Chinatown

When we left off, I was about to fall over, and the light in the room was still on, much to Cas’ dismay.  It was time to go to sleep.  Now that we’ve slept and the sunburn has had a real chance to make itself at home on our faces, necks and arms, I can offer another reason why we were so wiped out.  We have had our reminder to reapply sunblock.  Thanks, Grouse Mountain!  

Lest you think a little thing like having pink faces will stop us- we have big plans today.  Of course.  But let me finish up where I left off last night before we collapsed onto our pillows.  

The shuttle from Grouse Mountain dropped us off in the waterfront area, which is pretty much where we have been focusing our activities.  Cas had looked at a few maps (of course) and decided that we really couldn’t miss Chinatown.  Vancouver has a very large Asian population, and folks from many different cultures and traditions have made this part of the city their home.  Chinatown is just a handy shorthand, I suppose.  

We walked around a few streets until we found the rather low-key entrance to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.  We somehow walked in and bought our admission tickets right as a tour was starting.  A young man guided a group of visitors through the different parts of the garden, talking about the symbolism of yin and yang, the importance of serene gardens to aincient Chinese scholars and the architectural purpose of some of the building features.  

Sadly, we in the crowd weren’t very good students.  He would as a question about Taoism, for example, and you could hear the water flowing over the rocks with perfect clarity, because nobody answered a thing.  I think people eventually started volunteering guesses about halfway through the tour because it was kind of sad to watch him stand there and wait.  

It was a very pretty garden.  Cas has already posed our photos, I’m sure, but here’s one I particularly liked: 

I think that gives you the general idea.  

Following that, we walked past a few of the more interesting Vancover residents and found a place that claimed to specialize in Chinese dumplings.  Cas was pretty happy.  I am not near the dumpling aficionado he is, but I was game to try.  No regrets- it was an extremely delicious meal.  

While we had our dumplings for dinner, I shared my plan for the rest of the evening.  I wanted to find a botttle of wine and head back to the place where we’re staying.  It was a long day, and the kind of night that would be perfect for sitting on the porch with a bottle of wine.  And that’s just what we did.  Mission accomplished.  

Today, we have plans to go so Stanley Park, I believe, and take a hop-on-hop-off tour bus around the city.  We’re also looking into the possibility of taking a harbor dinner cruise and catching a British Columbia sunset.  It should be a pretty great day- but for now, it’s just about time to have some pancakes or some French toast or something.  Pretty much anything would do if it could deliver maple syrup to my plate.  We’ll come back here later on and let you know how it went.