Dim Sum, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and an Aquarium

One of Laura's clients introduced us to a great dim sum restaurant called Floata the last time we came to Vancouver.  We dream of their colossal har gau often.  It is a huge restaurant above a mall in Chinatown that seems to have evaded discovery by anyone outside of the Chinese community.  We arrived just in time to catch the end of their morning special and snagged some BBQ pork buns, har gau, steamed sticky rice, steamed pork dumpling, and bean curd.  There aren't words.  

We then rolled our way over to the coffee shop to recover and rest before going to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.  Recovery took some time, it was an epic meal.

The garden is small, beautifully designed, elegant and peaceful.  If I lived in Vancouver, I would have an annual pass.  The entire garden is designed to reflect yin-yang elements.  The stone tiles have also been done in light and dark patterns, as well as smooth and sharp contrasting patterns.  It is a great place to take off your shoes and let your feet rest on warm stone.  It is a very balanced and calming place to be on a sunny day and I have been told it is also quite nice on a rainy day.

Our next stop was to pick Tom up to go to the Aquarium.  He's got a mini-van equipped with a chair lift and after a short tutorial we were all in the van and on our way.  

We couldn't have timed the Aquarium much better.  We arrived in the middle of a dolphin presentation, so we bypassed that and got to the front of the line for baby beluga viewing. The beluga nursery shuts down super early, so we really made it just in time.  The nursery is the underground viewing area where you get to see the mom, grandmother, and little one.  That is one cute baby whale.  After our time was up, we went to see them from above.  A baby beluga surfacing to take a breath is really ridiculously cute.  We also spent quite a lot of time with the otters.  I think an otter life is a pretty good existence.  Fun swimming paths, napping while floating, cracking food open and eating off your tummy.  Top notch.  The aquarium also has a number of seals and sea lions, a temporary frog exhibit, and tons of underwater displays with alligators, fish, sharks, anemones, etc.  Laura and I finished the trip by buying an environmentally friendly shopping bag from the gift shop.  This is our new souvenir favourite.  Most places are selling them, they're totally cheap, and you actually use them.

Post-aquarium, we drove around to the west side of Stanley Park and enjoyed the early part of a sunset before heading back to Tom's place to devour some of the best sushi I've ever eaten.  This was made with brown rice, which I was skeptical about, but ended up being delightful.

Lovely day :)