Staying tonight in Surrey, after a really relaxing day doing a ton of stuff, which seems counter-intuitive. The day started off fairly calmly with Brenna and Devin, we talked some while I was waking up and sending some e-mails to my hockey teams at home, and had a coffee to wake up.

The plan for the day was essentially to do a little bit of gift shopping at several places Brenna knew, see Granville Island market, meet up with Devin for drinks and sushi in and around Gastown, and end the evening part of the way on the road to Banff, (or environs) which is where I will be tomorrow night.

We left for a quick stop at the Vancouver Aquarium, but were unable to find any parking whatsoever, which, for a Thursday noon was a little odd. We got exactly what we needed, though, and went, after some Apple Maps shenanigans, to Granville Island, where we perused the market, ate some lunch,talked about some of the demographic and socioeconomic issues affecting Vancouver's lower east side, as well as Brenna's new band. I also purchased some baguettes, turkey slices and new cheese for the second last bit of my trip, at the artisan stands in the market.

From Granville, we went to the international mall, near Gastown, and went to Yoko Yaya 123, which is a japanese dollar store where nothing costs $1, and EVERYTHING costs $2, from tiny plastic forks to RC helicopters, to wallscrolls, to candy. It was an odd experience, but a very cool one. We met Devin there, and went to Gastown, where we went into two stores I had no personal interest in, but would appeal to about every one of my fashionista friends. Handmade vancouver-designed shoes and bags and a store called sharks and hammers, which was like a hipster starter kit store, which had everything from expensive dirty T-shirts to THREE volumes of the Russian Prison Tattoo encyclopaedia.

We then went to the Pourhouse, for expensive mixed drinks. I had an Avenue & Davenport, which was Bourbon, Rye, Maraschino and two different herbal liqueurs. It was delicious and got me a little buzzed, which I haven't experienced in a while, since I drink mostly beer. We then went to a pretty classy, and extremely tasty sushi bar to end the evening.

It was a full day, but completely free of stress, and a lot of fun because I so infrequently have discussion partners as insightful and entertaining as Brenna and Devin. Discussion topics ranged from Edgar Wright's oeuvre, to homelessness, to addictive music and the CBC show "The Debaters".

Tomorrow is another driving day, although not one that I expect will have a ton of photo opportunities, but who knows. I'll be driving into the rockies, and staying with my uncle rob at his research post near Banff.

Cheers!