VANcation in a Nutshell

Click to view whole Flickr set Our goal of eating as much fish as possible was met at Pings Cafe, Toshi's and Guu. Toshi was the roe on the fillet, hands down. Their black cod dish takes 30 minutes to prepare and melts in your mouth. No teeth? No problem! I'm salivating just thinking about it. Man, I want to go back. T and I biked around the city a lot took the seawall up to Stanley Park, once got super lost but took some great photos. Ended up on Hastings, the street you can identify from the bum stench alone. I was shocked to see the blatant and rampant drug use. People shooting up in the street. People shooting up as they walk. In Toronto they at least try to "hide" it. In this little quadrant it's a junkies dream. No wonder they don't give a shit about pot, there are much bigger issues here. I wonder what they will do come 2010. (Set them up with a hotshot? That's what a few locals told us they're betting on... scary to even think imo.) Now, since VAN is known for it's rain, we weren't sure what we'd get. It was sunny all but one day. They knew we were coming. When on vacation, I expect sun. It was even mild enough for Kev to skate at the famed "Skate Plaza" for a bit. Had we more time and less skateboarders I would have liked to set up a good shoot for him. Next time. For the first and last leg of the trip we were graciously put up with our friend Claudio. He's into juicing for breakfast and wow, carrot juice isn't bad when mixed with citrus. I felt healthier than an ox after a cup of that. It majorly helped us gear up for Whisler. The drive there was breathtaking. Majestic mountains melting into the sea, great beasts of trees reaching for the sky... green everywhere. We visited a waterfall, which happened to be the one from Twilight (girlysquee!). Stopped in Aquamish, where Kevin and I ate a whole dominos pizza while we grocery shopped. We're sexy like that. Claire (Becca's God sister) and Jeff hooked us up with a chalet that was walking distance to the Creekside chairlift, not to mention that it was a freakin mansion. I was probably being anti-social but I spent a lot of time reading and sitting by the fire. We homemade sushi'd up the first night and played hilarious rounds of Balderdash until we needed to pass out. Couldn't be tired for the first day of riding. We lined up at the crack of dawn for a program called "first tracks" which is basically buffet style breakfast and early admission to the hills. After ghetto-ly stashing a croissant for later we hit it. Oh man did we hit it! Never, ever, EVER have I seen or felt powder like this. Hot knife + butter = me + whis We rode the Peak2Peak a few times just for the view. Hit up 7th Heaven, on Blackcomb, which is the #1 best riding terrain. There was powder up to my chest, making falling fun. I could have not died happier. Honestly, I think I cried a bit at points, cheering out and just plain maniacal laughing at our good fortune. People must have thought I was nuts. We couldn't have asked for more on this trip It was the time of my life