Last weekend Alan and I headed to Vancouver for a little R&R. I had never been to Vancouver and had been wanting to check it out so when we found a pretty good deal on flights and a hotel we decided to go for it.
We stayed at the Westin Bayshore, which I loved! It was located in Downtown’s Coal Harbor neighborhood and was right up against the Marina so it was a perfect location. Amenities offered include a fitness center (which Al visited on the daily while I was being lazy), an indoor and outdoor pool, and a hot tub which was wonderful after long days of walking around in the bone-chilling weather. The hotel was also within about a mile of a lot of downtown attractions like Stanley Park, Robson Street shopping, and Gastown.
Photo Credit: Westin Bayshore
On our first full day there we decided to walk to Gastown, which is the older part of Vancouver that has lots of shops and restaurants. We moseyed around for the morning walking into some tourist shops to buy postcards to send to family and friends then went to MeeT in Gastown for lunch. This is an all vegan place but even non-vegans would enjoy it I think! The entrance is in a cute little courtyard in Gastown and the ambiance inside the restaurant was nice. I also thought the service here was really great! I was debating between a burger or mac n cheese but the Mac N Cheese ultimately won because it sounded really good on a cold day. Vegan mac n cheese is usually a hit or miss so I was a little nervous but I thought this one was quite tasty! Alan got the macro bowl, a mixture of brown rice, veggies, and gravy. I tried a bite of his and thought it was also quite tasty; he finished it in about two minutes so I think he enjoyed it too.
After lunch we walked some more and then stopped for coffee at Bean Around the World. I got a chai latte that was kinda bland. A chai latte is always my go-to, but it’s hard to find a good one!
After spending some time getting warm in the coffee shop, we continued our journey to Robson Street shopping. We wanted to hit up the New Balance store because we’re both kind of obsessed with New Balances and Alan was in the market for new ones. After all that walking we decided it was time to go back to the hotel and take a dip in the hot tub.
Later we went to get take-out from Sushi Itoga for the second night in a row. As vegans this place was a good choice for us because it had veggie sushi options and it was some of the best sushi I’ve had! I can’t vouch for the regular sushi but the place seems to be pretty popular so I’m sure it’s good. We got the Veg Combo that came with inari, an avocado roll, and a veggie roll (lettuce, cucumber, avocado, red bell pepper, tempura bits, and sans spicy mayo for us).
The next day we set out for a looooong walk around the Stanley Park Seawall. We began at the Seawall right outside our hotel and walked around almost the entire thing with a little detour through the park. I think by the time we had gotten back to the hotel we had walked about 7 miles. It was a very pretty walk though so if you enjoy walking, running, or biking I would highly recommend Stanley Park. There are a lot of really beautiful views of Vancouver from the Seawall. There’s also a lot of trails that go through the park if you want to spend some time in a forest.
He thinks it’s funny to look mad in all his pictures
After that walk I was pretty much done for the day. We went back to the hotel, got in the hot tub, and then took a little nap until it was time to venture out to Bandidas Taqueria for dinner. This place had a cool ambience but was really just alright. We both got the Wolf and Goat; mine as a burrito, his as a bowl and both were good but not amazing. I’ve definitely had better burritos in my lifetime. The service was not fantastic either; our waitress seemed really unhappy and barely said any words the whole time we were there. Oh well, all you can do is laugh it off! After dinner it was back to the hot tub and then time for bed to rest up before catching a flight home the next morning.
Thanks for the good time, Canada!
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