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Granville Island Love

27 Apr

This weekend I wish I was at Granville Island.  It’s the big Ocean Construction Open House and if you have  a little digger/truck/moving vehicle fan it is the place to be because they get to tour all their dream vehicles.  We went a few years ago and the boys LOVED pretending to drive cement trucks and big diggers.  Alas, our visit was a week too early so we just got to peek at the trucks.

But a visit to Granville Island is fun even without the big rigs.  There is so much to see and do.  We love walking by and smelling the cedar where they carve totem poles.

The fruit and veggie stands are always full of color and delight.

The boys find the fire at Siegel’s Bagels mesmerizing.

And we always grab coffee-this time we tried coffee the Agro cafe.  They had really pretty artwork and made a nice latte.

But the highlight of our last visit was our stop into Edible Canada where we had a little bite to eat.  They have an open airy space and fantastic kids’ meal options.  They brought the kids coloring books and crayons and the boys loved their eggs and hashbrowns.  And I loved that I could sneak away and peruse all the yummy goodies in their store.

I had a delicious french toast and the hubby’s granola parfait was just exquisite.

Oh I wish I lived closer so we could come back more often.  Seriously, Granville Island is one of my favorite places in the world.

Me and Ed’s Pizza (Coquitlam, BC)

26 Apr

I don’t know why all the best kid-friendly places seem to be pizza places, but this is one I remember fondly from when I was a kid and it’s really neat that my guys totally love it too.  The pizza is crispy California style-and the best part is that the kids can go up to the window to watch.  There are mini kids pizzas on the kids’ menu here too.

If you ask the kids, they love going for the lollipop at the end.

(PS you might never think to come to Coquitlam, but it has an amazing public pool that opens up at 6am which is perfect if you have early risers like ours.  A trip to Vancouver with a stop in Coquitlam may end up being a better deal with better food than a trip to Great Wolf Lodge for about the same amount of time.  In the area, we also love White Spot, Boston Pizza and My Greek Taverna)

Home Improvement in Vancity

25 Jan

We headed up for a quick trip to Vancouver, BC and I love some of the home decor stores there so much-they have the coolest things.  I fell in love with this:

It’s called a Chat-Board and I saw it in a store called Homewerx which has funky home accessories and dishes-if I had to stay the night in one store, this would be a really fun place.  The hubby will not let me put magnets on the fridge, so I want to get a really big one for our eating nook so we can display the kids art and write little memos.  I’m thinking I’d get the glittery grey.

We also found a salad dressing spigot by Eva Solo that the hubby saw in a MOMA catalog at a store called Ming Wo.  (Another fun home store I don’t mind getting lost in for a while.)  I read that it could also be a soy sauce dispenser and now I need another one ASAP.

Eva Solo makes an amazing bird house that I want for my backyard one day.  I’m not sure how successful my homemade bird feeders are as the only birds that liked them were a seagull and crow who ate them on my neighbor’s roof.

But a place that might need some home improvement in Vancouver was a hotel where we spent the night: the Loden hotel, a top-rated hotel in Vancouver and one I’ve recommended before.  We’ve stayed their and LOVED it-it’s modern, swanky and has a cool vibe.  This time we had a really good room deal and noticed our room had one of those connector doors (penalty for an amazing deal, I guess….).  We didn’t really think much of it.  The room was gorgeous.  The bath products (Molton Brown) were lovely.  And we dozed off to sleep until about 1am.  Then we heard the neighbor’s come home, heard water running in the adjoining room, full on conversations  and maybe someone going to the bathroom??? We waited, but the noise didn’t die down.  The hubby checked the hall and there was no one out there-is wasn’t like they had left their door open and were yelling. The sounds were coming loudly through the middle door because of the echo-y tiled floor.  Ooops. We made a call and thankfully we were moved to another room. This room was peaceful, quiet and beautiful.  A completely different experience, but a little tainted nonetheless.  (I’m sorry but you just can’t get sleep back)  Maybe these earplugs (a la Holly Golightly) in the minibar for those with the connector would make the experience just a little more luxe?

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