Gus Digital

I’ll be attending VinoCamp this weekend and I’m starting to get excited about it.  Granted I’m not a big wine person, but I thought that since Russ’ birthday is coming up I’d treat him to this as he is a lover of wine.

VinoCamp is not a wine festival that some might be used to, nor is it a traditional conference.

In a more unstructured form than a standard conference, VinoCampVancouver brings wine, people and technology together in one place, making wine accessible, educational and fun.

Join us! Whether you’re a speaker, sponsor, or a wine-drinker, our aim is to make this day memorable, fun, and interesting. You will learn more about wine and viticulture, meet interesting people, and enjoy yourself in one of Vancouver’s loveliest gardens.

Of course there will be several bloggers that I know attending this event and since it combines both wine and technology, Russ and I will be happy :).  I’m not sure if there are tickets still available, but if there are, grab yourself some and come join the fun.

The schedule looks great and you can get a taste of it here.

I might have a problem getting someone to look after Junior, but I’m sure he will be fine if we don’t.

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Tonight Russ and I will be joining a couple of our friends to experience “Theatre Under the Stars”. We’ll be going to see Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun.

Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) produced operettas and musicals 1940-63 at the Malkin Bowl. The original TUTS was founded under the auspices of the Vancouver Park Board by board superintendent A.S. Wootten, conductor Basil Horsfall and actor E.V. Young, with advice from Gordon Hilker, to provide entertainment in Stanley Park in Malkin Bowl, which was a band shell for summer concerts. - Source

Built in 1934, the band shell is a two thirds replica of the Hollywood Bowl and was created to honor W.H. Malkin’s wife.

Malkin Bowl

I’ve never experienced outdoor theatre before so this will be a treat indeed.

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Last night Russ and I headed out to dinner with a few friends to Delilah’s before heading to English Bay to catch the finale of HSBC’s Celebration of Lights.  I have to admit I didn’t see the 3 pervious shows, but we were convinced to join the 300,000 plus people around English Bay to catch the final show.

We cut through several crowds (most of which were very well behaved), and made our way down to the beach where we could hear the music with the fireworks. Before the show began, they announced the winner of the competition from the three entrants; Canada, US and China.  This year, as was last, the honors went to Canada! Canada’s theme this year was “Godzilla” and I was thoroughly impressed with the effects they created. I could almost picture Godzilla himself raising from English Bay to reveal himself to the masses.  Truly an amazing show.

What did start of the finale was BC’s 150th presentation, which was pretty much a history lesson of the founding of British Columbia 150 years ago.

Overall a great night with friends and great entertainment.

The photos were taken with the iPhone and don’t truly show the colours of the fireworks.  I also wish it was able to take video so you could have heard the music that went with it.

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There are a few bloggers in Vancouver participating this weekend in the Vancouver Blogathon. What is the Blogathon? Bloggers are encouraged to sign up for a charity and blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight. You can see more information at their wiki site.

I alas will not be one of the participants as I honestly don’t feel I could do it non-stop for 24 hours. I give great shut outs to the participants I know - Rebecca, Raul, Jenn and Nadia and Duane. You all are amazing for doing this and I’ll try to support anyone I can during the 24 hours.

I’m happy to see that awareness will be brought to your charities and the what they support.

Good luck all!

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I just can’t get over how great this weekend’s weather is holding out.

As I write this I’m sitting on my deck, enjoying a nice lemonade as well as enjoy this great 26C degree weather Vancouver is having.  It has long been waited by everyone in Vancouver and you can just see the people out and enjoying this wonderful sunshine.  Some are just playing friesbe in the park, others are enjoying a great picnic, and others yet are enjoying some of the free jazz music during the Jazz Festival.

Yesterday a couple of friends of ours dropped by and drove us to what will be their new place in West Vancouver’s Seaside Slopes Village.  The home is right near a running brook with an amazing view of the ocean and little islands that make up the bay.

From their they suggested dinner, but I was alittle thrown off when they suggested heading to Bowen Island for dinner to enjoy some Clam Chodder at a restaurant. Now normally I wouldn’t do something like this, but the weather was just so f’n awesome that we jumped on the next available BC Ferry and headed to the Island.

The trip from Horseshoe Bay to the island is about 20-30 minutes depending on how full the ferry is. The beauty is spectacular, words cannot describe the beauty here in BC and we seem to take it for granted many times.

On our arrival to the restaurant, I won’t mention names as I’m not a food critic here or Restaurant review as Raul is and I just can’t remember the name of it. It took about 10 minutes to get a drink order in.  Also our waitress let us know that the cooking staff is new and things would take alittle longer to prepare.  When she returned with our drinks and we proceeded to order, she let us know that they ran out of fries and they were not serving the Mediterain Chicken.  At any rate we ordered the Clam Chodder (which was my first time trying it and thoroughly enjoyed it), and the fish and chips (aka fried yams). All in all the dinner was great and our friends took the bill.  WOW.

We then walked along the board walk at the pier for a few minutes as we waited for the ferry to take us back to the main island.  I don’t think I could ever live on an island here in BC.  You are too depended on the ferry service, not to mention that most stores close down at 5pm! UGH.

On our return we were greeted by the newest BC Ferry, the Coastal Renaissance as seen below in a short video.  This thing is HUGE and would be nice to try her out one day.  This Ferry celebrates the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Today so far has been a far quiet day and I have napped, relaxed and just plain taking it easy. Hopefully we will head to a movie shortly and enjoy the evening.

Here is hoping you are enjoying your weekend and the weather is holding up in your area.

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Last night Russ and I attended a performance of Cirque Du Soleil’s Corteo during their stop here in Vancouver. Corteo is an Italian word which means “cortege” - a funeral procession.

The story revolves around a dream of a clown.  This clown dreams of his funeral, and we the audience are all there.  The funeral takes

place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quietly caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The music, by turns lyrical and playful, carries Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality.

Out of the 3 Cirque Du Soleil’s that have made it to Vancouver, this by far was very enjoyable to watch. The stage is also slightly different than the other two pervious shows.  The main stage cuts right through the audience and we become a mirror image of each other.  Even during the beginning “clown” performance, just before the big show begins, both sides of the audience recieve similar performances.

Russ and I had front row seats this time around as I wanted to get up and close to be able to see the performances.  I think we might have been too close as we really had to stretch our necks to see the aireal acrobats.  I don’t believe there is a bad view point at all under the big top.

The Acrobats are just amazing to watch. The Aerial Straps, totally amazing, the Bouncing Beds, just plain fun, the Chandeliers, breath taking, the Cyr Wheel, amazing, the Tightwire, wow new respect for the hula hoop, and the Tournik just to name a few.  I don’t think any of these athelets have an ounce of fat on them.  Turly amazing to watch.

The music is poetic.  A combination of French, Spanish and Italian was heard.

I recommend you catch this show if you haven’t already.

The show is here in Vancouver until July 20th and then heads to Calgary from July 31 - August 31 and then Ottawa from September 24 to October 12.

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Emery Barnes Park located at the corner of Richards Street and Davie Street will be expanding (finally). Public hearings will be held on June 19th (alas I am not in town to attend) between 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Gathering Place on 609 Helmcken. They will pretty much approve the design that was approved back in 1997.

Phase 2 will add just over 5000 square metres more of park, including a play ground, more trees, and entrance features. I’m hoping they will include a dog off lease area as well as this is one of the parks I like to go and take Junior to.

You can view more details at the Vancouver Parks website.

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Today was a gorgeous day in Vancouver and I decided to work from home instead of heading into the office (luckily I can and took advantage since the boss was way..sneaky I know). When Russ arrived he wanted to know if I would like to go out for lunch on this sunny day. Of course I took him up on the offer and we headed down to Yaletown and try to secure a place on a patio. Alas the usual places (Cactus Club, Milestones, Yaletown Brewing Company) were all full. As we walked down Maitland we came across Brown’s Restaurant Bar (also known as Browns Social Club). The patio was just starting to fill up and we secured a table outside.

As Russ started looking over the menu he quickly pointed out that they served Bellinis. I have written a couple of posts in March trying to find out the best place in Vancouver for a Bellini and thought I should continue that series.

As you can see their bellinis are the slushy kind, similar to the Cactus Clubs and Milestone’s. I do have to admit it was a very refreshing drink, though not as strong as the Cactus Club version, but I’ll add this to my second favourite of the city thus far!

The menu was standard fair, though my “Hollywood Burger” wasn’t anything to write home about and at $11 could have had alittle more beef.

With all the construction around Yaletown these days, sitting out on a patio isn’t always the best, but on a day like today you can’t help but get out there and just bask alittle in the sun.

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I’ve lived in Yaletown for over 5 years now and I have always walked by Doux Crepes on Richards Street on my way to George Wainborne Park and I have never stepped foot in there. Yesterday at the dog park I was told by one of Junior’s play pals owners that I should try their $2 lattes out. This morning I tried them out.

WOW. These are definitely the best tasting lattes I have had in this city. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since they use Lavazza coffee and being 1/2 Italian, I know how good the coffee is as I pretty much grew up with it in our household.

Doux Crepes not only serves $2 lattes, but they also offer breakfast. You can have their all day breakfast for $4.99 which includes a coffee or tea. Of course they also serve crepes as their name states. Tomorrow I think Russ and I will go there and try out their breakfast offerings.

Doux Crepes is located at 1371 Richards Street. Check them out!

UPDATE:

Russ and I had breakfast there this morning and had their $4.99 special. It was very yummy and will go there again! Where else in this city can you have 2 eggs, with bacon all rolled up in a crepe for under $5?

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This morning I was up at 5:30am so I could take Junior out for a walk and get ready for work (big Bosses are in).

As I was walking Junior and looking at my early morning tweets Buzz Bishop (whom I follow) announced on his blog that Madonna is finally going to make her appearance in Vancouver. I figured she would finally make it this way since her last tours she made it to at least one Canadian City. She will be playing at BC Stadium and tickets go on sale May 24th (May 20th if you are member of her fan club). I had the pleasure of attending her Reinvetion Tour and had an awesome time.

In other news, I also heard there was a shooting just a block away from my home last night. I must have been in a deep sleep as I didn’t hear any gunfire at all. News 1130 has the scoop on what has happened.

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