My breakfast place turned out to be a winner: Joe's Grill on Davie St. There was a bit of a wait, but it was worth it. Angela had a “Bacon and Cheddar Benny” (Canadians say “benny” to indicate some variation of Eggs Benedict) and I had a 3 cheese omelet with chorizo sausage. The hash browns were quite good. The weather today was better than yesterday; but still what I would call “sunny.” We took the bus to Gastown and were surprised to see a Crumpler store. I love Crumpler bags, and it was cool to see an actual retail outlet. I was actually able to get some replacement parts for my camera bag, too. Gastown is a little different from Yaletown in that it appears more focused on boutique shopping than on dining. There were some very nice “First Nations” art galleries and jewelry (spelled “jewellery” in Canada) boutiques and Angela had a good time perusing the different shops. She's not yet met a shop that doesn't have something to catch her eye and bring her in. Gastown does have something interesting: a steam powered clock. It plays a little tune every half hour through little whistles.
Chinatown is pretty much adjacent to Gastown, so the walk there didn't take long at all. However, we were mildly delayed by a sight unlike any I've ever seen. Apparently on every Sunday there is a flea market of sorts where the homeless population of Vancouver is encouraged to offer up for sale or trade the belongings they've collected over time.
There is a very nice Chinese garden there and we walked through the free portion. In general, Chinatown areas don't really interest me, except for the herbal shops with all of the herbs and whatnot in the jars behind the counter. They look like the kind of place where a witch would go to make a magic potion or whatever.
By the time we had walked up and down the main drag of Chinatown, the clouds had parted sufficiently enough that we decided to rent bikes and ride around Stanley Park. A quick trip on the #19 bus and we were in front of Spokes bike rentals. Stanley Park was beautiful. There is an 8km loop around the perimeter seawall as well as several gravel trails that chris-cross through the interior of the park. The seawall offers fantastic views of the downtown, the Lions Gate bridge, and Granville Island as you make your way around. We rode all the way around and then along some of the trails in the interior of the park; stopping periodically for photos and wild raspberries, and then rode further down the seawall until road works basically closed off the bike lane before turning back. About half way 'round, we came upon a very curious vignette. It was low tide, and there were many large starfish that had been exposed when the tide went out. Apparently, seagulls love starfish and several birds were chowing down; some even had entire starfish in their mouths as if to protect their bounty.
After about 4 hours of riding, we'd had enough and decided to look for a place to eat since we didn't eat lunch. We wound up walking all the way down Denman St. to the southern portion of downtown and stopped at a place called Milestones. Angela had this watermelon and beet salad and grilled sablefish over seaweed gnocchi that she raved about while I had a simple bacon cheeseburger and caesar salad.
It was an easy bus ride back to the hotel. Tomorrow, I think we're going to go over to North Vancouver and check out Lynn Canyon or Grouse Mountain if the clouds go away.
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