What a day! Today was really relaxing and fun just walking around Vancouver, hanging out with Sheila and Max, and eventually Julien and Jason.

Sheila & Max

We kicked off the morning by going downtown to Main Street for brunch.

I found this Chinese bakery place (like Jeng Chi in Richardson) and I got a curry puff, Apollo bun, BBQ pork bun, and an egg tart. They were fantastic and gone too quickly—reminded me of home. We then went looking for this Russian restaurant Max and Sheila had found online—for those who don’t know, Max and Sheila are both Russian (and among the few Russians I know). When we arrived at the address listed, we ended up before a sushi restaurant; as it turns out, the Russian restaurant moved a few years back and never updated their website… too bad. So, we walked along the street and ended up eating at a Japanese Ramen restaurant. After lunch, we were all tired so we decided to cross the street to the Office Depot for a quick nap… luckily no one caught us as we lay under the desk sets.

We slept there for nearly 40 minutes before leaving to head back to Sharon’s. When we got back, we chatted with Julien for a while and he asked if we still wanted to go to the beach. This was definitely one of those “might as well” moments, b/c we three all agreed to check it out. As they headed out for a quick lunch, Sheila, Max, and I ventured downtown again to look for the famous Roots store, which is only in Canada. As we walked all over downtown looking for this Roots store, Sheila started getting a headache so we went to a yogurt place for a snack.

Max & I shared one… but I think we got jipped. Look at that hole in the middle!

After much walking and bussing, we FINALLY found the Roots at 4th and Arbutus!

Unfortunately, everything there was really expensive so none of us purchased anything… but we did have a very memorable time walking around, catching wrong buses, and getting lost for a while. Check out all the bus tickets we purchased in Vancouver so far:

When we made it back from the Roots, Julien and Jason were ready to go to the nude beach aka Wreck Beach. Turns out the beach was very beautiful! It wasn’t too crowded, the sand wasn’t combed so it was an authentic beach, and the weather that day turned out to be gorgeous! Here are some pictures.

We had to walk pretty far down to get to the beach.

The gang at the beach: Jason (Cap’n Jack Sparrow), Julien, Max, Sheila, and David

p.s. Don’t look too closely…

We also found a baby crab!

Julien taught us how to skinboard, and we got to kick back and just take in the sun. It was a really relaxing trip. When we got back, I got to take my shower, and started helping out with dinner, manning the grill. Sharon bought us hotdogs and hamburgers which needed to be grilled so I got to do that. They turned out pretty fantastic. Sharon and the team then surprised me with a giant chocolate cake—so thoughtful. It was totally unexpected, and I really was speechless.

Here’s the actual cake. I’m 62 b/c Julien had recently turned 26 and they still had his candles. As for the sign—it’s from the beer Dead Frog, which is native Canadian beer.

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