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  • Day 28

    A Day in Stanley Park

    October 17, 2017 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The sun was shining when we woke up this morning. Looking at the front balcony, we saw the red leaves of the maple tree across the road, sparkling from the heavy rainfall yesterday as the drops caught the rising sun. We all sighed with delight. This time, mom and I managed to convince dad and sis to go take a walk with us to the local café and boy oh boy did we take a lot of pictures of the surrounding autumn foliage and some with us in it.

    We had our breakfast at the Mighty Oak Café. We saw a very behaved and cultured little dog that patiently waited for its female companion, who was having a nice cuppa with a friend. Then a middle aged guy came in and complemented the Café proprietor on his upcoming olive oil exhibit, and both engaged deeply on the subject of changing times--apparently, people are now willing to pay more for the sake of quality. Well, in their affluent neighbourhood anyway, they concluded.

    While getting dressed and ready to head out, we observed a rainbow in the back balcony. It was hovering above the mountains of North Vancouver. There was a light shower there, but it looked kind and non-threatening.

    We took a cab towards Prospect Point. There we saw a panoramic view of the Lions Gate Bridge and the vastness of English Bay. The openness of the area naturally allowed wind to flow unabashedly. After we took our time taking snapshots with the vantage point and huge maple leaves (one lady presented to us a leaf bigger than my head). Then we proceeded to have a late lunch at the nearby pub with locally sourced grub.

    We were thoroughly delighted at their warm spiced apple cider. Though it was a sunny day, the breeze outside in the unguarded cliff was brisk and the beverage was quite comforting. We shared a plate of seafood spaghetti with some honey garlic chicken wings and potato fries.

    Whilst eating we weighed our options, as, with the amount of time in the day left, we are only able to pursue either a movie or the sea wall walk. In the end, we took advantage of the lovely weather and opted for the activity that will give all of us a much needed workout: we circumnavigated the scenic and renowned Stanley Park Seawall!

    As it stands, the Stanley Park Seawall is the world's longest uninterrupted waterfront path. We were very tired when we finished the walk. We transversed some foliage on the way down from Prospect Point and enjoyed more maple leaves, before finally accessing the concrete portion of the seawall, then had to complete the 3.5 km curves and junctions. We also encountered a lane of russet leaves that we took pleasure in.

    When we got to the Horse-drawn carriages stall, we tried to call a cab (no Uber available in Vancouver) but the operator was too lazy to locate in her screen our exact whereabouts. We ended up walking towards the Westin Bayshore and covered another 1 km or so. From a side street we managed to board a cab and then headed to Gas Town.

    There, mom and sis managed to purchase their Le Sport Sac bags, while I tried to figure out a photographer who kept shooting at something but I was unable to determine his subject. At this stage we were all ravenous and not long after a little walk we stumbled upon Silvestre Gusto Latino, a cosy, casual restaurant that featured Peruvian cuisine.

    We were thoroughly delighted to find familiar menu items. My sister had pork adobo, mom had pescado escabeche, I had some peanut based Peruvian sauced chicken dish, and dad had some beef. We also tried their golden Inca Cola and a sweet-sour spiced-drink which sis and I both enjoyed. We finished our pseudo-exotic experience with the Peruvian version of leché flan and alfajor--butter cookies sandwiching dulce de leche! It was a very scrumptious treat.

    Also noteworthy to mention: the young couple who tasted some gelatine sold in that shop, decided to buy, went off for a walk, and came back demanding for a refund as they did 'not like' the gelato. Of course they were asked to turn around and leave the premises); And the gentleman who attended to us was of Chinese heritage but somehow ended up living in Peru then migrated to Vancouver.

    After the sumptuous dinner we walked to a nearby liquor store and bought some Ice Wine, and then bought some bottled water on a convenience store across the road. There were some shouting drunk people on the street when we made our way to the adjacent cab stand, but we did not run into any trouble on our way back to our accommodation.

    To end this day, we popped the ice wine open and had a nice toast to each other's health and a hopeful wish for more future travels for the Family of Four.
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