The White Whale

On my birthday I wanted to go to the Vancouver Aquarium. It is known to be the largest in Canada. Okay... I've been to quite a few aquariums so we'll just see how 'large' it is.

Well.. it wasn't that large.... Monterey Bay is still the best on this side of the coast. (Although I was pretty impressed with the Shanghai Aquarium though. But that's on a past post.)

The amazing thing about this aquarium was that they had beluga whales. I've never seen belugas in person so this was a very rare experience.

They are very interesting mammals. They don't really look like whales nor dolphins. First off, they are all white or whitish-gray in color (although when they are calves they are gray in color). It's head is unlike any other form of cetacean (marine mammal family which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises).  The beluga can change it's shape of the head by blowing air around its sinuses. Plus since it's vertebrae in the neck are not fused together (like dolphins and whales) belugas can turn its head laterally.

Belugas also have a dorsal ridge instead of a dorsal fin.  Its body is round and tapers less smoothly to the head than to the tail thus giving it an appearance of having shoulders. The flippers are broad and short giving it a square shaped look.

The underwater view

Belugas are mainly found in the Arctic regions (coasts of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia). The Vancouver Aquarium has two beluga whales (Aurora and her daughter Qila) that they showcase with the third who just passed away before we came. He was the oldest in captivity at 46 years of age. The aquarium also has three more beluga whales who are on loan to the SeaWorlds in Florida, San Diego and San Antonio.

The Vancouver Aquarium is also home to two porpoises. Jack, the playful porpoise, is one year old and was so engaging with the audience behind the glass that we didn't want to leave him.

He just kept swimming back and forth to the glass and followed our movements from the other side.

Hannah brought her harbor seal animal, See-O,  and he played with Jack for a few minutes.


Other interesting species was the crocodile... no alligator... no.....

It's an 'alligatorid crocodylian'; this is a piranha caiman which feeds on ... yes.. piranhas!

This was neither a crocodile nor alligator  (and I thought I had it down in figuring out the difference between the two). This is a caiman which is a cousin of the alligator and crocodile.Who knew?

A beautiful hyacinth macaw which are endangered and largest in the world

Lastly, we enjoyed a very entertaining 4D movie on orcas.

 Yes, it was a very memorable birthday and thoroughly enjoyable vacation!

Vancouver Eats

Matthew's aunt and uncle took us to eat... of course.. when you are on vacation... you eat! And we tend to do this quite well!

It's a tiny tiny restaurant which, I was told, is always packed!

First stop they wanted to take us to was to squelch our 5 star review of DTF to 3 stars. They took us to their favorite place that, they say, puts DTF to shame! We'll just see...

Their xiao long baos were good,. but I still prefer DTF's.

But I did thoroughly enjoy the drunken chicken.. my girls did too!

Some kind of tofu appetizer

A deep fried meat burrito?

Stir fry rice cakes with bean sprouts (Hannah's favorite) and pickled radish

Some kind of crispy rice which tastes delicious but isn't too good for you..

Next up... White Whales!

Vancouver-Ma-Style

Like I said in my last post, Matthew's cousins were great tour guides.

We first checked out Sherman's cool loft.. if you're interested in relocating here. Let me know!

Gastown ... very quaint and lots of restaurants

Available loft in Gastown

Check out the 'hidden' fridge in the wall.. looks just like  a cabinet. I'd probably keep opening the wrong one.

Upstairs master bath with sunken tub and separate shower

We walked along Gastown towards the Convention Centre.

We came across a hot dog vender... but not just an ordinary hot dog vender.. this is Japadog.. a Japanese version of the hot dog link with Japanese condiments..

I decided to try one since I will probably won't get another chance. I got the Kurobuta Terimayo (Japadog's top seller).  It was a kurobuta pork link topped with fried onions, terayaki sauce, Japanese mayo and seaweed. It was pricey ($8) but delicious.

Surprisingly, Emily enjoyed it too.

At the convention center was the Olympic torch from the 2010 Winter Olympics.

photo credit: Stacy Ma

Digital Orca sculpture made out of huge cubic pixels by Douglas Coupland

The downtown of Vancouver has numerous displays of art all throughout the streets. The city adopted an Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program throughout the Olympic Village and Convention Centre. Many of are pieces are versions of Terracotta Warriors (originally from Xian, China) but are decorated in various styles reflective of modern art.

As we were driving home, Emily yelled stop the car!! I see birdies! Yes... we all saw the birdies!
These birdies are a part of Olympic Village. They are sparrows, a male and female which remind me of the birds in Pixar's Bug's Life.

Matthew's favorite place to visit was 5-Sook's garage to see his 'toys'...

A garage filled with motorcycles

And a separate garage with this little 'toy'

Next Up... Vancouver Eats

Again I Say Cousins Are So Cool!

This time they are not mine but my husband's cousins. We went to Vancouver, B.C. to hang out with Matthew's dad's side of the family, specifically his dad's younger sister and youngest brother.

We visited with three of his cousins.

On a cruise in 1993, with Sherman, Stacy, and Jason.

One is Jason or 'Dat-Dat' as I was originally introduced to him way back when I first met him in 1993,  who is the only child of Matthew's Aunt Eugenia & Uncle Roy (3-Goo-Jeh and Goo-Jeung). The other two are Stacy and Sherman from Uncle Pat and Aunt Carmen's (5-Sook and 5-Sum) family.

Summer 2012

We don't get together with them very much (since they do live in a different country) but when we do it's always a lot of fun...filled with laughter and eating. Yes, they love to eat... all the time.

The last time we were in Vancouver was at Jason's wedding to Maki. That was in 2005.

Maki, Jason, 3- Goo-Jeh, Enzo & 3-Goo-Jeung

Now Jason has a little boy of his own, Enzo, who is turning 3 this month. It's hard for Matthew to believe that his little cousin is a Dad. Both Jason and Maki are architects in NY. (Yes, I do believe that the architect bug is in the genes!) It was a wonderful surprise to find out that our Vancouver trip coincided with their trip visiting home!

It doesn't seem that long ago when we were playing with He-Man and GI Joe action figures. Enzo would go crazy if he saw his dad's old toy collection! -Matt

We celebrated with a Ma-bbq...at 3-Goo-Jeh/Jeung's home and they surprised me with a cake. Yes, I did celebrate my birthday there!

Uncle Roy (3-Goo-Jeung) grilling away!

Emily and Hannah with 3-Goo Jeung/Jeh's doberman pincher, Buddy.

Hannah with her Auntie Stacy, who just got engaged! Guess we'll be heading back to Vancouver this year!

Sherman is a realtor so if you're looking for a place in Vancouver let me know. I'll hook you up with him! And he's single! :) Stacy is in interior design. Both spent their free weekend taking us around Vancouver and hung out with us. They made it obvious that they value spending time with family and we so appreciated it!

We stayed at 5-Sook/Sum's home and took over Sherman's old room. 5-Sook is known as the Race Car Uncle. He'll go all over the world to race cars and motorcycles. A really BIG kid at heart!
He also celebrated his 60+ something birthday this month.

Matthew at 40-something and his Uncle Pat at 60-something (next door home getting a 'small' remodel)

Uncle Pat here is 43 (pretty much the same age as Mathew is now) with his family in 1993; Yep.. he had kids early so he can enjoy his 'retirement stage of life'

 Next up... Vancouver-Ma-Style

Delectable Tidbits of Food

Din Tai Fung... Food from heaven...I say!  This restaurant only exists in two locations in the States: Washington (Bellevue) and Southern California (Arcadia). The rest are in Asia.

We've been to the one in Arcadia and now we had to go to the one in Bellevue since we were staying here... So we went.. Twice!

In front of the restaurant are these large glass windows showcasing what they make.

Which are mostly steamed dumplings of all kinds! They seem to have a great assembly line going.

DTF was founded in 1974 in Taipei Taiwan specializing in xiao long bao, an authentic Chinese dish of delicately hand-wrapped steamed soup dumplings.  When you bite into one a squirt of delicious hot soup broth comes out so its best to eat the whole thing in your mouth or you'll end up squirting everywhere particularly on your shirt! They actually put a frozen piece of soup in the dumpling before they steam it!

The famous pork filled xiao long bao

Shrimp filled dumplings

Wonton noddle soup

They do serve other goodies...

Shrimp and egg fried rice

Stir fried green beans

Hot and Sour soup

And one of my favorites, real chicken soup

DTF's mascot the 'Dumpling'

Next up... Vancouver British Columbia!