Fightin' off Canucks pt. 2

Day 39

Perfect weather, great walk around a sweet neighborhood in Vancouver around Main and Kingsway, and lunch at Foundation (again) - this time with veggie burgers instead of nachos. The menu is awesome, with each description being a little over the top. For example, for the burgers each bun is given a different adjective, like “shapely buns” or “firm buns.” Pretty funny.

We hang out in a local park and lay out in the sun for the afternoon/evening. We then cook dinner and go to a concert at the Biltmore. Luckily, earlier in the day when we were walking around, we decided to scope out where the Biltmore actually was. Good thing too, as it was nearly impossible to find, even for the iPhone. We had to ask someone eventually, and it turned out to be under a hotel. Bizarre. But the show was pretty great. There were four bands, and two out of four were really good. The other two? Band #1 was a guy and a “sort of” girl who was very round and shapeless who played some keyboards and was a little too nerdy-electronic for my tastes. Band #4 (the headliner) turned out to be four guys whose mission was to create as much noise as possible without actually playing musical notes. Micah and I were up front, which turned into a mosh pit of sorts once the band started pounding on all the instruments at once. Supposedly they are good at what they do (and Micah surprisingly didn’t mind them despite her insistence on changing the song whenever any band that I listen to starts to scream) but I couldn’t appreciate it for what it was so we left halfway through. Luckily bands #2 and #3 were both really good, and we wanted to buy the CD for band number 2, but we couldn’t remember their names. I think the four bands were The Sorcerers (#1), Fine Mist (#2), Bad (something) (#3), and SSRIs (#4). All in all it was fun, even though my ears were ringing for the next 2 days.

Day 40

We rode our bikes in the direction of the farmer’s market but turned around right before we got there because we thought we had gone too far and had somehow missed it. We then found another park and asked a guy where the market was and told us that “we weren’t close” and that it was back where we had just come from. We just needed to have faith that we were correct. We got some veggies for sandwiches, which we had for lunch as a picnic in the park. It was very hot. We got very sweaty, and this strange dog kept coming over to give us a ball to throw, even though we weren’t the owners or anything! The nerve! But it was a cute little pup, and I threw the ball as far as I could every time, which forced it to rest in the shade for a minute before coming back.

We took a bus down to Stanley Park and walked around the edge of the entire park before getting fairly exhausted. We did run into a few awesome people before petering out: 1) a woman and her date were talking right in front of us for a bit, and the woman had a skirt so short that any mishap would have been entirely revealing. She didn’t mess up, but she did have to put her leg up on a ledge to tie her boot. What a skank! 2) a friendly girl and her mom(?) were talking to some birds. Literally talking to them. Then they said hello to us and started talking about how their favorite thing to do is pick berries and then walk around the park and offer them to people. They had salmon berries (which suck), and huckleberries, which I don’t think I’ve ever had before, and they were quite good. 3) an evil bus driver who, when asked when the last bus would be coming back he said “that’s me.” Micah then clarified that she wanted to know the time the bus would be here (which was him supposedly), and he said “go ask that guy” and pointed to a man handing out maps. Because saying a time would have been way too much work.

A side note about the buses: they are annoying as all hell. You have to have exact change, and they don’t accept bills. Meaning, if two people want a ride ($5 total), you must have $5 in change. And there are no change machines anywhere. How is that efficient or convenient? Portland’s is much better - free.

We then made some delicious curry while watching a couple of groups play tennis. Dinner and a show. One group of players were so bad that they would often swing the racquet and miss entirely. And no one ever hit the ball very fast. One of the girls was so small that her racquet nearly touched the ground when her arm was limp. And I guess she was so bad that she wasn’t allowed to hit the ball because the guy (who also was terrible) would step in front and miss for her. What a guy. The second group of players seemed like a couple who were nice and gentle playing against a pair of drunk homeless guys who heckled them the whole time. So awesome. There was also a spectator who would periodically approach one of the players and ask if they wanted to buy a necklace for two dollars. He was drunk and certainly homeless and kept everyone on their toes. Backhand! Forehand top spin! Lob! Throw money at the homeless man! Backhand!

We then closed out the night by closing down a coffee shop. I think they closed early because they were sick of us. Micah taught them a lesson by using the restroom two times after they had cleaned it.