After 4 years of living together, Kurt and I finally broke down and bought a car. Odd that we bought it now that we are living and working in downtown Vancouver, and not during our suburban days. To celebrate our newly acquired 2005 Hyundai Elantra, we spent most of today driving to things outside the downtown core.

First stop: dim sum at Sun Sui Wah on Main and 20th. Great food and pretty attentive service. If only the servers didn’t mistake me for Chinese and shoot me disappointed looks when I didn’t understand their Cantonese. I should wear a sign that says “I’m Filipino, damn it” whenever I venture into Asian establishments. I feel like I need to learn Mandarin and Cantonese just so I don’t lose face…

Next stop: the Costco-like liquor store on Cambie and 41st. Grabbed a couple of bottles of wine that aren’t available in our normal 10-minute-walk radius.

Then to: Wreck Beach. Yes, we did indeed go to Vancouver’s only nude beach. I’d only been there one other time, in the middle of winter. Little did we know that we’d be welcomed to the beach by a sunbathing nudist in his 60′s. Besides the nude reception, the trail that we took and the short walk on the marsh that is the beach was a great little day trip, and I highly recommend it.

We lastly tried to find Urban Yarns, a crafts store that my memory placed somewhere on West 4th. When we couldn’t find it there, we tried West Broadway, but no luck there either. Our futile attempt at least resulted in a shortlist of the restaurants we plan to try in the next few weeks (Banana Leaf, Bishop’s, Las Margaritas, and Rugby’s).

Wanna see the car? Visit the photoset on Flickr.