Vancouver Part I: Downtown

Vancouver: our hippie haven to the left, or is it to the right? I guess it depends on which direction you are facing. In any case, I wanted to share a bit of my vacation to British Columbia with you. Never have I been in a city where I smelled weed with such frequency in so many different locations. Barely anyone smokes cigarettes in Vancouver but if our olfactory senses are any indication, everyone in Vancouver is high. Jokes aside, we had a wonderful time navigating the (timely and efficient) public transportation system and wandering the city each day. We experienced a gamut of weather conditions from rain to snow to hail and smiled through almost all of it.

Vancouver Aquarium

My first trip to an aquarium. I loved the coral and anemones for their similarity to fungi.  

We tested out the Lion's Winter Ale at Grainville Island Brewing, Canada's first microbrewery.

In Vancouver's historic Gastown, we stumbled upon the steam powered clock. As you can imagine, Rysio was thrilled (I think this could be considered our third steam themed date of 2011, see here and here, for our first and second). 

The view from downtown, looking over Vancouver Harbour.

     

We had sushi at The Eatery, recommended by my friend Kate. What we expected to be a calm evening of sushi in a relaxing Japanese inspired environment turned out to be a restaurant with crazy patterns, Warhol-esque photos of Marilyn Monroe and Chairman Mao, giant sculptures hanging from the ceiling, blacklight and a DJ. Surprises like that are fun when you're travelling.