Vancouver - not playing ultimate

My weekend (last) in Vancouver was lots of fun outside of the ultimate as well. The weather wasn't great, it was raining pretty hard on Thursday when I got there, and overcast for a lot of the weekend. Saturday afternoon was clear and sunny, and Sunday was cold, but nice to play in. How strange is it to go to Vancouver to get a break from the rain?

Thanks to Jenn and Ryan for letting my crash all weekend. I asked them to stay without having a clue where they actually lived. I was kind of afraid it might turn out in to one of those great-to-see-you-thanks-for-letting-me-stay-good-god-you-live-know-where-near-actual-vancouver moments. It was a a great-to-see-you and a thanks-for-letting-me-stay, but they live at Arbutus and West 12th, which is maybe 20 minutes from the airport, maybe 20 minutes from UBC, a ten minute walk from team dinner and near lots of great stuff. Awesome.

I had a rental car this weekend, which was pretty fabulous. It was a Ford Focus. I meant to get a picture, but I forgot. I realize that Ford Foci are little pieces of shit, but man did I ever enjoy this one for the weekend. It had power - acceleration, but also power windows! It seemed luxurious compared to Smoky, my Civic. I really wanted to be able to get around Vancouver this trip, plus I had an extra day on Friday there. Also, Sheasby and Ryan let me stay (previous years I had stayed at the UBC Rez, which is cheap, but still $40 a night), so I figured it was okay to splurge on a car.

As you likely guessed from my previous post, I went to the Vancouver Aquarium on Friday with my teammate Elise. I hadn't been since the Edgewater Fortune trip in Junior High. One of the Beluga whales at the aquarium (as opposed to in Junior High) was pregnant, and I read she gave birth this last Tuesday. When I read the article, both the baby and momma whale where doing well.

After the aquarium, we cruised around Stanley Park a bit, and then heading over to West Van to try and check out Lighthouse Park. Somehow I managed to miss, and ended up in Whytecliff Park instead. Fortunately, Whytecliff Park is gorgeous. I was aiming for Lighthouse because I hear it's awesome too, and I was in Whytecliff as last Flowerbowl as well.

Friday night, the Sheasby's made a delicious BBQ dinner, and then we wandered down to the beach. Good times.

I had team dinner on Saturday night after playing. We were trying to meet up for sushi, but the place was closed, and we ended up having Thai food instead. The restaurant was called Star Anise (on the corner of West 12th and Granville), and they made delicious food. I had a pine nut, shrimp and goat cheese salad, and Tom Yum soap. Also, I wasn't choked that we didn't go for sushi, because I had stopped on the way from UBC to Sheasby's for some pre-dinner sushi.

Sunday night after playing, Taryn picked me up and we headed to the Eatery for....wait for it....sushi! Vancouver sushi kicks serious ass, if you can't tell by the number of times that I mentioned it. I'm even skipping the Thursday night sushi story. Another post, maybe. Anyway, after the Eatery (btw, the first place I ever had sushi!), we grabbed some Chai teas and wandered around the path (seawall?) at Stanley Park. There was lots of stuff to see, but a highlight was lots of herons eating fish.

Holy crap, that got long-winded.

ps. one quick extra note on the last post: I forgot to mention that I jammed my thumb again, and hard this time. It's back to how bad at was when I initially injured it.