever had it. We continued exploring the public market, and ended up getting two canelé. I had a matcha version while my girlfriend got a lemon. I didn't expect the matcha to match well with the canelé, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it did. After taking in the sights of False Creek, and purchasing some lavender essential oils, we ventured to the next spot.
I can't recall the name of this cafe, but we stopped here to grab some blue colored matcha latte. Besides the color, I didn't find it remarkable. Not wanting to spend too much time here, since time was of the essence, we headed to the downtown area to quickly revisit the steam clock. Nothing spectacular, but we did manage to see it whistle/blow steam. This part of the trip is a bit foggy, but I believe we stopped at another cafe to grab a croissant. It must have been unremarkable for me to vaguely remember what happened.
The new site this time around was Lavenderland. We took a bus from downtown to Richmond. Upon first arrival at Lavenderland, it brought back memories from Furano in Hokkaido. It's no where near as big as Furano, but the different varieties of lavender were displayed nicely. It was relatively sunny, so I took off my jacket as I wandered through the rows of lavender... and bees. I have a slight fear of stinging insects, but fortunately the bees didn't seem to care about me as they went about their job collecting nectar and spreading pollen (I'm assuming they were still pollenating at this time).
After a few hours at Lavenderland, we were starting to feel hungry. Hai Di Lao never disappoints, so we headed via bus to said location. Not wanting to overly stuff myself, we ordered a few favorite dishes while taking the time to recharge both ourselves and our phones. With time running out before we need to catch our plane, we hurried off to a nearby arcade to try and get some Bishi Bashi in. I first tried it in South Korea, and I have to say it's pretty fun. We weren't able to go all the way this time, so we ended our journey once we both ran out of lives.
The ending of this trip was a bit of a blur, and I can't recall the exact sequence. I believe we headed to the airport first, but after finding out that the flight we wanted to catch was quite full (luckily we had the ability to change our tickets without penalty) due to a lot of cancelled flights back to Calgary, we opted to a later flight. With a bit more time to spare, we headed back to Richmond to purchase some souvenirs from Kam Do Bakery (pretty good bakery) and a new spot: Car's Dessert. From my understanding, Car's Dessert is a Hong Kong based sweet shop that focuses on mochi and pudding. All I can say is that there mochi is undeniably soft. I can't recall having a mochi as soft as Car's (perhaps a few places in Japan), that I regret not buying and eating more.
After getting back to the airport, we were able to get seats on one of the last flights back to Calgary. At this point, there was no guaranteed we were able to board, and we even looked up flights to other places in Canada where hotel prices were cheaper (assuming we couldn't come back home).
All's well that ends well! We made it back just after midnight. About 15 hours in Vancouver, which I never expected to be possible to do in a day. I would definitely do it again if given the chance!
Lavenderland's lone house/mansion.
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