Vancouver, B.C. (Or, How to Have the Perfect Vacation)

Vancouver is just a lovely city filled with kind people, wonderful restaurants, a vibrant nightlife, cool shopping, and Stanley Park. Ben and I truly made the most out of our time together this past weekend; we are perfect travel buddies! We both went with the other's flow....walked for miles and miles....got great rest....and had pleasant times of music, silence, and conversation in the car....

THE VANCOUVER MUST LIST:
1) Pausing at the rest stop of your choice to hide a few pages of your favorite book, for the return trip once back in the U.S.A.
2) Staying at the Victorian Hotel. Picture: high ceilings, hardwood floors, yummy continental breakfasts, old creaky heaters, bizarre room layouts, and close proximity to the New Amsterdam Cafe.
3) Eating at least one breakfast/brunch at Slickety Jim's Chat 'N' Chew. Imagine: French toast with chocolate sauce, walls with weird doll heads and 3-D stuffed kittens inside otherwise empty picture frames, sassy service, friendly patrons, and an overall kick-ass atmosphere. Then walk up and down Main Street, with its industrial-meets-gypsy-artist vibe. Stop in the Petri Dish and look at the Damned Dollies. Purchase a card and a cute purse for your roommate.
4) Find out from me where to find your favorite book -- and then head to the New Amsterdam Cafe and read there.
5) Dine out, shop, and and dance on Davie Street. Start your evening with drinks at Sugar Daddy's and The Fountainhead Pub, then eventually mosey into Numbers for some dancing (with two lovely stops in-between....one at the Oasis for dinner....a piano player....mellow lighting.....hot waiters in tight shirts. Got the picture?....The second stop is at the Odyssey, where you should have a beverage out on the very cool veranda/porch. Look up at the stars, and climb the steps until you're eye-level with the mossy roofs wrapping through the trees.) Make sure you shake your booty hardcore at Numbers. Leave the mechanical peacock you bought your mother back at the hotel.
6) Go to Stanley Park and work your way to the harbor. Emerge and take in the fresh air. Slip back into the park and stare up at the trees, and hold hands, and pause to admire everything.
7) Sleep in. Sleep in again. And again.
8) Have dinner one night at Moxie's, a cheesy-chic restaurant that is EXACTLY what you're imagining when you hear "cheesy-chic." Did you picture stone walls, red drapes, and desserts like flan? Did you imagine a cross between elevator music and Barbra Streisand? Yep. You were right.

Be prepared, fellow travelers, to have an easy-go of it crossing INTO Canada, and a longer wait LEAVING Canada. Set your alarm clocks on that last day accordingly.

Next time: The Foundation for breakfast, that great Indian restaurant a fellow Slickety Jimm-er recommended to us, another stop at the gelato place on Main (which I hit up the first time in Vancouver with Alison and Jess), the smaller-more-underdog suspension bridge, and the Granville Market (which Ben and I tried to find to no avail).

Voila! I've just planned your trip for you. Enjoy. Have a drink on me.