a weekend in vancouver

I am not much of a traveller.  Sometimes I wish that I was, but the fact is that I am a homebody and after four or five days away, I usually just want my own kitchen, my own bed, and my own stuff back.

Since I don't like being away from home for long periods of time, but still love to explore new places, I have become pretty good at weekend trips.  Give me three days in a city, and I'll attempt to get to most of the major tourist attractions.  I absolutely get that this robs me of the thrill of finding amazing spots that locals have come to love, but for now, I'm okay with that.  I'm pretty much the quintessential tourist - major art galleries and museums, local zoos or aquariums, that "thing" that all tourists get their picture taken in front of, and of course, some magnet/keychain/tchotchke purchases.  But frankly, I think there is usually a reason why these things become tourist attractions in the first place, so I like to see them and find out why.

A few weeks ago, my guy and I went to Vancouver.  I had never been before (but always wanted to go) and he hadn't been since he was much younger, so it was a good place that was nearby and full of spots to explore.

When we arrived, it was snowing.  Wet, heavy snow.  And we were not prepared for that.  We had just left -30 something in Winnipeg and were positive that Vancouver would be so much warmer.  Well....when you're soaked with wet snow, +1 can still be pretty cold.  So it took us a bit of time to adjust (i.e. dress properly - including a stop at a Winners for me to buy some tights) and get used to carrying an umbrella constantly, but once we figured that out, we were good to go.

The weekend looked something like this...

The amazing view from our hotel room
(The Hyatt Regency Vancouver - I completely recommend staying there)

The gorgeous Vancouver Public Library (because places full of books that also happen to be very cool pieces of architecture make me very happy).

The Granville Market

The harbour outside of the market (still snowing out)

Stanley Park in the morning (yup...in the snow)

At the Vancouver Aquarium

Despite the constant snow (it literally stopped snowing about three hours after our plane home took off), we had a fantastic time. And still discovered that Vancouver is a beautiful city....we'll just make sure that the next time we go back is in the summer, when there's more of a chance of sunshine.