Tofu-Family Vacation, Day 3 (Sick of us yet?)

Day Three dawned bright and clear, thankfully not quite so warm.

We took Little Sprout over to Beacon Hill Park for some play time in the water fountains.

Beacon Hill Park is just beautiful, and has two really nice clean areas for kids to play and get wet, we especially thought the giant Watering Can fountain was fun - you could push giant buttons to make the spray change patterns. She absolutely LOVED it and we spent most of the morning there - I think this was her favorite part of the trip (even if it was REALLY cold water...).

Big sisters thought water play was beneath them, but I secretly think they wished they had the nerve to run through the water once or twice...

Another interesting (and free) destination we hit while in the park; The Tallest Totem Pole In North America. Little Sprout wanted her picture taken at the base of the pole even though there's really not much to see from there - my older girls were too cool for totem pole pictures I guess.

After lunch we walked along the Inner Harbour waterfront and peeked in the lobby of the Wax Museum, but the wax figures weirded the kids out just a little, and they decided to pass, which was fine with me.

Instead, we opted for a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city. (I'm such a sucker for anything "horse-y") The driver played tour guide - of course - and showed us lots of historical sites and beautiful old homes.

Somewhere in the conversation, we mentioned we were vegetarian and she helpfully recommended a "great little restaurant with lots of vegetarian choices and local, organic food" - It sounded great, but I looked them up on the Internet later, and decided to pass - "great little restaurant" indeed! Meals started at 28$ each...

Instead, we took the recommendation of one of the hotel's shuttle drivers and checked out a Mexican place (yes, I know, Mexican in Canada?) called Delicados.

I'm not a huge fan of "rice and beans" Mexican food, and when we saw it was just a walk-up deli with a few street-side picnic tables, I almost changed my mind altogether - but we were starving and had heard such good things...

I'm glad we tried it - this little place really surprised us! Everything was so fresh, organic and could be made veggie!

The Sprouts all opted for the Rainbow Nachos with red, blue, white and yellow-corn chips and all sorts of colorful veggies - They loved being able to customize their orders exactly as they liked them - no onions, no tomatoes, extra avocados, whatever...

I ordered the Small Combo Plate and wouldn't have been able to finish the thing if I'd had two days to work on it. It included a nopalito, roasted corn and pumpkin seed burrito in a green cilantro tortilla with red chile sauce; a pinto bean, avocado, green chile enchilada in a whole wheat and corn tortilla; and a "side" of refreshing black-bean and corn salad with a garlic-lime dressing.

Wow. That's a "small"? It was probably the tastiest and most creative Mexican-type meal I've ever eaten... except for one small detail.

Now, I can usually handle things quite spicy, but after noticing they titled their hottest sauce "Nitro", I decided to play it safe (OK, I was tired and grumpy and being a weenie) and ordered the "medium" red chile sauce. They assured me it was only "moderately hot".

Riii-ii-iight!

One bite and I knew I was going to die. Seriously die. Or at least hyperventilate!! My sinuses were on fire and I thought I'd never be able to swallow again. Mercy! I have to confess here - I actually grabbed a spoonful of my daughters (very NOT vegan) sour cream to dull the heat. Fortunately this remedy helped immensely and immediately, and I was able to breathe again. I scraped the rest of the offending molten peppers off my enchilada (thankfully there wasn't much anyway) and enjoyed the rest of my dinner thoroughly.

Everything was was delicious, despite the evil pepper incident. The green chiles in my burrito were fire-roasted and tasted as "authentic" as those I get in New Mexico, and the nopalitos (cactus) were tender-crunchy and sort of tasted like green beans.

For those of you who might suffer pangs of dairy guilt I don't recommend my emergency method for dousing habanero flames - but desperate times call for desperate measures - it did do the job.

After the excitement of dinner, with full tummies and tired from our day's adventures, we wandered home enjoying the sunset. The kids somehow found the energy to climb and play around the artwork and murals in a small park (I'm sure they're supposed to represent something important and historical though I apologise to the good people of Canada, I have no idea what).

I made sure we caught a glimpse of the lights on the Parliament (sorry for the fuzzy picture) buildings just as we headed back to the motel.

And pool.

And hot tub.

And bed!

More tomorrow. You know you're on the edge of your seat in anticipation!