Dîner en Blanc Vancouver: A brand new cool experience

You know, I'm not a very 'updated' person at times as I'm usually not at the forefront of all the new hits in town. So, the question is, how did I actually get to know about this event?

Tee Hee! I'm glad my good friend is very socialized and well informed about Vancouver events. Xin went to this annual event last year and highly recommended it to me. From her description, I could totally sense that it was an exciting event and something that was very different to my day-to-day life. 

There are many rules to this event. The tradition of this event is about everyone dressing in white only for a mass picnic dinner in a secret location. Location will only be revealed at the very last minute, so everyone will be meeting up in their selected location with their relative group mates.

Oh, and another big rule is, everyone has to bring their own picnic accessories (Yes, I meant folding table,chairs and the list goes on) as well as preparing their meals unless you pre-purchase the on-site meals prepared by Hawksworth Restaurant. 

In short, it's a dinner in white as claimed by its title.

Because it sounds like a stunning picnic, getting an invitation to it is challenging. There are three phases to the application process. Phase 1 is for returning guests exclusively. Phase 2 will be open to anyone nominated by the guests from Phase 1, and Phase 3 is generally for the people on waiting list. Due to an overwhelming response, this event leaves many disappointment to people every year who fail to grab a seat. I was lucky I was one of the 3500 picnickers to join this elegant event.

We met up with our group leader and other group mates at Vancouver Art Gallery. It was mesmerizing to see a white crowd segregating in such an artistic building on a weekday, and the event concept was outstanding instantly . I could not imagine seeing 3500 people in white at the actual event when I was already fascinated seeing 300 people dressed up in the same colour as me at once, it was definitely a feast for the eyes.

This year's location was revealed to be David Lam Park at Yaletown. I had been to this park once to volunteer for a Tom Lee's Music Festival few years back, and I was a little disappointed when I saw the venue at first, as compared to last year's spectacular view at Stadium Science World. The place looked smaller and simply lacking the vow factor.

As more and more people set up their table and chairs, the entire place instantly transformed into a fancy place as though it was hosting a Gala dinner. Felt so surreal to be immersed in a romantic atmosphere as such.

One fun part of the event was the way dinner time was announced, guests would wave their napkins in the air  together to signal the start of dinner time. 

Baby and I split up the cooking task this time, in which I was in charge of the appetizer and I left the main course entirely to him. So grateful to have a man who is willing to go into the kitchen to prepare a meal for me.

My prince charming was glowing under the sun and looking good effortlessly. :)

The organizer was thoughtful to come up with some extravagant decorations, including the love balls and vintage car.

Somehow, the venue looked much better after all the decorations. It gave 'partying in the centre of the city' kind of feel.

The dinner ended with sparklers lighting and sending the paper lanterns into the sky. Every guest was given a sparkler to light up together when announcement was made. Yes, this is an event about 'togetherness' to create a uniform view. :) It was also the uniformity which made me feel magical.

While the former part was easy, latter one was definitely much more challenging. Paper lantern floats in an uncontrollable direction, hence it's actually quite dangerous to do this in a tight space with so many trees and buildings around. I did not realize this until I saw the lantern flying right across my friend's head, slightly touching his hat before going all the way up. Whoaaaa that was really nasty! I'd rather forgo the beautiful moment for safety.

Let alone the little nasty moment, I really enjoyed myself that night. :) What's more awesome than having a good meal with my lovely friends, chilling under a sunny weather while enjoying the visual wonder created by people who share the same feeling. It was one-of-a-kind experience that I'd barely have.

Saturday date: Britannia Shipyard

Yesterday was a lovely date full of surprises for us. Baby's initial plan was to bring me to Steveston for a walk along the seaside, which sounded like a good plan to me because we barely have the chance to go to Steveston if baby wasn't driving. It's not the kind of distance where we'd love to take public transit, when we live in a place that takes 75 minutes of bus/train ride to reach there.

As much as I was happy with the plan, God made it even better. Our surprising discovery of Brittania Shipyards which was hiding at the west end of Steveston simply made our day. I was pretty excited to see various cultural sites lying along the boardwalk as we walked further down.

You can totally sense the vibrant past of Steveston through looking at the complex. It has a mix of Western and Asian culture, with traditional building like Murakami house, Chinese Bunk House to Western twist in Stilt House.

Murakami House

 The Stilt House ( the blue one is also known as Men's Bunkhouse) has to be my favourite. It satisfies my fantasy of having a blue house with vintage theme. There are also 2 red houses beside the Men's Bunkhouse,  but I only took the blue house ( oops, please forgive my bias).

Decoration wise, the Murchison House (red one) won my heart. The decoration is heavily adapting the British vintage style, everything is so vintage from floral wallpaper to lacey curtains. I felt like I just went back to the 70s, ready to take a sip of coffee and few scones while looking at the garden view outside.

I also like how the decoration is consistently adapting the same style at every corner of the house, making it look so pleasantly comfortable.

Whereas the Men's Bunkhouse adapts a more free and simple style, perfectly reflecting the traditional life of men employees. Beer and playing cards after work, good life eh!

City of Richmond did a good job in preserving this precious heritage site considering that there's no entrance fee charged. Part of the maintenance fee relies on public donation. I highly recommend this place for a weekend date or family day, as it fits perfectly for a short walk down the memory lane to the past. With the good weather nowadays, it shouldn't be too hard to stay outdoor.

:) Forgive me that I'm not a good history teller, so I'll leave the link about it here City of Richmond- Britannia Shipyards. It does a much better job in explaining the details about this awesome place.

After taking tonnes of picture, we finally left the village and went to the seaside to continue our walk. The weather was just great for pictures, everything captured through the lens turned out great.

Awww, even the residential area nearby is so lovely and looks like vacation home.

I had a great time with baby. :) Had to appreciate his effort in preparing surprising date like this once in a while. especially when I know he's not an outdoor person. Thank you so much baby :')

Friday date: Granville Island

Hello folks!

Last Friday was another Friday date for baby and I. With the presence of warmer weather in Vancouver, we could stay outdoor longer and hop around more places leisurely. Without hesitation, I picked Granville Island for our afternoon walk.

Compared to other islands, Granville Island is relatively smaller piece of land sitting in the heart of Downtown. Because of its convenient assess from Downtown, there's always a huge crowd in the island during weekends and technically, any sunny weather. Vancouverites know exactly where to head to whenever they see the sun!

I don't like huge crowd and long line ups, so going there on a weekday sounds like a perfect plan for me. It allows me to capture the peaceful side of Granville Island.

One thing that keeps me visiting Granville Island repeatedly has to be the crafty boutique in there!

You get to find many small and cute things here, from ancient seal stamps, postcards to vintage hats! Seriously, I can wander around these small shops for the whole afternoon just because of the fun things I can find here. A lot of the things are also unique, most of the time Granville Island is the only place I can ever see them. That just makes window shopping a fun experience here.

Many shops also have contemporary settings, creating a comfortable shopping atmosphere for customers to wander around.

I skipped the beer tasting this time, tried it with my friends on my last visit here and it was quite a unique experience. There were 8 brewery selections and we picked 6 different brews altogether.  The brews came in 4oz glasses to leave some space in your stomach to try all 6 types.

Each of them had pretty distinct taste and flavour, from bitter to sweet.There was also a tasting map on the table which explained each type and their flavour to help us better understand the beer flavour profiles.

The tasters were quite cheap too, 3 cups of 4oz for $6! :) I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's visiting there!

:) That was another lovely Friday, how I wish every Friday stays awesome like this!

Good Friday

The weather was so sunny on Friday, we started off our Friday date at Waterfront. Waterfront is one of my favourite places in Vancouver, it looks more westernized and commercialized. Don't get me wrong, I love Asian places too, but once in a while I'd love to be immersed in a completely different atmosphere just to give myself a feeling that I'm in a foreign western land.

Well, I still consider myself as a tourist here, so I continue to tour around the city and country to discover places where locals may have gotten bored of visiting, or not thought of visiting at all. It is so true that people who were born in a particular city will be less likely to visit tourist spots of their own place, simple because they are not tourists.  They are so familar with the place to an extent that hot tourists spots are not so much of a thing to them.

:) Hehe so let me take up this job on behalf of you guys!

Despite the sun, the weather was a little chilly. But everyone got excited and started dressing up in summer clothes already!

We moved on to Davie street for some Sakura pictures. :) I'm very grateful for baby's patience although I know he's not a fan of photography, haha more of a fan of the person beside him *blushing*. He just walks me to places I want to go.

Seeing rows and rows of cherry trees lift up my weekend mood. They look so surreal!!

Ending this post with a photo of us ( I mean...our shoes) stopping by at the Vancouver sign at Canada Place. :) This city means a lot to us, isn't it? We met here, fell in love here, and continue to hold hands still after almost 17 months.