Hello!  We just spent 5 days in Vancouver and got back on Tuesday afternoon.  I’ve been in catch-up mode these past two days and finally gotten to posting something about our trip.  We arrived on Friday (6/10) around lunchtime and were picked up by Amy’s brother, Eric, and Jes’ parents.  That photo above is what we saw as we walked from the plane to customs.

We stopped for a Shanghainese lunch in Richmond and got some tasty dumplings before taking a long drive (in traffic) into Vancouver.

Thousands of people were flocking into the city center to watch the Canucks play the Bruins in Game 5.  We happened to be staying in the Westin Grand, which happened to be the center of all the activity. After checking in, Jes took a nap while I explored the closed streets and the crowds.  It’s amazing how hockey-crazy this town is.  Everyone was wearing a jersey…even our bellboy and concierge!  They set up jumbotrons in the middle of 3 streets and fans sat in the street watching the game for free.  I braved the crowds and found some interesting characters along the way.

We had dinner at Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar and had a wonderful meal.  We had kusshi oysters for the first time and they are now my favorite raw oyster of all time.  They are local to Vancouver and so buttery and sweet.  Meanwhile, the Canucks had won Game 5 and our service at the restaurant was still surprisingly good even with all the distraction.  Our walk home was filled with noise from cars honking and everyone cheering as they walked down the street.  The partying went on all night and we could hear it from our room on the 27th floor.  Crazy Canucks.

Later that night, we met up with some friends that Jes has been playing WoW with for the past few years.  They expected him to be 300 pounds since they had never seen even a photo of him and Jes had described himself to be a really obese guy that sat around eating and playing WoW all day.  They were pretty shocked to see that he was a rather slim-trim guy.