Oh my, I have been totally slacking and am embarrassed I haven't posted about our August anniversary trip to Vancouver yet! Life has been busy, and I am hoping that as we creep closer to fall, I will get some "catch up" time!
I had never been to Canada, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this whole drive & border deal. I am super impatient, and not a fan of long car drives. Kirk had told me the trip would take four hours, so I was kind of dreading it. Luckily, my husband didn't remember the exact driving time it would take to get there, so instead of a four hour drive, it only took us 1.5 hours! I was thrilled to say the least. Kirk blamed us moving to Woodinville for the time difference... silly boy.
Before we even headed to Vancouver, we went into Richmond for dim sum. Richmond is known for having some of the best Asian cuisine on the West Coast and because Asian food is Kirk's fave - it was a no brainer that we would be stopping for lunch. We got a recommendation from Kirk's co-worker who lives in Vancouver to try out South Ocean for dim sum.
These little guys were my favorite!
After a nice amount of dim sum, we headed to our hotel. It was really, really nice. We usually don't care too much where we are staying since we are always out on the town exploring, but Kirk decided since it was our anniversary, we deserved a nice room :) He spoils me.
This was our view out of the room. It was windows from floor to ceiling, so it was a little scary to look down haha.
We had planned to just explore Gastown our first night since we were doing a fancy dinner the next day. Our first stop was Salt Tasting Room. We walked in to a small room, with long communal tables, and blackboard wall with their daily offerings which change often. I really appreciated their concept of pairing meats, cheeses, & condiments together. With the help of our server, we had picked three condiments to pair with a meat and two cheeses for our tasting plate. They also offer you a chance to pair your wine with each, but we opted for a glass of wine instead. I had Ormarine Picpoul de Pinet from France which I *loved* and Kirk had a Six Hats Shiraz from South Africa.
From left to right, we had smoked beef with a Guinness mustard (our fave), Chaumes cheese with a quince paste, and their local Chevre with honeycomb.
Later that night, we headed to The Clough Club. It is in a 110 year old building, and the decorating definitely shows off their classic style. We sat outside on one of their darling little benches with some pretty succulents in the center. They are very dark spirit forward, which I was a little nervous about, but I trusted them to make a nice whiskey cocktail. I had ordered their Wax Poetic which was bourbon with pressed pink grapefruit, agave nectar, lemon juice, Peychaud’s bitters, egg white, flamed grapefruit peel. It was the best drink I have ever had with bourbon. Not saying I'm totally going to convert from my love of vino to bourbon, however it was a lovely drink.
Saturday we slept in, and decided we would just use it as an exploring day! We were able to walk to one of the farmer's markets since it was just a couple blocks from our hotel. It was a nice and big market full of a little bit of everything! There was even a maple syrup booth where the woman was pouring maple syrup onto ice, and rolling into taffy. I wanted one so badly and then I quickly realized we only had American money on us -- oops!
MAPLE EVERYTHING!
After the market we walked over to Gastown to go to a French bakery called Cadeaux. Their pastry case was super tempting, yet somehow Kirk and I made it out with only two desserts!
Gingersnap Cookie Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich!
Salted Caramel Brownie
We continued to stroll around town, and found a cute little patio bar next to the water so thought it would be a nice spot to grab a drink. We decided to share their sangria, not realizing how large it was!
It was a FISHBOWL of sangria. While it was delicious, we were pretty embarrassed drinking this right next to a family with two little kids. We did get quite a good laugh out of this later :)
For lunch we went to the most AMAZING sandwich place - ever. Seriously, I can not tell you enough how delicious Meat and Bread was. They had two choices of sandwiches, a pork verde and l'orange duck. Kirk and I made the logical decision and got both so we could split.
As much as wanted to continue discovering places, we went back to the hotel to get some rest time in. I had brought my wedding shoes to wear, and the dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner one year prior :) I thought it was pretty successful that after a year of marriage I still fit in that! PHEW!
For dinner we went to dinner at Black and Blue. We had saw it on the Top Chef Austin season, and really wanted to check it out. I know that that sounds pretty nerdy but what can I say... we really like Top Chef! It was a really beautiful restaurant, and the food was good! We did the whole table side caesar deal with filet and potatoes. We LOVE our steak houses!
We had planned on going out after, but I was EXHAUSTED! Kirk being the trooper he was suggest we get a bottle of champagne, and head back to our nice room and watch the Olympics. That sounded like the perfect night for me being such a tired girl. It is so nice to do something laid back and just have so much fun together :)
Before the way home we had checked out Stanley Park, and it was SO gorgeous! Vancouver is such a lovely city and we can't wait to go back soon!
