Head west (to Vancouver)

We spent the first three days of our vacation in Vancouver, and I can't imagine why any LHT'er wouldn't plan a trip there. Vancouver is beautifically perched between snow-capped peaks and the ocean. It's proximity to mountains reminds me of Salt Lake City, but it has the Pacific instead of the Great Salt Lake. The downton is excellent for walking, and it features Stanley Park, one of the great (if not the greatest) urban parks. There are outstanding short drives to scenic views and mountains. We only got to some of the many fun neighborhoods. Granville Island is a combination of food markets and craft shops that you can take a ferry to and then walk to all the stores.

The food, based on this short trip, seems outstanding. There is an enormous asian influence. Indeed, it's not an influence; every neighborhood that has restuarants, about half will be asian. I don't think there is such a thing as a "touristy" asian place; all the restaurants must satisfy asian tastes to stay in business.

Two examples of our food. Lunch at Kintaro, a tiny place that serves only Ramen soup. This is a world class bowl of soup, flavorful broth, perfect noodles and other goodies. I had a kind they only make on Saturdays, which was flavored with burnt green onion. Another meal was at an Izakaya place, which is all the rage there. This is Japanese tapas, with deep and rich menus of creative small-plate stuff. One dish was a raw piece of mackeral where they blow torch the skin to crispiness at the table. Another was a dish of pureed pumpkin and walnuts to spread on crackers. I think our family of five had about 10 different dishes, which, in my view, is the only way to eat. (The name of our place was Hapa Izakaya). For dessert, they have Parisian style crepe places where you can get a nutella crepe (rolled in a paper cone), one of my favorite street desserts.

Service was so consistently friendly (even at a large dim sum place) that it appeared to be more than a coincidence. Prices, based on the exchange rate, are terrific, unlike Europe.

Victoria, by contrast, was (for me, at least) a complete snooze. The north end of Vancouver Island, however, was great, but that's not a food-oriented story (except for the oyster burgers!).

They're getting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver soon; what effect that will have, I can't say. But, if you've been on the fence about this destination, fall off the fence and onto a plane heading to B.C.

Jonah,

I just joined the board yesterday, and I wish I had seen your earlier post for recommendations. I'm glad to hear that you had such a wonderful time.

My boyfriend and I had visited in May for the weekend during our trip to Seattle. Vancouver was the highlight of the trip as I remembered very little from my trip 7 years ago. Vancouver is beautiful in scenary, culture, and of course, food. I really liked being able to see the Rockies in one direction, and the water in the other.

We had lunch at Milestones w/an outdoor table looking out on the water. We also enjoyed dinner at Incendio in Gastown and dim sum at Sun Sui Wah. I loved visiting the bakeries in Chinatown. I especially appreciate the varieties of baked goods and dim sum in Canada in general. As a fan of dim sum, the Chinatown here lacks variety which makes everything taste the same after awhile.

Stanley Park is truly an amazing development. There was so much to see and so much to do.

If ever given the opportunity to move there, I would do it in a heartbeat!

We, too, had dim sum at Sun Sui Wah. When the credit card bill came through, it was $58.00 U.S., including tax and tip! That fed my family of 5, including three teenage wolves (er, boys).