Just returned from a trip to Bellingham, WA to see my wife’s niece and wait for the election axe to fall. While there, we took a drive up to Vancouver, BC. No, not because we’re fleeing the 2nd Coming, but because I’d never been there.
What a great city! If I was going to leave the U.S., Vancouver would be high on the list. Bellingham is very nice too, a city that has effectively kept McDonalds and the rest of the crap-food establishments out of their downtown areas. While doing walkabout, we got caught up in an anti-Bush/anti-war protest march that stopped traffic and had cops running all over the place.
So anyway, we had lunch at this little Brazilian restaurant in Vancouver, where we partook of a delicious feijoada. This is a dish comprised basically of black beans and pork, with garlic, etc. It’s sort of the national dish of Brazil.
We then drove and walked around the city, out to the parks and down to the Chinese gardens. We walked around the extensive Chinatown and came upon a street where a movie was being filmed. I spotted Ben Affleck and some others getting ready to shoot a scene, so we waited for “ACTION”. The scene consisted of Affleck and others running down a sidewalk pursued by a band of irate Chinese folks dressed as restaurant staff. Watch for it in a theater near you.
We haven’t had decent Indian food since leaving Uganda six years ago, so decided to try our luck at Vij’s, a hugely popular Indian restaurant in Vancouver. They don’t take reservations and people commonly wait patiently for two hours to get in. We got there too late, so popped into the place next door, which is an abbreviated version of Vij’s. The food was terrific. I’m not a vegetarian, but could live on daal, which is a nicely seasoned lentil dish.
We had good weather the entire week, and staying in a cabin without TV on a lake was a nice break from the political hysteria. Returning to 10" of new snow wasn’t exactly a thrill, but it’s good to be back home.