Getting Our Geek On
We slept soundly last night in the knowledge that our plumbing was all back in good working order. It was only the tell-tale pile of towels still left in the hallway that gave any clue as to what had unfolded the previous night. Ross had come in after we were asleep, blissfully ignorant to what had gone down (& what had come up) and wondering what on earth had necessitated all those towels. We had a lot to fill him in on.
It was the final day of Ross’ conference today so Maisy and I had a nice lazy morning followed by brunch at the White Spot Restaurant, where I finally got my poutine fix. For those not familiar with poutine, it’s a Canadian delicacy – hot chips smothered in gravy and cheese curds (‘curds’ may not sound too appetising but believe me, the name belies the taste – it’s delicious!) Our waiter was a dead-ringer for Mitchell from Modern Family and enjoyed translating the menu for us. I enquired as to what ‘arugula’ was as it’s popping up on menus all over the place. He whipped out his pencil and pad and drew a perfect little leaf shape for us which we guessed was rocket. His drawing skills were on point, as when my salad arrived, it was full of arugula which I can confirm was most definitely rocket.
A must-do for us whenever visiting a foreign country is a trip to the supermarket. It’s lots of fun for the whole family. Canadians have much more of a healthy lifestyle focus than their southern neighbours in the USA, evidenced, disappointingly, by the lack of chocolate-chip-biscuit-related breakfast cereals. The cereal aisle was a let down with Lucky Charms and Chocolate Cheerios the only offerings in the way of whacky sugary breakfast treats to laugh at. There was just a lot of healthy muesli and whole grains. Nothing to see here. We did find a brand of peanut butter called ‘Fatso’ which amused us no end and judging by the slick of oil on the top of the jar, a fatso is exactly what you’d be if you were a regular partaker. There was also a big display of Tim Tams, imported from Australia no less. We felt very patriotic as we glided by.
Managing to get ourselves some public transport Compass Cards today, we rode the system like a couple of locals; on and off trains and buses like bosses. Today we had planned to visit Science World (which must be said in a deep, booming Canadian accent for full effect. SCIENCE WORLD!) It was a gleaming, modern museum, on the water near the Olympic Village neighbourhood, with a huge, impressive shining silver ball atop its roof. If its exterior was impressive, its interior was even better, with all kinds of scientific gizmos and a multitude of interactive science stuff. Probably the best science museum I’ve seen, there was so much to look at and play with. The Eureka Gallery was a veritable playground for all ages, where you could dance on keyboards, launch balls into the air, spin on turn tables and play “invisible” harp strings – Maisy’s personal favourite. There was also a visiting PIXAR exhibition that showed in-depth how all the movies were made, the science of computer animation and plenty of hands-on activities to test your own skills. Maisy and I both made our own animations (though I was totally outdone by my 12 year-old daughter I might add) – it was so cool!
Armed with all our geeky facts and enough “did you knows” to drive everyone nuts for days, maybe even months, we wandered around the Olympic Village, the site of the 2010 Olympic Games, admiring all the sculptures and street art everywhere. We sat down on some lush green grass in a big park overlooking False Creek and the stadium and took in the sights of the skyline while a busker played some cool jazz on his sax to give us the perfect soundtrack as the sun went down.
Tonight we ate dinner in a really great waterfront pub, right near our hotel. The atmosphere was awesome and the place was pumping with live music and a jovial after-work crowd. Warm enough to sit outside on the ‘patio’, I imbibed a Stanley Park Noble Pilsner as we munched on delectable pasta while perusing the yachts on the mariner we were overlooking. It was beautiful!
Our arrival back at our hotel tonight was met with a courtesy call from the hotel manager. He referred to the ‘unfortunate incident’ that had occurred in our room yesterday and informed me that due to the aforementioned incident, we would be getting one of our nights here at 50% off. How good is that? Maybe the trauma was worth it after all?
For their last night at the conference, Ross and the crew of about 300 delegates took a bus up to Grouse Mountain, catching the cable car and having dinner overlooking the entire city of Vancouver. He said it was magical.
