Trip to British Columbia

2025-12-23

In June 2025, Joanne, baby, and I went to British Columbia, Canada! We went to Vancouver, Abbotsford, and Williams Lake. This trip was mostly for visiting family and friends, so we didn’t end up doing a ton of sightseeing. Nonetheless, here are the photos!

The Fraser River as seen from BC Highway 20.

1 2025-06-13: Arrival in Vancouver

We visited our friends who live in Burnaby. They have a baby roughly the same age as our baby so it was fun watching them interact with each other. Actually, the babies don’t really care about each other, but it was fun for the adults.

Vancouver Skytrain in the rare original 1986 livery making its way between high rise condominiums.

For lunch, we ate really delicious takeout sushi. The rectangular seared salmon oshizushi are a specialty of Vancouver.

For dinner, we ate some grilled meat.

2 2025-06-14: Richmond

One cool thing about Vancouver is the amount and quality of Hong Kong food, particularly cha chaan teng food in Richmond.

Joanne and I both love tasty HK food so we ate at Cha Kee. I got a fried pork cutlet combo with scrambled eggs and toast and a large iced HK milk tea, and Joanne got a rice noodle combo (also with the eggs and toast) with a hot HK milk tea.

In the afternoon I had some important engagements with friends so there are no photos.

View from our hotel in downtown Vancouver.

For dinner, we ate takeout sushi again.

3 2025-06-15: Visiting parents in Abbotsford

For breakfast, we had tasty cheung fun at Hei Hei Rice Roll. I got the fancy truffle seafood one!

In the afternoon, we drove over to Abbotsford to visit my parents. My parents were very thrilled to see our baby.

Playing the piano at my parents' house. — Playing the piano at my parents’ house.

The backyard of my parents' house. — The backyard of my parents’ house.

4 2025-06-16: Hanging out in Vancouver

For breakfast, we got food at a cha chaan teng again, but it was a different one.

Satay beef instant noodles with HK milk tea.

From a photographic standpoint, this photo is unremarkable, but this very clean Porsche 986 Boxster reminded me of the video game Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed.

We went to T&T Supermarket to look at (but not buy) spot prawns.

For lunch, we got fancy food at Mott 32.

Fancy truffle siu mai. There was a quail egg with a runny yolk inside each of these.

Then we just kinda strolled around downtown.

Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. There's coincidentally also a yellow Porsche in this photo but it's a different model than the one above (this one is a 997 Cabriolet, which costs a lot more). — Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. There’s coincidentally also a yellow Porsche in this photo but it’s a different model than the one above (this one is a 997 Cabriolet, which costs a lot more).

For dinner, I ate a roast beef ramen at Beest while Joanne wanted a takeout noodle from a different restaurant called “Flower and Horse in Spring” so I picked it up.

5 2025-06-17

We went to hang out with our Burnaby friends again. We had takeout sushi again from the same spot.

We got bubble tea!

Then, for dinner, we dined with another friend at a restaurant called Joyful Seafood Restaurant.

6 2025-06-18: Arrival in Abbotsford

We spent the day at home at my parents’ house so no pictures were taken.

7 2025-06-19: Drive to Williams Lake

It was a long drive (about 7 hours) to Williams Lake.

During the drive, we saw some truly amazing views, but I couldn’t take pictures because I was busy driving.

A Volkswagen Type 2 van being used as an advertisement at Kumsheen Raft Resort.

South Cariboo Recreation Centre with lots of Canada geese.

8 2025-06-20: Williams Lake

On this day, we hung out with family.

In the evening, we had dinner at Lvy Vietnamese Pho. It was one of the only Vietnamese restaurants in Williams Lake but was quite authentic.

9 2025-06-21: Scout Island and Riske Creek

We went to Scout Island, a nature preserve. Most of the photos I took were of family but here are some scenery photos. On the island, we ran into a jolly British guy who told us about local attractions. He said that Riske Creek is quite nice.

Signal Point, a rocky bit of stuff sticking out of the hill.

For lunch, we went to Mr Mike’s Steakhouse.

There was a nice mural on the outside of the steakhouse.

Steak and fries and a broccolini for good health.

Then we drove over to Riske Creek.

We drove along Farwell Canyon Road a little bit, but didn’t make it as far as the Farwell Canyon, which would have offered some spectacular views, because everyone was tired, especially the baby.

Some vehicles at the Toosey First Nation Band reservation.

BC Highway 20 bridge again (extremely high resolution image!!!).

10 2025-06-22: Drive back to Abbotsford

We had breakfast at a restaurant called The Osprey’s Nest. We had eggs benedicts. It was really good actually.

Osprey's Nest sculpture. — Osprey’s Nest sculpture.

Along the way, we saw trains running along tracks perched most precariously along the edges of the Fraser River.

Goldpan park was closed due to elevated risk of landslides, so I could only get a picture of it from the outside.

Rock sheds protecting this train track along the Thompson River. This place is called White Canyon.

The next day (2025-06-23), we rested at my parents’ house and then in the morning of the 24th, we drove to Vancouver in the very early morning to catch our flight back to San Francisco.