West Coast, Best Coast?

........And we're back! Norm and I just started our newest adventure to the west coast after a long and grueling 14 vacation-less months!! We've finally made it to Vancouver and it's been amazing so far. We landed in the afternoon and Norm's LSE bff, Doug, picked us up from the airport and gave us a quick tour of the city. It's my first time here and basically Norm's first time here (he was here when he was 10 so it doesn't really count). We were most excited about seeing our friends and family who live in Van or just happen to be visiting Van at the same time and of course the FOOD =D Our friends gave us a lot of suggestions and we hope to go to at least a few but our biggest challenge is: too many amazing restaurants to try, too little time.

Our first pit stop was Guu in Gastown after a quick visit to Doug's place. It was early for dinner in Van but our stomachs were still running on Toronto time. The food at Guu was mostly okay only but the best dish was definitely the sashimi platter... mmmmMMM... (I'm so glad I started eating sashimi.) 

We also found out that the Vancouver stereotype is true: blazing is highly accepted everywhere (wink wink).

Reunited with beer!

Bad quality picture, great quality fish

After dinner affogato

Since we had such an early dinner (5:30pm), we had a lot of time before barhopping so we walked around Gastown. Gastown is a popular neighbourhood in Vancouver that is going through gentrification. The streets make us feel like we are in Covent Garden in London. There's even a clock
tower! There's a ton of shops and restaurants so the area is very touristy but after dark, the locals come here to drink. And that's exactly what we did after a coffee and affagato break at Buro Cafe, a walk around the pier, and after a whiskey shot at a bar near the pier. We started at a bar called port side and then went to metropoli to finish the night. We met up with a few more of Doug's friends and Justin and Stacey who happen to be vacationing in Vancouver for the weekend too! We played some foozeball and got destroyed by a couple of strangers and did some dancing. We were a bit jet lagged so we didn't stay out too late. Nonetheless, it was an eventful first day!

Vancouver Pier

Clock Tower in Gastown

Stacey and Justin!