Night 1 and Day 2
Last night after getting to our hotel (finally!), we rested for a good while before moving on to our next adventure. We planned to go to a late dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I love Chinese food in Canada. I don't know why I think it's so much better than Chinese food in the states, but I do. So whenever I am in Canada I make sure to get it at least once. Before coming up here, I did my research on Chinese restaurants. I found one called Peaceful Restaurant that looked like it had great reviews and good prices. So that's where we headed last night. I was not disappointed! We got General Tso's Chicken and Ginger Beef. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, ginger beef is my favourite! And I can only get it up here. Peaceful Restaurant had particularly crispy and ginger-y ginger beef so I was thrilled. And not only was that great, we also got steamed rice, and it was PURPLE! It tasted just like plain steamed rice, but it was a pretty mix of different shades of purple. It was really cool. Plus we had leftovers so I got to enjoy it all over again at lunch today! After dinner we went to Walmart to get some fruit because sometimes it feels gross to just eat out and eat snacks. We were really needing something fresh. Fruit is expensive up here! But yummy pink lady apples were too good to pass up. And since we were being somewhat healthy, I felt like we could afford to get some Slurpees. Now for those that have not been to Canada, I have to tell you that Canadian Slurpees are MUCH better than American ones. I'm not sure what it is exactly that is different, but it doesn't taste as sickly, syrupy sweet. It's a lighter sweetness. And so yummy! And bonus, we found a 7-Eleven that had Lime Crush Slurpees. I adore lime crush. And again it's something America doesn't have. Come on America! We enjoyed our Slurpee and decided it wouldn't be the last this trip.
This morning I went to drop Greg off at the Convention Centre so he could be at the Conference. On the way there we stopped and got some Tim Horton's hot chocolate. Another must do in Canada for me. Sadly, the Tim Horton's closest to our hotel is an Express one, so it's just hot chocolate and coffee, no donuts. I am a huge fan of donuts, especially Tim Horton's donuts! So I'll have to talk Greg into another trip to a different one. After dropping Greg off I came back to the hotel and I had another lazy morning, reading, and watching Chopped Canada. Love the Canadian accent mixed in with one of my favourite TV shows! After my lunch of leftover Chinese food, I went for a little walk. The weather up here has been so cool and nice! It is more humid than I care for, but the temperature is perfect! After my walk I headed downtown to pick Greg up and to do some shopping. I mean what's a vacation without a shopping trip? It was easy to justify it because the exchange is in our favour so of course I had to take advantage of it. We had plans to meet Greg's professor and some other people from the conference for dinner, but we didn't want to pay for parking anymore, so we came back to our hotel and listened to Harry Potter. We are so close to finishing the fifth book that we couldn't stop listening! We took a break though to venture out into the horrific Vancouver traffic so we could meet up with Curtis (Greg's professor) and a couple other of people from the conference. We met everyone at a restaurant called Joey Burrard. It was Curtis, us, and a couple from England. I absolutely love eating with Europeans. They don't eat just to eat, they are there for the company and conversation, so everything is at a slower pace and I find it to be very enjoyable. The restaurant was really cool! The lighting was dim, very classy tables and chairs/booths, fancy modern chandeliers, and a whole wall of wine bottles behind glass. The food was delicious! Greg got the Herb Crush Salmon which came with a crispy mashed potato, summer vegetables, and an egg roll with a creamy filling. I got Steak Frites. My steak was a CAB Prime steak which I learned from the menu is one of the top 2% cuts of steak in North America so I was very excited to try it. It came with an arugula salad with a balsamic dressing that was quite good, but it was slightly over dressed for my tastes. I also got a peppercorn sauce to go with the steak and it was delicious! My steak was so tender and juicy. Perfectly cooked and the flavour was... Indescribable. Add the creamy peppery sauce to it and I was in heaven! The conversation revolved mostly around the conference and what people are working on/researching currently and it was very stimulating. It was very interesting to hear Katie and Martin (the English professors) talk about the business programs in England and see the differences between there and here. Plus their accents were awesome. After dinner there was tea and dessert. Greg and I shared a molten chocolate souffle and it came with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. The souffle was perfect! Well I had never had a souffle before so I don't actually know if it was perfect, but it was divine! The warm molten part was so rich and gooey! With the vanilla ice cream and tart raspberry sauce, it was a perfectly rounded out dessert. I was enjoying the conversations so much that I didn't think to take any pictures. There aren't many things better than an excellent meal with great company.
This morning I went to drop Greg off at the Convention Centre so he could be at the Conference. On the way there we stopped and got some Tim Horton's hot chocolate. Another must do in Canada for me. Sadly, the Tim Horton's closest to our hotel is an Express one, so it's just hot chocolate and coffee, no donuts. I am a huge fan of donuts, especially Tim Horton's donuts! So I'll have to talk Greg into another trip to a different one. After dropping Greg off I came back to the hotel and I had another lazy morning, reading, and watching Chopped Canada. Love the Canadian accent mixed in with one of my favourite TV shows! After my lunch of leftover Chinese food, I went for a little walk. The weather up here has been so cool and nice! It is more humid than I care for, but the temperature is perfect! After my walk I headed downtown to pick Greg up and to do some shopping. I mean what's a vacation without a shopping trip? It was easy to justify it because the exchange is in our favour so of course I had to take advantage of it. We had plans to meet Greg's professor and some other people from the conference for dinner, but we didn't want to pay for parking anymore, so we came back to our hotel and listened to Harry Potter. We are so close to finishing the fifth book that we couldn't stop listening! We took a break though to venture out into the horrific Vancouver traffic so we could meet up with Curtis (Greg's professor) and a couple other of people from the conference. We met everyone at a restaurant called Joey Burrard. It was Curtis, us, and a couple from England. I absolutely love eating with Europeans. They don't eat just to eat, they are there for the company and conversation, so everything is at a slower pace and I find it to be very enjoyable. The restaurant was really cool! The lighting was dim, very classy tables and chairs/booths, fancy modern chandeliers, and a whole wall of wine bottles behind glass. The food was delicious! Greg got the Herb Crush Salmon which came with a crispy mashed potato, summer vegetables, and an egg roll with a creamy filling. I got Steak Frites. My steak was a CAB Prime steak which I learned from the menu is one of the top 2% cuts of steak in North America so I was very excited to try it. It came with an arugula salad with a balsamic dressing that was quite good, but it was slightly over dressed for my tastes. I also got a peppercorn sauce to go with the steak and it was delicious! My steak was so tender and juicy. Perfectly cooked and the flavour was... Indescribable. Add the creamy peppery sauce to it and I was in heaven! The conversation revolved mostly around the conference and what people are working on/researching currently and it was very stimulating. It was very interesting to hear Katie and Martin (the English professors) talk about the business programs in England and see the differences between there and here. Plus their accents were awesome. After dinner there was tea and dessert. Greg and I shared a molten chocolate souffle and it came with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. The souffle was perfect! Well I had never had a souffle before so I don't actually know if it was perfect, but it was divine! The warm molten part was so rich and gooey! With the vanilla ice cream and tart raspberry sauce, it was a perfectly rounded out dessert. I was enjoying the conversations so much that I didn't think to take any pictures. There aren't many things better than an excellent meal with great company.
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