My Curious Eye, 2010 Project 365

190

Two days ago, Morgan and I got off work, finished packing our bags and went to Birch Bay, WA to celebrate our 4th anniversary together. WOAH!

Yesterday (7/8/09) was our anniversary. We woke up, played plenty of badminton, went on a six-mile bikeride, then walked the length of the shore of Birch Bay before coming back home for more badminton. Is this my anniversary celebration, or bootcamp? :)

As we already live less than half an hour from the Canada-United States border, we made a special trip to Vancouver today (7/9/09). We were stopped at the border and told to get out of the car and go inside the customs building - Morgan figures it was because my passport was a few weeks old and here I was trying to leave the country. :)

Made it to Vancouver - what a beautiful city! I have never been to a more culturally diverse urban area. Made it to Stanley Park first for the Vancouver Aquarium.

Then to Chinatown...which was pretty disappointing, but I still had fun. We decided to stick to debit/credit and about $5.50 in Canadian coin for the trip. This was great until we made it to Chinatown around 2:30pm with visions of Siopao and Red-bean cakes dancing around in our heads. No one took plastic, and the one ATM we found wouldn't accept our American cards! Stopped at a bakery for a quick snack.

Then on to what I thought would be super awesome but was not, Tilford Center. :P It was described as a shopping center surrounded by different types of gardens. It turned out ot be an L-shaped strip mall with a garden of mixed plants at the joint. :P

Made a pit-stop at this enormous mall (four levels high with over 450 stores!). Right now they are featuring a dinosaur exhibit.

This photo is a model of what is believed what a baby Tyrannosaurus looked like. Also, I touched an Allosaurus skull that is over 150 million years old - AWESOME!

We were getting hungry, thirsty and a bit worn out by the late afternoon and got stuck in heavy traffic trying to get out of the city. After deciding to try the first restaurant we see (other than the four A&Ws- they are as prevalent there as McDonalds is in the US), we spotted a large, dark blue building with BMWs, Mercedes, Rolls Royces, etc. parked in the lot. Sure, we'll try it! Turns out this place, Earl's, is a classy Hooters. Why didn't I get a photo? The food was to-die-for and we will definitely want to go back. The waitstaff were all gorgeous and friendly, so all in all it was a great experience.

Made it home and crashed hard.