Fantastico - before going to San Fran, I did a lot of research for places to visit that would help me with events planning - mostly to buy lots of items that I can use for events and bring back with me to HK. Fantastico is a huge place and you can probably find almost anything you need to help with decorating or if you ever want to DIY something. But the price is not cheap, definitely most things are NOT a dollar. :)
When event planning, I make a lot of trips to the flower market in Hong Kong, so I wanted to also visit the flower market in San Fran, it is bigger and there are specified times for wholesalers and then for the general public. I wanted to go and see the hustle and bustle of a wholesale flower market, but obviously I arrived too late! (I got there at like 10am, but the wholesalers go first thing in the morning like 5am or something....)
Huge selection of seasonal flowers! So nice to see some interesting plants and flowers. In Hong Kong, it's quite rare to find such a huge variety, and the number of colours of each type of flower. I wish I could have bought some for a home....
On another day I went to City Hall, and well there's nothing to do there, but to look at the beautiful architecture. Lots of couples will come here to get married and take wedding photos here.
Across the square from City Hall is the Asian Art Museum, I went in there to take a look as they had the China Terracotta Warriors exhibition - which I missed when it was in Hong Kong.
other exhibits in the Asian Art Museum
I've heard so much about how you can find really cool things at flea markets and for the best price, so I found a flea market on Treasure Island that was opened during the time I was in San Fran - always check on the websites because they are not open every week!
Food Trucks!!!! There were a line of them outside the flea market, and there was one selling dutch treats - Stroopwafels!
above: View of Alcatraz from Treasure Island
below: View of Golden Gate Bridge from Treasure Island, with a bit of the SF fog
above: It was SUPER WINDY on Treasure Island, look at my "Medusa" hair
Congrats little Bro! You made it!
I then flew to Toronto to visit my friends and re-visit some of the places I frequented during my uni days. So nice to go there and see that it hasn't changed too much. :P
Be prepared for LOTS of food photos, that's really all I did in Toronto...lol
below: my first meal in Toronto - middle eastern food! YUM!
to show my gratitude to Anne's family for letting me stay with them, we cooked a simple dinner for them - there was steamed fish, cha siu, greens stir-fry with prawns and veggies.
Hope you all enjoyed the meal and had enough to eat. (I realised that there wasn't too much food to go around - us Chinese, we like to have WAY too much food on the table.)
I also took some time to visit my campus, my! how some of it has changed, we've got some new buildings. I also sat through a lecture in the ARC lecture hall with Eriko, but during my time in uni - I actually didn't have many lectures cuz my classes were always very small.
below: new building that's for mainly management courses
above: The Hub - new computer lab for innovation
below: the ARC!
below: Tim Hortons renovated!
below: staircase in the old Science Wing
below left: breakfast made by Jen
below right: yogen-fruz - there's nothing that can beat it!
When I was planning my trip in Hong Kong, I discussed with Anne what I wanted to do - one of the things I miss most are the backyard barbecues! You know what, in HK backyards are a luxury not even the wealthy can have.....
Anne's father was so nice to get a new barbecue when he found out I wanted to do a barbecue! Thanks!!!!!! I will never forget this! Don't judge it by its size, this little green grill was cooked things super fast!
above: fresh ingredients, and even some from Anne's father's herb garden! Another luxury we can't have in HK, fresh herbs!
below left: coleslaw
below right: mini burgers - yum in a bite!
Dessert: Triffle and S'mores! We also had a baked brie which was delicious as well!
And then I went onto Vancouver for a few days. When people find out that I grew up in Vancouver (well Richmond is more accurate) they will always say "I heard it's beautiful there, what's there to see/do there when I visit?" - I usually just shrug my shoulders because I really don't think there's much there to do. Yes there's some beautiful scenery, but in terms of taking people around I don't think there's any must-see or landmarks that you should take a photo with and you will know definitely you're in Vancouver. So this time I decided to try and find out what's there in Vancouver that I can tell people about next time they ask me.
I planned to revisit some of the places that I went to when we were little - Stanley Park, China Town, Vancouver Aquarium etc. But since I was only there for 3 days, I will have to little by little each time I go back. This time I went to Vancouver Aquarium and Seattle for a day trip!
My memory of the Vancouver Aquarium is that it's a huge place with the famous beluga tank. I can still sing the "Baby Beluga" song, and I remember that we got to stay overnight at the aquarium in front of the beluga tank. That was sooo cool. I wanted to go back and see the killer whales and belugas and sleep there once again.
This time they had a jellyfish exhibition which was quite cool. They had one at Ocean Park in HK, but it was overcrowded and I did not enjoy the exhibition at all. But the one at the Vancouver Aquarium was very well done. There's no huge crowds blocking your view or pushing you from behind to keep moving. And you can step back to look at the whole tank of jellyfish or step close with your nose pressed to the glass to take a closer look at each jellyfish. And the photos are beautiful too!
The aquarium is smaller than I remembered, but you can probably spend a day there if you're interested in sea animals and if you have children they will love it here!!!!
On another day, we went to Seattle and just driving down there took a while, so we didn't do much except go to the Public Market and have seafood and did a bit of shopping in downtown Seattle.
above right: the first Starbucks store in the world
below: seafood!!!!!!!
That's about it for my two weeks in the US and Canada..... I'll be back in a year for my cousin's wedding in Sonoma! Can't wait till then, I'm sure there will lots of new things to discover then.
