Our Friends to the North

(well, all reasonable Americans hope they are still our friends!)

Vancouver, BC 

With visions of tulips still dancing in our heads, we continued north through Washington on Interstate 5, crossing the Canadian border at Blaine. We passed through the Peace Arch crossing and made our way through the farmland of Delta (winter tomatoes anyone?) and into the city of Vancouver. We arrived at our friends Debbie and Chris's place, where we will stay while Rowan completes her sabbatical work with the University of British Columbia.

The view from our hosts home just south of downtown.

We wasted no time getting right to food shopping once we arrived. Our first stop was Granville Island - http://granvilleisland.com/  where we scoped out the art, food and entertainment we will come back to explore while we are staying here.

Instant public art greeted us around every turn. Here is a wonderful Inuit/Eskimo mural under a bridge. 

Cement Silo's? Hugh?

Yes, that is what they are. You can see the cement trucks in front. This cement company has their business right in the middle of the shopping district on the island, or, I guess I should say the shopping district was created in the industrial district out of the old warehouses. It's cool they made these things all artsy.

 The Public Market

This huge warehouse space offers every kind of food ingredient one can imagine. A foodies dream! My head was spinning.......especially when we approached the seafood counter vendors. "Lord help me" was all I could say!

Some of the other sites from the islands arts district

These mannequins are just FABULOUS! They are showing off the hand painted silk scarves in the artists studio window.

Wire sculpture atop the Art School entrance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Carr_University_of_Art_and_Design

Inuit totem pole (currently under restoration)

Looking west out towards the Straight of Georgia

Looking across the Burrard Inlet at downtown

The harbor

More Inuit Totem

 Can I get a hug?

 

 Going out on the town

 Our hosts wasted no time taking us out on the town for a night of fine dining at one of the most interesting restaurants I have ever been in. 55 Dunlevy has a brewery, winery and upscale kitchen all under one roof. It's like a collective. The brewery brews the beer on site. The winery makes the wine on site. The kitchen stirs up amazing pairings for all of the above. What a great idea!

All the fermenting going on as we entered the place.

The place sits in the old warehouse district and is housed in an old warehouse. Many of the old original beams and bones of the warehouse have been left to create a wonderful space.

OK, so I have never seen this many bar pull stations anywhere (and this is just one of the bars in the place!). I guess when you are making wine and beer on site you need this many. Wow!

Cheers!

So, I can't remember the exact names of everything we had to eat (it has been 6 weeks since we were there) I did find some of them on the on-line menu, but the menu changes weekly so here is my best recollection.......

A margarita style pizza with chorizo. YUM! That's a cheese and crostini plate with tomato and olive tapenade

Roasted Cauliflower: romesco sauce, crispy capers, toasted almonds, herbed breadcrumbs, grana padano, fresh lemon.
Candy Cane Beet Salad pickled ruby beets, cashew cheese, sunflower seed pesto, candied walnut soil, seasonal greens

Yam Gnocchi w/ Lamb Ragu: braised pork shoulder, brown sage butter, sweet peas.
Shrimp/cream risotto: with pea cream something-or-other. 

Chris and I each had a wine sampler. I mean how often does one get to drink Canadian wine?....unless of course you are in Canada. Not bad either :o)

One of the most excellent decorated neighborhood utility boxes I have ever seen!

Meet Ladybug

Our absolutely adorable King Charles Spaniel host dog, Ladybug, who met us every morning with licks of love and became our lap dog in the evening. What a joy! Here she is with her favorite ball in her mouth.

The Vancouver March For Science/Earth Day demonstration is next :o)