Northern Lights

I went up to Vancouver for the day a few weekends ago and have meant to post about it ever since.  Every summer Vancouver has this event called the "Celebration of Light" (formerly known as the "Symphony of Fire").  It's the largest fireworks competition in the world and is held over two weeks.  Our visit ended up coinciding with China's fireworks display.  The best place to watch the fireworks is over English Bay.  Wanting to avoid some of the crowds we ended up driving to Stanley Park and watching the fireworks from Second Beach.  But before all that we went to Granville St.  Our first stop was Caban (the lifestyle store owned by the same people who own Club Monaco).  Caban is having a "going out of business" sale.  It's been going on for months now and still almost everything was marked at only 20% off.  I did snatch up this cute wooden box in tiffany blue and was elated to see that they still had some of the aprons left that I had admired during my last visit to the store.  When I left the register I happened to look at the receipt (I'll admit it, I'm so horrible at double checking to make sure that I'm not over charged) and noticed that the price seemed high.  I realized the woman had given me 2% off instead of 20%.  Such incompetence.  We decided to get lunch at Rangoli, an Indian restaurant off Granville St.  Rangoli is the more budget friendly of the two restaurants owned by Vikram Vij.  The food at Vikram's other restaurant, Vij's, is beyond belief.  Although I'd never been to Rangoli I felt certain that the food would be just as good as Vij's.  Rangoli is a diner style eatery.  Along with eat in and take out meals they also offer an array of frozen and refrigerated ready to eat Indian dishes.   I ordered the coconut chicken curry which was delicious.  My Mom ordered the portobello mushroom and red bell pepper curry and her dish was so incredible.  I highly recommend it.  I also ordered a mango pineapple lassi which was so super good.  Oh and their chai tea is so sensational we had to get a cup to go.  Also worth mentioning is the little television screens set into the bathroom mirror which show a constant stream of Indian television. I highly enjoyed watching tv while peeing.  After lunch we headed to Meinhardt Fine Foods.  We picked up some picnic type items for while watching the firework display.  I also managed to pick up some Sweet Ginger Peach Revolution tea which I can't find anywhere locally.  Meinhardt is my all time favorite grocery store, despite its dainty size it's well stocked and charming.  After leaving Granville St. we stopped by the shop Cross Decor and Design.  Their inventory was a bit lacking on this particular visit.  After leaving the shop we headed to Robson St. for a bit of a browse and some candy apples.  From Robson St. we drove to Stanley Park to get a spot for the fireworks display.  Luckily we found a relatively close parking spot at Second Beach and settled in for the hours long wait.  I got through a significant amount of my book and read several magazines before darkness finally fell.  The fireworks were captivating and all but I expected more from something touted as the worlds largest fireworks competition.  China didn't end up wining the competition but it was nice to finally get to experience the "Celebration of Light".