West End of Summer

It's kinda hard to believe, but tomorrow is the final day of the annual Pacific National Exhibition (aka PNE) here in Vancouver.  And when the last day of the PNE rolls around, there is no longer any denying that summer is unofficially coming to a close.

Plus, tomorrow is Labour Day which is always followed by the first day of school.  So, yeah… summer is nearly as finished as I hope Canada's minority government will be after the federal election next month.

And did you know that summer gives way to fun landscaping opportunities?  Yup, that appears to be true, so as a sunny day goes down and the warm weather prepares to fly south, here are some pics from Pendrell Street in Vancouver's West End where a landscaper has clearly had a good time this summer.

That's How We Roll (Sushi)

Sushi restaurants are to Vancouver's Broadway what Maple Leaf food products are to dumpsters ... likely destined for an uncomfortable and irrevocable association.  Kinda like this guy and this instrument.

And there is one particular Broadway sushi place I recently went to again.  Known as Opera Sushi, it's on West Broadway between Fir and Pine streets. Right about… here:

Opera Sushi is very appropriately named once you cross the restaurant's threshold and discover its walls are lined with scores of record sleeves of different opera singers.

The big deal at this place is not just its pervasive reverence for dramatic musical performances, but also for placing a healthy twist on traditional sushi.

This is accomplished with the help of a menu featuring black sushi (using brown rice) and flaxy black sushi (brown rice with some flax sprinkled on top).

I'm a total and complete sucker for sushi so I'll try it anywhere, anytime. And the idea of it coming in a healthier-than-usual variety is very appealing. In the end, it's pretty good at this place. Once you finally get your food, that is.

I've been to Opera Sushi for both Take Out and for Eat In. Either way, the food takes sooooo long to arrive that one cannot help but wonder if perhaps the rice enters its harvest phase only upon the placing of one's food order.

But the flavours are interesting, especially as fresh bananas and strawberries are special guest stars in some of the dessert roll creations. However I cannot deny that there's occasionally a bit too much of a certain mushy-ness to the texture of some of the rolls.

All told, Opera Susha is a decent enough experience and definitely a heckuva lot cheaper than the legendary Tojo's (also on Broadway), but no question... it brings creativity and consciousness to its menu.

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It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

So far this summer, I've managed to hit up a few spots around town that for some crazy reason I'd not yet ever been to.  Like Deer Lake Park in Burnaby where we saw the True Colours concert last month, and also Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park (where Theatre Under The Stars just wrapped up another season of live theatre).

And so this new tradition continues … with a couple of friends, we've just recently hauled our cookies out to Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver (actually, it's in Horseshoe Bay to be exact).  Here's a shot of Whytecliff Park taken from way up high in the big blue sky:

(photo by vancouveraerials.com)

Me, M-dub and her brother Richard hit Whytecliff Park just the other day for a picnic under the sizzling hot sun.  All summer we've been threatening to get up one morning with the following specific goal in mind...

1. Go for brunch at Applebee's (yum)
2. Followed by a hike or something like at Whytecliff Park.

Welp, we finally did it (although the brunch-at-Applebee's-part-of-the-equation didn't come to fruition because we learned the restaurant doesn't serve brunch! - wtf?)

Instead we just headed straight over to West Vancouver - that's where one shall find Horseshoe Bay, at the very most west end of West Vancouver.

On a side note, Horseshoe Bay itself is a small village on the water with at least two local claims to fame.  One claim is that it is the terminal for BC Ferries' major routes between the mainland and Vancouver Island.  So, if you wanna get from, say, the city of Vancouver over to Long Beach and Tofino, for example, this is where you'd start and finish the ferry portion of your trip.

Horseshoe Bay's other notable claim is Troll's - a legendary fish 'n chips restaurant whose owner, Gary Troll, won Lotto 6/49 (Canada's national lottery) TWICE !!!.  His first win for $25,000 was in 1995 followed by another win the next year of $14 million dollars!  Amazing luck for sure, but if any family can offer proof that money doesn't bring happiness, it would be the Troll family.

If you drive the winding road that is Marine Drive in Horseshoe Bay, it'll bring you to Whytecliff Park … and it's a pretty awesome place. 

A beautiful, rugged, yet not necessarily sprawling green space overlooking the waters of Howe Sound and giving soil to my favourite tree here on the west coast, the Arbutus tree - it has the coolest bark in the world.  Here's what the tree bark looks like (with thx to the photog)

Here's some other pics from around Whytecliff Park taken thru the formidable lens of my mega-powerful camera phone.

We had a deee-lish picnic of deli stuff like cheese, French bread, cold cuts and, of course what kind of picnic could possibly be complete without a little vino, n'est-ce pas? 

Now, never would I recommend that anyone take a chilled bottle of white to a picnic at Whytecliff, but really I think by enjoying it there we were just happy to have the colour of our 'drink' pay a kind of, um, tribute to the name of the park we were in.  Yeah… that's it.  A tribute to the park is what it was.

Finally, here we have what we collectively determined was the most-coveted picnic spot in all of Whytecliff Park.  Behold:

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Jump a hurdle, Wear a girdle, Knit a sweater, Fill it better

Recognize that phrase?  Those words come from the lyrics to "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better"  from Annie Get Your Gun, a 1946 Broadway musical, by Irving Berlin, about the Ohio sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

That musical, along with Jesus Christ Superstar, is presented this summer at Theatre Under The Stars.  Known around Vancouver as TUTS, Theatre Under the Stars has been around a LONG time… since 1940 to be exact.  As with any long-running organization, TUTS has had an interesting history.  This summer's season is nearly at a close, but there's still a chance to get on down to Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park to see one of the shows (or both, for that matter).

Despite many a visit to Stanley Park, I'd actually never been to Malkin Bowl before this summer.  It's pretty cool and is located right between the Stanley Park Pavilion dining room and that big 'ol tree that fell during the storm of '06 and is now safely positioned for climbing and exploring.  Anyway, here's some pics of Malkin Bowl...

An evening spent there would be a great way to enjoy a summer night, doncha think?

Annie Get Your Gun was on Broadway first, then became a film in 1950 starring Betty Hutton and Howard Keel.  Here's a clip from the flick of those two doing "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better".  I've never seen the movie, but this is kinda hilarious (especially the part at 1:20 into the clip)