Bright and early on Monday morning, Alyssa and I caught the 8 a.m. ferry for Anacortes (the mainland!) for our drive to Vancouver, British Columbia. Alyssa and I chose Vancouver for our week off because we had heard that the city was really nice and definitely worth checking out…wow, was that description ever spot-on! Vancouver was AMAZING! We stayed at a respectable hostel called The Cambie on Seymour Street. Our private double room was quite small…okay, more like Harry’s cupboard under the stairs and lacking air-conditioning, but other than that, it was ideal.
Our first day in the city (Monday) we checked out the new Twilight Eclipse film, perused the Pacific Centre Mall, and I had my first honey-lager beer in Vancouver with two very nice girls we met at the Hostel, Britt and Natalie. They were in Vancouver for the weekend dress shopping from Victoria (where they attend university).
Tuesday we strolled up Robson street window shopping and I even found some scrumptious green tea ice cream sandwiches with red bean paste in the middle from a cool Japanese market called Minna no Kombiniya (YUM!). Later in the evening we checked out the historic Railway Club for drinks and live entertainment. There weren’t too many people, so we headed over to The Cambie Gastown hostel bar and met a lot of really cool people from Vancouver, Oregon, and Mexico. After the bar, we ventured to our first Canadian club called The Roxie. It was fun dancing, but we were pretty tired by the time we got back to our little hostel bungalow.
Wednesday we spent the day in the Pacific Centre Mall (though neither of us actually bought anything; it was just nice to be in air-conditioning!) then spent the evening walking along Granville Street with Carlos, Bobby and Cody, some cool people we had met the previous night from Alberta, but who made an annual trip to Vancouver for a couple weeks of summer fun. Before meeting up with them, Alyssa and I checked out the Caprice nightclub. Save for a few people at the bar, hardly anyone was in the cavernous club – it was kind of comical, actually. We promptly left the dud of a club, and then met up with our new friends to check out a much more lively Irish bar called Ceili’s. It was such a nice bar and just perfect for dancing, talking and embodying the Irish idea of having a casual, carefree night out with friends. We even met these really nice people from Ireland who had good things to say about Ceili’s! Carlos, Bobby and Cody were staying at the Westin Hotel right near the docks and cruise ship port near Stanley Park. Alyssa and I were jealous of their beautiful location (and air-conditioning!), and it was a lot of fun to just hang out with people our own age and have an elevated conversation with someone over the age of 12! Haha.
Thursday was a much more outdoorsy day for Alyssa and I: first we treated ourselves to an upscale lunch (I had a fresh spinach salad with strawberries, toasted pecans, veggies and warm goat cheese cakes with the most fabulous raspberry vinaigrette dressing). Next, we rented bikes and peddled through Stanley Park along the Seawall. We stopped over at Third beach for a few hours of soaking up some vitamin D and enjoying the hot weather. It was tons of fun to bike around Vancouver (TONS of people use bikes as their form of transportation there!) and before heading back to the hostel, we grabbed some scrumptious Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company ice cream (yes, that amazing-smelling chocolate shop in Somerset Mall). After showers and some rest after our long day, we ended up hanging out in the hostel lounge and met a really nice guy from Manchester, England, two guys from Ireland, and one guy from Montreal. Despite being a little tired from the day’s activities, Alyssa and I headed out into the evening and ended up at the Cambie Gastown bar. While enjoying a pint, we met a super-kind guy from Tenessee named Thomas. He was surprised to run into other Americans in Vancouver, and we ended up hanging out with Thomas the rest of the evening at another Irish pub called Doolin’s (located on Granville Street). This pub was far more casual than Ceili’s and they even had a live Irish band playing music – they were really good! I also tried my first wheat barley beer at Doolin’s made complete with a huge orange slice; it was very tasty, but also very filling! Alyssa and I decided that Doolin’s was one of our favorite places to go and chat it up with the locals and new acquaintances! We bid farewell to Thomas (who was going camping up in Whistler the following day), and walked back to our Cambie Seymour bunk beds to rest up for our last half of the week in the incredible city of Vancouver!
(Even more to come later…whew! This entry is becoming comparable to a small novel…)
