Vancouver Adventure: Day 2, Easter

Vancouver Day Two: Easter Sunday

Easter Cookie

Well commerce may be closed but the shops are open. It remains dry and sunny whilst I walk all the way to through the West End, through Davie Village to the English Bay to walk on some sand, buy my first cupcake (Vanilla of course) even though the shop is barely open at 10am and I’m ready  for my first pancakes, at Joe’s Grill. A walk back to the hotel meant accidently coming across a gorgeous Safeway store and a very successful food shop including the maple syrup to bring back, although I realise now why it’s so much cheaper here than in UK, it’s not maple syrup, it’s pretend but it’s done the job for the last year so I pick up two.

It’s right after finding these that Jackson Brown’s ’Running on Empty’ and I almost burst with excitement. Can’t imagine this scenario in Tesco at Five Ways.On the way back I also discover an IGA, the supermarket I frequented a lot in Montreal that I can’t help calling AIG, so get even more supplies, all the things I used to eat in New York and just as huge quantities; box of savoury scones and a box of cookies – the Easter variety and a lasagne, exactly what I fancied.Later I cover one more neighbourhood that I can walk to, despite the rain that has now returned, Yaletown. The area is full of boutiques and arts stores, mostly closed this late on a Sunday but it gave me a flavour of the area. Then onto the first of my ‘sitting in coffee shops, looking out the window and reading out of date Sunday Times magazines (January). First up, a chai in Benz ‘Canada’s coffee shops’.Things I love about Canadian (and North American) coffee shops;

• ·         They call them coffee houses, much more apt as I live in them
• ·         They open late, some till 1-2am and some 24 hours.
• ·         They have chai tea or chai latte on the menu. In Canada they have something similar too, the fantastically  named ‘London Fog’.

Still not been to a Tim Horton’s coffee shop yet, I think of them as being ‘Canada’s coffee place’ but they are not as prevalent here as they are in Montreal.