Family trip to Vancouver, Canada (Night Market and Casino)

**Warned! Loaded with pictures**

Hi guys!! I just came back on a mini family trip to Vancouver AND also did a day trip to Seattle as well. (Pictures from me and my sister)

Tan family in Richmond Night Market

It has definitely been a long time since my family and I went on a trip together to anywhere! Probably about 6 years or more? Hahhaa! I checked the stamps in my passport^^ Last trip I remembered was going to China with the family for my grandparents.

I am actually very excited for the trip. A bit of stress from doing researches for the trip last minute due to homework and  Darrin's internet was down. You see... I wanted to make this trip memorable and fun for my parents and! traveling with my daddy and mommy is different from traveling with friends or Darrin in my case. Each have different preference. If you have been following me or have been reading my blog, you probably figured out that I do not like traveling on a tour. I think tours take me to places that is not quite necessary to visit and I have to do things according to their schedule, not mine. My parents never went alone to any countries to explore without being in a tour... except China (Kai Ping) and Hong Kong. Back then we joined a tour in China which took us to sight-see Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and four more other cities... too long ago so I don't remember the names. This is a first for us to visit Canada on our own as a family^^ (I also have a younger brother, but he didn't come tho...)

Surprisingly, the flight time to Vancouver Airport (YVR) is just 2 hours. Pretty amazing huh? In such a short amount of time, we are in another country!! Once we got off the plane, we headed to pick up our car at the car rental, then headed out to fill our tummy. Since Canada is considered as international, we didn't get any international plans for our phones so the whole time, we kept it on airplane mode and used wifi.

The hotel we booked was Pan Pacific Vancouver located in Downtown Vancouver. The hotel also have their own cruise ship terminal. Have to say that the exterior is very nice! On contrast, the interior did not amaze me... If you are staying at the hotel with a car, be prepared to pay $39 CAD a day for parking. Sucks that it's not free parking wtf! And... no complimentary in room wifi! Wifi is $5/day ><

Entrance of the hotel

Hotel exterior (credits: pan pacific)

(photo credit: axistech)

Daddy and Mommy

My sister (Ma), mommy, and me

The room we got was a city view room with 2 beds. Very spacious and comfy beds^^ We messed up the bed before I could take a picture, so I'll show you guys a similar picture taken online!

Our room looks bigger than the picture (credits: pan pacific)

The roads and everything in Vancouver seems like California. Therefore, we didn't feel like we have stepped into another planet... Hahaha! I was expecting it to be more different tho! Richmond night market is our first stop after we regained our energy.

Admission and ticket counter

 ~ Picture with the ducky ~

The opening time for night market is 6:00pm to 12:00am! Opening until October 14th!! There was a line to enter when we arrived. Luckily parking was free! So much to eat and buy!! (Not free tho) My coworker told me about it and I was like "are the food free after I pay to enter?" Silly me^^

Best egg puffs I've eaten!

Mommy tried to feed me egg puff but it dropped... ><

Silly mommy (She wears my jacket and I wore hers)

~ My cute daddy eating "nao jap" ~

My sister and her food (That's the egg puff stand ^)

Such a lively night market

Lots of food!!

And lots to buy^^

Soft and fuzzy panda hats

Food in the night market is pretty expensive. Especially the tornado potato and the coconut juice! Oh my... they are like $6 CAD each! No worry about $$ because daddy's here^^

Thing to do with a potato

~ Mommy just kept on buying and eating ~

There she goes...

Mommy waiting for skewers

Guess what? After the night market, we decided to head back to the hotel with our favorite "dan churn" (egg rice roll) BUT for some reason, there's a casino near the night market! Daddy decided to go and "play a few rounds". Did I mention that we are a family full of gamblers? Hahhahah! Not addicts tho...??

Daddy leading the way

Daddy already went into the casino! Haha

The casino need to check 2 forms of identifications! More strict than Casinos in Las Vegas and in California? That's what I thought until I saw the dealers in the tables. Majority of the dealers were in their 20s wearing casual clothes and stylish earrings... Totally different from casinos I have went to. Seems like they do not have a dress code or grooming standards. Blackjack is me and my sister's favorite, but not in this casino. In Canada, the dealer gets only one card to start with. I think that it's a huge advantage for the dealer and disadvantage for us. Pai gow poker is fun! My mom gotten me into it. I think it's beginner's luck or something! Me and my sister won $$$. Actually, the whole family won and headed back to the hotel^^

Canadian $$ looks like monopoly money

Haul from the night market!! 

Our first night was awesome!! Part 2 will be coming soon^^


Much love,
              Jamie

Dessert at 100% Sweet Cafe

100% Sweet Cafe (address will be listed at the end of post) was one of our dessert place to go to back then. The cafe have many food selections such as: sandwiches, pastas, rice plates, drinks, desserts, etc.I think we stopped going there because we did not really like the food and service was very slow. This time, we had dinner with a few friends around the area and someone picked to go 100% Cafe for the snow ice.

Rice plates and pasta selections

Appetizers and soup page

Of course, there is more pages of the menu than what I am showing you. Just to give you a sense of idea on how the restaurant menu looks like^^ Hahahahaha! 

Mango snow ice with 2 sides

Whipped Cream Crepe

We did have to wait about 15 minutes for a table. Once you get to your table and know what to order, you just write the number of the item you want on the piece of paper provided. The waiter does not take any food order. Food preparations was longer than other restaurants I've been to. Maybe it was closer to the end of the night, but seems to me they need more manpower since it was a full house. Overall, this is not my favorite place to go for dessert now since there are many other cafes around the area. One recommendation is Creations on Geary St. I'll do a post on that next time^^

100% Sweet Cafe Address: 2512 Clement St. San Francisco, CA 94121

Much Love,

                Jamie 

Sunday Family Funday!

I haven't had Sunday off for such a long time! I'm especially happy because me and Darrin both got Sunday and Monday (Labor Day) off! Ever since school started for us, we haven't really spend as much time as we used to with Miku, so we decided to make Sunday a "family day". Usually what we do on our "family day" is watch movie the night before, sleep-in the next day (only day when no alarms are set), grab breakfast/brunch, take Miku out for dog park, and some other activities depending on what we feel like.

We have gotten sooo into Korean variety shows lately, mainly Running Man and Family Outing (yea... we are very slow on those) and whenever we have time, we would watch a bit before we sleep. Since we were both off today, we stayed up late watching Running Man last night. Hm...maybe I gotten used to waking up early to go work, so I actually woke up at 6:30am today. Is anyone like this on their day off? Of course no body at home woke up except for me, so I did some web surfing with my phone and slept again...

Have you heard of Cooking Papa (address will be listed at the end of post)? Recently, my friends and Darrin's sisters were all talking about that place and the food, so me and Darrin went there today for breakfast! Hahaha! The name sounds so cute (reminds me of  "cooking mama")!

Cooking Papa exterior design

Deck by the entrance

First thing that caught my attention after I've entered the restaurants are the cute business cards and the takeout menu!! There are logos of Cooking Papa on them, just like the regular menu. Cooking Papa have many choices of dishes/food to choose from and some dishes requires 3 days reservations in advance! One of their popular food is the Hong Kong Style Puff (we didn't order it tho... next time try la). 

One of the many pages

There are so many selections

Noodle in shrimp and egg 

2 choice dish: duck and roast pork

We only ordered these 2 dishes since we have other plans later in the day. The food will go bad if left in the car  for too long considering the weather. Noodle in shrimp and egg is something I would order again! It came out fast and the portion is pretty big for it's price too^^ On the other hand, the "2 choice dish" is something I would not order again. Darrin thinks it was because they were busy or something but this dish took a while to come to us. I expected the skin of the roast pork to be crunchy (majority roast pork I have eaten have crunchy skins), but this one is chewy... in a bad way! Personally, Darrin and I didn't enjoy this dish... not to mention it was about $12 (I think it's pretty expensive for the quality). Cooking Papa also have varies drink selections. We ordered a milk tea with tapioca. The drink tasted regular, nothing special tho >.< I guess there is always good dishes and bad dishes in any restaurants.

We would come again for dinner or when we have more companions so we can try out more dishes from the menu. There's a few tables by the side where they could have a nice view of the water outside, but we didn't get the tables because it was for party more than 2. Come earlier too whether it is for breakfast, brunch, or dinner. The place can become really packed.

After Cooking Papa, we headed to the dog park to play with Miku. The dog park and Cooking Papa is relatively close to each other... less than 5 minute drive. This is my favorite dog park because it is clean and it have shades for humans to sit while the doggies play. Downside is that the park is 30 minutes away from home!!

Daddy trying to get Miku to play fetch

Look how happy he is^^

Miku wanna go to the big dog selection

Another pomeranian we met at the park

Bonding time^^

We went to Ikea and Target afterwards to look at furnitures and organizers because we are moving into a new room! Right not, majority... or probably all furnitures in our room are black! I don't know what we we thinking when we brought everything black back then, but now, we want to bring some brighter colors in the room. I will do a post on the new room once we get everything moved over and organized. Love the ice cream cone from Ikea!

Cooking Papa address:  949A Edgewater Blvd Foster City, CA 94404


Much Love,
                  Jamie