PHOTO JOURNAL: VANCOUVER 2018

Don't mind me as I copy and paste a blog post from one of my many dead blogs to this one, doo doo doo, nothing to see here, I just crave organization~

So one crucial thing you have to know about me is that I live in the centre of Canada but my heart belongs on the west coast. Vancouver is my second home mostly because most of my family lives there so I still like to hope that one day I'll be able to live there. So come along with me as we go back in time to my Vancouver 2018 trip, won't you?

S U N D A Y -- DAY 1

On the first day of our trip, we landed in Vancouver reeeeeeally early in the morning. I mean 9AM early. Our plane even touched down half an hour early which never happens! We were exhausted and naturally, the only way to wake yourself up is by consuming sugar. My aunt sprinkled her fairy dust and made our wish come true - she took us out for iHop pancakes!

We visited 'The Van' in December of 2018, so you know what they had at iHop? The green Grinch pancakes! And you know I had to get me a piece of that, right?

Check it out - so the Grinch pancakes tasted like regular iHop pancakes...just green. But these beauties were sprinkled with vanilla icing and cinnamon hearts! Now don't get me wrong, the theming here is brilliant, but I would've given Grinch's pancakes a 10/10 had it not been for the cinnamon hearts. I uh...don't like those very much, too spicy. So they get an 8/10 from me. Delicious, and a perfect start to our trip.

After breakfast, we called the hotel and our room wasn't ready yet so we dropped off our bags at my aunt's. Check out this pic I took on her balcony:

For the rest of the day we trolled around the Metrotown mall and went into the stores that we back home are just not cool enough to have, like Uniqlo! I bought a shweet Sesame Street sweatshirt there.

Every time my family goes on a trip, we always make a conscious effort to redo the things that we love as well as make sure we do something new. It's so funny, my aunt cannot stand how many redos we do. She goes, "don't you want to stay at a different hotel or go somewhere new?!" When we went to the hotel and dropped off our bags, we all took a walk through Westminster Pier Park to Patullo Bridge (something new, auntie!) My aunt said this park was an absolute hotspot when the 2010 Vancouver Olympics were in town:

Later that night, my aunt suggested we all ride the SkyTrain down to Lafarge Lake to look at the Christmas lights (again, something new!) My mum and I are total suckers for a good lights display and Lights at Lafarge definitely delivered.

Lafarge Lake is a big oval-shaped lake that seems to be on the edge of the island, whose wide path was covered from the ground to the skies with brilliant lights, it was such a beautiful and chillaxing experience. My cousin, brother and I talked about our taste in music as we strolled. We passed by a million dogs and I happily snapped picture after picture after picture because I am Max Caulfield from Life Is Strange (just kidding):

M O N D A Y -- DAY 2

Monday was the most action-packed day of the entire trip! Mum and I started our day off by doing one of our favourite Vancouver activities - walking through the River Market to Shops at New West /New West Station to grab breakfast. Fun fact, I am a very easily impressed human being who thrives off of aesthetic so all it takes for me to be totally impressed is a visually-pleasing walk. I love the open roof, the sound of the SkyTrains zooming by overhead, I love how small the shops are and the whole industrial aesthetic of the place. It's cheesy but I always feel like I'm in a coming-of-age indie film when I'm in there.

When everyone was awake and fed, we met our cousins at New West Station and hopped the train to Science World to see...The Science Behind Pixar exhibit!!!

I was over the absolute moon excited about this because my life revolves around Pixar - Toy Story, Ratatouille, Finding Dory, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, A Bug's Life, you name it. Toy Story is our family's movie so we were all pretty excited to see so many Toy Story-themed displays in there.

The Pixar exhibit was basically any animation student/fan's paradise - busts of Pixar characters everywhere, simulation stations for lighting, textures and facial expressions, giant 6-7 foot tall statues of Pixar characters, sets, the works. This exhibit basically gave you a hands-on experience into the work of an animator and the behind the scenes steps to create your favourite Pixar movies. It was really cute when my mom saw a picture of the Pixar Studio campus hanging up on the wall...she immediately turned to me with a twinkle in her eye and said, "you have to work here!"

I also want to add that the tickets for the Pixar exhibit were a lot less expensive than we thought they would be! I'm sure kids get in dirt cheap, but I believe adults were $20 each and students were $15?

Naturally, our next stop was the grand journey to Granville Island, that lovely walk that I will bring up in every Vancouver post. We got really lucky this time around because the sun was out every single day of our trip which made this walk even more enjoyable.

I spent the entirety of the walk chatting and bonding with my oldest cousin's now wife - as it turns out, we're basically the same person minus our occupations and number of tattoos. I absolutely love her.

When we got to Granville, we b-lined right for the market for some lunch and mum and I found a hidden gem - Kaisereck Delicatessen, an eatery in the market that sold mini perogies in a cup! These perogies were the bomb.com.

After we revisited the toy store and farted around in there, we took a bus to Downtown Vancouver to meet up with my aunt and step-uncle - my aunt was really eager to show us their Lush and two-story Indigo store so those were our two stops. A Lush employee told me I should work at Lush and my brother and I exchanged Insta handles with an Indigo employee.

Another new first (at least it was new for me) was Red Robin for dinner! The Red Robin we went to was in a really cool building on the top floor. Anyone sitting by the windows had a lovely panoramic view of Downtown Van. The food was really good and kind of reminded me of Five Guys.

T U E S D A Y -- DAY 3

After being introduced to That 70's Show on Tuesday morning, my cousin and his wife walked us down to a bunch of small shops near our hotel. I can't remember the names of them but we found a Brick and Mortar at one point. We also checked out a gemstone shop and a knick knack store with a golden retriever brooch that I had to have.

Eventually we met up with my uncle at the station and we all took the train to the Waterfront stop at the end of the line. From there we brought back an old tradition and took a SeaBus to Lonsdale Quay - you get some absolutely stellar views of the mountains and the island from inside the SeaBus.

When we got to Lonsdale we grabbed some lunch inside the market, farted around the Christmas tree lot and bought some chocolates from Olde World Confections - the lady working there said some of her chocolates were used in the filming of Disney's Descendants!

Later on in the day we bussed back to the island and went to Gastown. Gastown is something straight out of an indie movie, it actually reminds me of a filming location for Scott Pilgrim. We found an underground skate apparel shop, another knick knack store (with a wall dedicated to exposing shoplifters) and I finally saw the iconic Gastown steam clock!! It was going off just as we walked up to it, reminded me of the Disneyland Railroad. Very loud but very cool.

We continued to walk through the downtown area until it was time to meet up with my aunt again and let me tell you we saw some stellar sights:

To top off our day, my aunt took us all to another first - the German Vancouver Christmas Market which I was in love with even before stepping through the front gate. It was basically an outdoor market yanked right out of a Hallmark movie. There was a carousel, hot chocolate booths, a booth selling fruit-shaped soaps, chips-on-a-stick, a massive ornament tent, and live entertainment!

We got churros, we froze, we flossed. It was painfully cold, even for Vancouver, but it was definitely a hoot and a half.

The man in charge of serenading us all night was jamming out in this really cool tower with a giant propeller and It's A Small World-esque figures above him, very cool:

It was one of the coolest events I've ever been to and I honestly wish we could've stayed longer but it was so bloody cold.

Our final stop of the evening was the Vancouver Convention Centre. This building is monstrous. After you climb the stairs you are welcomed into the reinvented old cruise ship. Literally.

W E D N E S D A Y -- DAY 4

Ah man, my least favourite part of any trip...Leaving Day. But we spent it in good company with my cousin and uncle at Boston Pizza.

Overall, this trip was insane, quite possibly my favourite Vancouver trip so far and I'm counting down the days for when we can finally go back.