A Family Reunion Dinner in Vancouver on My Special Birthday

My special milestone birthday dinner

We started the day with a hearty breakfast at a local mom and pop diner run by a Chinese family.
The diner was within walking distance from our hotel.

It was a traditional Canadian hearty breakfast with eggs, bacon toast and home fries.

We had a good chat at breakfast, J. is always talking about politics and his favourite country.

We waited eagerly for E. to arrive at the hotel from his SF flight.

While waiting for him, we went back to our hotel room and worked on our Toronto family reunion e invitation. But it wasn't as easy as I thought. After my husband worked on it, we discovered that we needed to pay some 53 e coins before we could send it. What a disappointment it was!

After his S.F. flight, E. arrived at our hotel around 2pm. After resting a little while we walked to Canada Place as we needed to get to the restaurant for dinner at 6pm.

Since we didn't have a lot of time, we could not do Stanley Park as planned.

We hang around at the Vancouver waterfront for a little bit watching the cruise ship sailing off.

We had a drink and some sushi at the bar by the waterfront restaurant. I was glad to see that he and J. seemed to have a lot to share with one another.

We only stayed at the restaurant for about 40 minutes and walked to the restaurant for dinner.


My special birthday dinner was at the Jade Dynasty Restaurant on East Pender Street in downtown Vancouver. We had dinner the night before there and we liked it. So I reserved a table and pre selected the menu for this dinner.

It was a nice dinner with fresh seafood from the local market.  The part I liked the most about my birthday dinner was sharing with my family the parable of the master giving his servants different talents after dinner.  Jordan and Melody in particular listened attentively.

  Motoki came and joint us after his work.  However, I noticed that E. seemed to be out of the conversation, I felt bad that J. seemed to be monopolizing the conversation while E. didn’t seem to make much of an effort to be engaged in it as he looked bored and tired. But I was glad that at least I got E., J. and his cousin and Motoki together.

After dinner, we  took a taxi back to our hotel. We walked to the Granville Bridge and watched the firework there. It was beautiful! God arranged a firework on my birthday!

Then we went back to the hotel, with E. and J. and us all in the same room, the two brothers sharing a king size bed, I felt blessed and loved having the whole family together.

How I wish this night would never end! 

R.T.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

Whale Watching in Vancouver, British Columbia

Whale watching in Steveston, British Columbia

We have not seen J. for a couple of years and we decided to meet in Vancouver.

One of the activities he really wanted to do was whale watching. We did whale watching when we travelled o the east coast of North America but we never got a glimpse of any whale while on the tour.

With only a day in advance, we were lucky enough to book a tour for 3 people and this company guaranteed sighting of whales on the tour so we decided to try it again.

The tour company had a paid shuttle which picked us up at the Ramada Inn downtown which was close to where we were staying. We were picked up around 1 pm and were at the Steveston wharf at 1:15pm.

We had good weather that day. The sky was clear and the temperature was comfortable. 

The tour company even provided tour participants with free raincoats and other gear, very thoughtful indeed.

We board the small motor boat with about two dozen people on board. The captain was in charge of the boat while a young lady acted as our guide.

We chose a shady spot of the boat and enjoyed a pleasant boat ride around the waters of Vancouver.

The water was blue so was the sky. The breezes were gentle and cool.

It was a fantastic feeling! 

This was our first family outing for a little while; I and we were enjoying it.

Whenever there was a possibility of seeing a whale, everyone on board got excited and rushed to the side of the boat to get a good look of the marine mammal.

The water was busy filled with tour boats, small and medium size trying to get a close look of these marvelous creatures.

With modern technologies and better tracking devices, there were way more actions this time than we had even seen in previous outings. 

With communications from the other boats that saw whales close by, our captain was able to pilot the boat close to the locations where whales had been sighted by other vessels.

The most exciting moment for us was when a couple of whales swam close to the bow of our boat and did  some flipping.  Many of us were able to capture these rare moments and close encounters.

We had sightings of whales during a whale watching excursion in Vancouver, B.C. !

Along the way, we also saw some sea lions suntanning on an island close by.

It was an enjoyable and informative tour! A great family activity.

After the whale watching tour, we walked around Steveston and boarded the shuttle taking us back to downtown Vancouver. 

We took a stroll around downtown Vancouver and went for dinner in China town. It was a delicious meal after all that walking!

We walked back to our hotel after dinner and called it a day.

R.T.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada

Visiting Vancouver and Meeting Our Loved Ones in Gastown

We were pretty excited as we would be meeting our loved ones and enjoying a great holiday with one of them. It made me happy just thinking about the next couple of weeks.

We left Toronto at 6am boarding a plane for Vancouver. It was an uneventful flight as everything went according to schedule.  The scenery while flying over the Rockies was spectacular!

We arrived at Vancouver Airport after  a three hour flight. We did not ask anyone to pick us up as it was easy taking the Sky Train to our downtown hotel.

We arrived at the hotel around 12pm and were able to check in and rested for a little while before we got connected with J. who was staying at a hostel on Granville Ave as well.

We met him at a Thai restaurant for lunch. J looked happy and he shared with us enthusiastically about his brand new ultra modern high resolution small camera that he bought recently.

We had a really good conversation at this fast food take our place.

We visited Gastown, Vancouver. We were there at a few  minutes before pm. I visited Gastown a few times but never was not there right at the hour for its hourly steam whistles.

We saw a few musicians busking at the street corners as well as a few interesting characters such as this big head character poking his huge head from behind trees and street lamps.

 My favourite was the musician singing Lenny Cohan's Alleluia while a huge lady figure dancing around on the street to this song.

We had dinner at a restaurant in the Vancouver Chinatown. The food was good and we had another nice conversation and caught up with what J has been doing.

By the time we walked back to our hotel,  I was exhausted from our activities and straight to bed!

R.T.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada   

Spending a Lovely Afternoon in Bryant Park, Manhattan, New York

Recently, we attended a  conference in New Jersey which finished at 12pm on Sunday. We were able to get a ride from Fifi and her husband who live and work in the vicinity of the conference venue.

They dropped us off at the Trenton Transit Centre. The first thing we did after leaving the TCNJ campus was to check our phone messages and wifi as we were unable to get wifi access and phone messages at the conference location.

A street blocked off for pedestrians i downtown Manhattan, NYC, USA 

Thank goodness, we were able to connect with E. on S’s cell. Then took the 2:37pm New Jersey train to Penn station in New York. I  was surprised how crowed the train was on s Sunday afternoon.

By the time we were out of the Penn Station, it was 4:40pm. We waited for E, at 5^th and 33^rd Street for a few minutes. Then we saw an excited E. running towards us to greet us! What a feeling to be so welcome. E. was dressed in his gym outfit and he looked fit and well.





 He asked us what we would like to see in NY. We told him, we wanted to be outside enjoying the lovely weather.














He took us to his favourite park -

 the Bryant Park, a lovely public outdoor space for New York residents.


There were a few food stands and cafes opened and E. took us for a quick tour of the park.

The park was busy with visitors! 

Bryan Park was designed as a Scenic Landmark in 1974 by the New York Landmark Preservation Commission.









Designed in the French Classical style, Bryan Park covers an area of six acres.

It is an urban oasis with many mature trees, more than 100 types of woody shrubs, perennials and 150,000 bulbs!

Admission to the park was free and there were a lot to do for park visitors.

Enjoying reading and being outdoor at Bryant Park's Reading Room

We discovered a Reading Room in the park where free books and programs were available for children and adults.

What a great idea! An outdoor reading room to enjoy two of the most enjoyable activities in life - reading and enjoying the outdoors!

There were lots of things for families and kids to do, such as this carousel.

Playing mini golf at Bryant Park, NYC

 A mini golf course for the little park visitors.

People enjoying a ping pong game at Bryant Park, Manhattan , NY

There were ping pong tables for ping pong beginners and enthusiasts.

We saw a stage for performances and free movie showings during the summer months.

We ordered some cold drinks, a special taro chips, salsa and a kimchi bacon burger- delicious!

It was good catching up with what’s happening with E and his important papers.

We stopped at McDonald for ice cream and then
he took us to Time Square.
















 Lots of people, more than I remembered from our last visit.

People watching at Time Square, NYC

It was nice just sitting there and enjoying people watching and the breezes blowing on our faces.

Leaving New York City that evening at 8:45pm from the New York Port Authority, we needed to be mindful of our time. E. took us to the bus terminal, carrying my suitcase and finding us the right terminal. He was very helpful indeed. It was good seeing him even for a few hours! We are grateful for any time we could spend with our loved ones!

R.T.
New York CIty,
USA