Katrina's Visit!

Tuesday night I went out to the airport to meet my friend Katrina who had just arrived from San Diego. She's originally from Boston and we met when she was living in NZ for a while. She decided to make the most of the American 4th of July holiday by flying up to visit me! It was great to see her. I took Wednesday off work to show her around. I put in an order for some nice sunny weather and it came through - 3 beautiful days of sunshine!


Arriving at the airport!


We started Wednesday with coffee on Denman St...


...then hired bicycles and rode around Stanley Park. This is Third Beach, in Stanley Park, where we stopped for a picnic lunch. That's North Vancouver in the background.


That's my rented cruiser bike to the left.


After we returned our cycles we walked along the beach...


...to catch a wee ferry across to Granville Island (that's the ferry just arriving, in the middle of the photo). It was my first time on the Island and I loved it! Very easy to part with a lot of money there! Lots of yummy things to eat and cute little shops. We found this amazing stationery store and spent probably an hour in there looking at all the cute journals, notebooks, cards etc.


Katrina trying out a nylon hammock in the hammock shop!


Enjoying a slice of pizza in the sunshine.


We encountered some pirates but managed to fend them off.


Next we walked from Granville Island (which is actually connected by road) along the water's edge to Vanier Park, where we were scheduled to take in a performance of 'Taming of the Shrew' as part of the annual Bard on the Beach summer Shakespeare program. These are some apartments along the walk.




We had some time to kill before the play so we relaxed in the sun for a while at Vanier Park - that's the central city across the water.


Then we got thirsty so we kept walking around the water to...


...Kits beach where we sampled the Red Truck Lager at the newish Watermark bar overlooking the beach.


Kitsilano (Kits) Beach.

Then it was back round to Vanier Park for some shrew-taming. Unfortunately neither of us were overly impressed with the play. They added a Western theme which we weren't sure about. But we had spent all day outdoors in the sun and then had a beer, so maybe sitting still for a couple of hours wasn't quite what we were in the mood for. It did feel good to have a little bit of culture though!

Thursday I was back at work and left Katrina to her own devices for the day. After work it was a beautiful evening so we had a beer in the sun at English Bay beach before dining at a Malaysian restaurant I'd been wanting to try. The food was delicious!

Katrina flew out Friday afternoon. I was sad to see her go but it was great to have spent a couple of days with her, exploring some of the highlights of Vancouver. And with such nice weather too!