Running Vancouver

Ah...the trip to Vancouver was a good one. I'll write up a separate race report for yesterday's Sun Run, but here are the details for the rest of the trip:

Thursday:

We arrive in Vancouver in the afternoon and caught a cab down to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Our cabbie didn't know where the hotel was, but thankfully I'm reasonably familiar with the city so we found it without too much incident.

After checking in we hopped a cab to Lumiere - the restaurant that used to be helmed by Iron Chef winner (and cookbook author and tv chef) Rob Feenie. He no longer works there thanks to some drama that took place recently, but we went to check the place out anyway. The food was delicious and we had a nice time.

Friday:

I got up for a run around town. I started at the hotel and ran towards Stanley Park. At the entrance to Stanley Park I hit Lost Lagoon:I ran around the lagoon and eventually arrive at the western edge of Stanley Park:

Wow, it was really windy out! The sun was shining though so it felt reasonably pleasant. I continued along the sea wall out of Stanley Park for a bit, then eventually I cut back towards the hotel and finished up with about 4.1 mi. I grabbed a coffee and bagel from Starbucks, then it was on to start the rest of the day.

In the afternoon we hit the Sun Run Expo at BC Place to get our bibs and race shirts. There were tons of people, but as I had already looked up our bib numbers things went pretty smoothly.

After the expo we took a water taxi to Granville Island where Neil and I spent some quality time at Granville Island Brewing. It should be noted that nothing in Vancouver is cheap, but this place is certainly a great deal. GIB has a taproom with four different brews on tap that you can taste, or you can tour the facility. A pint is $4.06 and a big plate of chips and salsa is less than $5. Definitely one of the best drink deals in town. We tasted as much GIB as possible before walking back to the hotel. That evening we met up with a friend of Neil's for some tapas at Bin 941. This place is a tiny hole in the wall. We wound up waiting an hour for a table (they don't take reservations), but the food was amazing. While we were at dinner it snowed outside - big fluffy white flakes that luckily didn't stick to the ground.

Saturday

We spent the afternoon wandering around the Vancouver Aquarium. We had enough time to catch the beluga whale show, see the dolphins and watch them feed the otters. For dinner we found quite possibly the next best deal in town at Joe Fortes Seafood & Chop House. They are running a Fanny Bay Oyster festival. For $48 you get a bottle of wine and a dozen oysters. Considering that bottles start around $40 you get the oysters for just a few bucks extra. Wine, oysters, ahi tuna, and a terrific ice cream cookie sandwich for dessert made for one pretty terrific pre-race dinner.

Sunday

Sunday was race day. Once all was said and done we had enough time to meet friends for lunch afterwards, then go for a second round of oysters at Joe Fortes before heading out to catch our flight back to Calgary. Sigh, the bad news is that thanks to a ton of walking on Saturday and an unfortunate sock seam I did some damage to my small toe on my left foot. I'm not sure if it is entirely a blister but something started bleeding while we were walking around. It is still pretty painful, but luckily it didn't factor into the run though. Despite that, all in all, it was a great weekend though!