Happy Birthday Vitaly!
It was a gorgeous day, but stinking hot. The poor boys in their suits were suffering. Even I was suffering and I was wearing a dress!
We took the late shuttle back to Van and escaped super-late night activities to crash.
The next morning, we joined the wedding crew for brunch at the Granville Island Hotel on Granville Island.
After brunch, we were pretty low-key until we had to head back to the airport for our flight out. It was a wonderful week of catching up with friends and family, thanks to everyone who we were able to catch up with and who hosted us this week (Vicki, Mike, Susan and Kenny).
Congratulations to John and Jasmine!
Great to see everyone!
There are some random stories from me and Vicki picking up sushi and some dude running into the car while we were driving (!) and Will at the stag night (you'll have to ask him to tell you all about it!).
On Friday, Will and I slept in, and then had brunch at Sophie's Cosmic Cafe, super busy little spot on 4th Street that is highly recommended for brunch. We ran some errands, including a superb mani-pedi for me.
Vicki, Will and I headed out for early evening cocktails (happy hour!) and ended up at Hell's Kitchen again (they make a pretty killer Caesar). Kenny and Anik arrived from Whistler and joined us there. Later in the evening, the five of us met up with Ath and Kristi at Chill Winston in Gastown for dinner.
Chill Winston was a recommendation from Double-A (thanks buddy!) and it featured a yummy drink list and fantastic small plates. The tuna tartare and their risotto was fantastic, we also tried a fantastic daily pizza full of seafood, sesame-soy bbq glazed ribs, calamari and duck sliders. Yum!
From Chill Winston, we ended up a pub called the Black Frog. A couple other folks joined us (Dr. Dave and Anne-Marie), so lots of good socializing was had.
Thanks for a great night, I heart Gastown!
On Monday morning, the weather was glorious and I went for a 6 mile run along Kits Beach, past Granville Island, along False Creek and back to Kits. In fact, it was almost too hot for me, thank goodness for the abundance of water fountains throughout the run.
I headed downtown to the infamous shopping mecca on Robson Street for the afternoon. I also grabbed some awesome sushi at Tsunami Sushi, which has a huge sushi boat bar and I try to frequent this joint every time I'm close to Robson.
My plan was to take the 6:55 PM ferry from Horsehoe Bay to Departure Bay at Nanaimo, so I wandered around Stanley Park until I needed to head to North Vancouver.
On Tuesday, we took it easy, did some touring around the island. We had lunch in Maple Bay at the Shipyard Restaurant, where I enjoyed some wonderfully battered halibut for late lunch.
From Maple Bay, we hopped over to Genoa Bay, and then onto Cowichan Bay. 
Cowichan Bay features a great little community with organic food vendors and lots of local artists.
Will and I stayed through Thursday at Mike & Susan's. Our visit featured fantastic meals with super fresh organic ingredients grown on the island, a game of tennis (my new fave sport!), lots of Olympics spectating, and a lively game of euchre.
On Thursday, we caught lunch in Victoria before getting on the 2 PM ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen and be back in Vancouver by late afternoon. Pics from the deck of the ferry:
