So, on Sunday we went on our first offline date and it was a smashing success! Kevin did a great job of planning and we worked within that framework to piece together a really fun day.

It all started at Aphrodites Organic Cafe, a restaurant I really like, and it started with brunch.

Omelettes for both of us and we were stuffed and ready for our next stop which just happened to be right across the street at Banyen Books. I love this shop. From its incense smell to its wide variety of books and statues, stones and other treasures, every visit is an adventure.

From their website:

We are Canada’s most comprehensive metaphysical bookstore, offering a broad spectrum of resources from humanity’s spiritual, healing, and earth wisdom traditions.

I took a stroll through the shelves stopping for TCM and A Course in Miracles, Buddhism and tarot cards. Kevin wandered into the more palpable displays that include yoga mats and incense, crystals and clothing.

It’s funny how much my library routine has changed my approach to books. I still love to be in the midst of books, but I no longer feel any need to actually own them.

We left having bought just one item, an acupressure mat. I’ve wanted to try one for a while now so as soon as Kevin showed a little interest, I jumped on the chance to get one!

Our next (planned) stop would have been The Museum of Anthropology or The Vancouver Art Gallery, but we called an audible and decided to head to North/West Van for some exploring instead.

At first we went to one of those pottery painting places. We’ve done that a number of times before and had a good time in the process. Before we’d gone in, we agreed that if there was a kids birthday party planned, that was a dealbreaker for us. Thankfully the girl working in the shop disclosed to us that one was coming up fast and we pulled the chute before getting started.

Part of what I wanted to revive in our monthly offline dates was the sense that we didn’t need to spend a lot of money or create elaborate plans to spend quality time together.

So we headed over to the beach partly because we were so close and also because I had been wanting to visit a beach for a while. I had been mentally making something out of a piece of wood and felt ready to get started on the physical plane.

It was really nice to be near the ocean and get to watch the push and pull of the tide and the waves lapping against the sand. I found the wood I was looking for and also picked up a few other little treasures. We sat on a log looking out at the water and it was mesmerizing.

It was there that I had a thought that I’d had several times since we started the day: I wish I had my book with me. I told that to Kevin and it actually helped us decide on our next destination.

The Vancouver Public Library!

We packed up and headed back across the bridge and downtown which was convenient because I found out later that our dinner plans were in Yaletown, only 400 metres from where we parked for the library.

I’d been in the “new” library only a couple of times and never for the sole purpose of exploring. Just to make you feel old in case you’re someone who, like me, remembers the decision to build it and the debate about its architecture, the building was completed in 1995.

I’m going to save talking about our visit to the library until another day because it really deserves its own post, but let’s just say that it was the major highlight of our day. Even Kevin (who isn’t nearly as I to books as I am) enjoyed our time at VPL.

After spending a couple of hours there, we headed over to The Greek thinking we’d have dinner. Unbeknownst to us, they have a decent happy hour menu and we took advantage of that by sharing a mezze platter which was more than enough. Literally. We brought the calamari home with us.

A wander around Yaletown and a stop at Lucky’s Doughnuts on our drive and we were ready to call it a day. And a really fun and good one at that.

The monthly offline dates project is off to a great start!

One month from today, the visions of sugarplums will be dancing and we’ll be setting our sights on our long winter’s naps. People may argue that it’s too early for Christmas things, but, as you can tell, I am not one of them.

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I have a tendency for starting strong. I come out of the gates quickly, I like to get started early and then my short attention span gets the best of me and I scale it back before a panicked push at the end. This applies to Christmas and it also applies to pretty much everything else, too.

Tonight, we’re hauling out the tree and sorting through the decorations and I am thrilled about it!

This afternoon, we got to go to Kevin’s Canucks season ticket holder event – a skate at Rogers Arena!

A few years ago, after I’d posted somewhere on social media that we’d been ice skating, we visited my parents’ house shortly after. My folks both asked where I got my skates from. When I told them I didn’t have any, they went downstairs and returned with a pair that my mom swore she hadn’t used since the seventies. Sure, they looked like they’d been in a basement for thirty years, but I felt like Cinderella when I put them on my feet. They fit like gloves.

It’s been a couple of years since then and I’ve had great intentions for those skates. I’ve had them sharpened and I searched high and low for white shoe polish (which isn’t as easy to find as you’d think!) and skate length white laces.

Ta da!

We had a one hour window for skating and we arrived a few minutes late, but we were still able to make the most of it. The organization did a great job of welcoming us in and making it a really fun event. There was popcorn and coffee or hot chocolate. We got on the ice from the Olympia Tunnel (where the zamboni comes out) and could skate around for as long as we wanted.

The Canucks dressing room was open and we got to walk down the tunnel that you see them use to get on and off the bench. Fin was there skating around, taking pictures with everyone and up to his usual hijinks.

It was interesting to see all the places where the players go and to get to explore the arena a little more than usual. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, we did the arena tour back in 2017 and can’t recommend it enough, but it was even better actually getting out there on the ice! (Not that we haven’t done that before.)

Here are more photos from our little spin around the ice this afternoon.

Happy Monday! Did you have an amazing weekend? Ours was pretty low-key. Most significantly, let’s just say that lacrosse season reared its ugly head made its return front and centre. Kevin played a couple of games and the team he manages played another. I passed on the trip to Victoria so that I could attend Veg Expo, the fourth annual event that incorporates all things vegan and vegetarian.

Veg Expo is a day of celebration where we introduce new, innovative, inspiring products and services that you can implement into your lifestyle and to meet others that share their passion.

This year was the first time I’ve been able to attend and not because I haven’t wanted to before, but because I always seem to just slightly miss the boat. I usually become aware of the expo just after it’s taken place and spend the next few weeks feeling like I’ve totally missed out. If that’s you this year, stop reading now because I will tell you this upfront: we had a really good time and we saw (and sampled!) some really great new products.

our experience

The players
Me: a twenty-eight year vegetarian/vegan veteran who wishes that there was something like this available to her twenty year old self who subsisted on ketchup chips and other coincidentally vegetarian junk foods.
My girlfriend, Corrine: not a vegetarian or a vegan, but a relatively healthy eater who is open to new things and must be a little veg-curious since she readily agreed to go with me.

The preparation
We bought our tickets ($15 each) online quick and easy. On the day of, we met up on the Skytrain and took a ride down to Waterfront station. After a quick walk over and through the cruise ship tourism foot traffic, we arrived at Convention Centre West. The expo had opened its doors at 10am and we got there about half an hour later. It was pretty busy, but nothing compared to what it was like in the middle of the afternoon.

The event
Veg Expo boasted over 150 exhibitors and nineteen presentations on the stage. Exhibitors ran the gamut from gym chains to Doterra representatives, people putting their passion projects into reality and animal activist groups.

Our general observations:

• They’ll give you a bag at the entrance, but you probably want to have an extra one. Or two.
• Bring your appetite. There are a LOT of samples available. Normally, attending an event like this, I’d log a good portion of my daily step count goal. At this one, my hand was so full of food and drink the whole time that I barely logged any steps at all!
• The term “special show price” is relative. We scored really good deals on some things and actually paid slightly more than we would have in stores on others.
• Every food is a super food to someone. We heard those words so. many. times.

I’m in love with kombucha and there were plenty of local vendors there. My favourite was the mojito kombucha from Spark Kombucha. I may even go out of my way to hit up one of the markets they’ll be at this summer…and I’ll have an empty growler in hand when I do!

highlights

My favourite things…

Purchase: For one, I signed up for Hello Fresh which I am so extremely excited about. For another, Vitality! I picked up a sample of their Digest+ product from Whole Foods last year and I think it only took me about a week to go back for a full bottle. As I told these locals today, their products have been a staple in our household ever since.

Sample: Sexy Sadie natural deodorant from Routine. Super cute and smells AMAZING.

Booth: I loved the Routine booth. It was super pretty and nice to be around. The Marphyl booth selling phytoplankton grown in Richmond was very interesting.

Corrine’s favourites:

Purchase: Cha Cha Chaga by Jump Up and Go Go.

Sample: Herbaland protein and multi-vitamin gummies. (Honourable mention to the vegan egg from Earth Island.)

Booth: Pranin. “I was close to buying the vitamin B booster powder. I liked it because it was easy. It was spread out nicely and easy to look at everything.”

Other: “I was truly amazed at how good all the dairy free ice creams were.”

Samples! Freebies! Giveaways!

suggestions

• Expansion. Either a bigger venue or a two-day event. It got really packed in there and it was hard to get around because there were so many people. I’d think it could definitely grow.
• I’ll admit to being surprised that there was so much plastic and waste involved in sampling products. Some businesses were certainly more innovative than others in reducing their waste, but for the target audience, I thought there would be more.

My purchases (what can I say, I’d just been reading about seed cycling that morning!)

things we’ll do differently next year

• Backpacks – by the end of the day, we were carrying around a lot of weight over one shoulder
• Bring cash – it irks me to no end to spend money on bank fees, but I totally blanked on this ahead of time
• More research – I actually missed a couple of booths (though, I have no idea how!) that I would have liked to visit
• Team selfie! – we didn’t document our attendance at all

Did you attend Veg Expo this or any other year? If you’re outside of Vancouver, is there something like this in your area? Which are your favourite vegan/vegetarian products?

Oh. My. Word. I sat across from a woman using a new rose gold MacBook at Starbucks the other day. So compact. So pretty. I don’t often suffer from electronic envy, but whoa.

***

Yesterday was a pretty good, fun and definitely unhibernated day. We got up and ran some errands (with the move so recently behind us, it seems like we will never be short on errands to run!) then we got ready and headed downtown. We had family & friends in from back east and since we didn’t get it together enough to have overnight guests yet (the screws that hold the guest bed together have got to be around here somewhere…) they got a hotel room in the city instead. We were all heading to the hockey game, but en route to Rogers Arena, Kevin and I decided to take a detour and get something to eat before the game. I love my Maui Fire Veggie Dogs, but I knew they weren’t really jiving with my recent commitment to clean eating. Besides, a new chowder shop had opened up this year in Kevin’s work neighbourhood and he’s been wanting to try it for a while.

We took the four-ish block walk from Stadium-Chinatown Skytrain station and found our quaint little Crab Park Chowdery close to the heart of Gastown. It is a cute little restaurant with a lovely warm glow. I opted for vegan chili while Kevin had the clam chowder in a bread bowl. I adore their presentation on wooden board complete with a logo and spoon holder. The chili was good and served with a few small slices of bread on the side. I snuck a taste of Kevin’s chowder, though just enough to determine that it has a unique flavour to it, though not enough to name it. He raved about it. (We only found out later that they have some scrumptious looking desserts. Probably a good thing.) We drank water, but they had craft sodas (including, of course, Dickie’s.) Find Crab Park Chowdery on Facebook or Instagram. Or in real life at 221 Abbott Street.

***

March was a big month for us. A big, long, life-changing month. Sure, we’re mostly over Nick proposing to Vanessa instead of Raven and we’ve managed to move onto bigger and mostly better things. In point form:

1. We moved into our new place.
2. We cancelled our wedding.

Point one: this place is bigger, brighter, prettier, higher up and a million times better, but you already know about that.

Point two: from the moment we got engaged, all anyone said was, “do what YOU want to do.” One day, a few weeks back, we reflected on what our wedding was becoming and asked ourselves, “is this what WE want?” and “IS this what we want?” The best we could answer was “sort of?” So, we scrapped it.

I’ve seen four distinct responses so far.

My family: “What? But we wanted to be at your wedding…”

His family: “That’s okay. We get it. Do what you gotta do.”

Others: “What??? I’m so sorry.” And then when I laugh about it, they look like they’re going to cry and then they eventually come around.

Amy: Totally, completely, 100% support in action. (I’m not really sure she even said a word.)

Honestly, we’re good with it. And someday I’ll probably tell you more.

For now, back to the drawing board…

Here’s another thing we like to do: explore our town. For Julie‘s birthday, she wanted to check out the home of her beloved Vancouver Canucks. So that’s what we did.

We arrived at Rogers Arena just in time for the first tour of the day and we were the only ones there. Bonus! We got registered up at the front desk quickly, were given lanyards with behind the scenes passes and we were ready to go!

We left the team store and promptly got a rundown of some of the history of the building and what to expect from the tour. Since it wasn’t a game day, the arena was relatively quiet, though there was some filming going on so we did see a few people including players and coaches on the benches and on the ice. We were allowed to take pictures of and with everything we saw (including any players we might encounter), but were asked not to bother said players since they were, after all, at work.

We headed up to the 300 level to check out the Canucks dressing room display which includes memorabilia from the four Canucks whose jerseys have been retired and Trevor Linden’s actual dressing room stall from before the rooms were renovated in 2009. (He wore the same shoes to every single game throughout his career. Like, exact same pair. And they’re in that stall still. Gross.)

Next up, we headed to the Olympic display where Roberto Luongo waves the Canadian flag after Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal at the 2010 Olympics. The wall features a replica of Luongo’s mask, his actual stick and a few other tokens from both the men’s and women’s tournaments that year.

When we finished there, we took the elevator up to the 500 level which houses spectator lounges including Club 500 – a ticketed area that offers several stations of various foods, bars and very loungeable seating, the press areas and media booths (no surprise that home is much comfier than visitors), the Canucks Alumni suite. From high up in the rafters, we got an impeccable look at the banners, a different angle on the jumbotron and a bird’s eye view of the ice.

From the top, we went all the way down to the bottom where we got to walk through the players’ entrance to the arena and in and around the dressing rooms. Because there were players in the arena, we weren’t allowed to go into the Canucks dressing room, but we did get to walk through the visitors’. (It smelled like watermelon gum.)

For those of you who don’t know or may not remember, when Rogers Arena was built, the Canucks weren’t the only professional team in town. One of the more interesting parts of the tour for me was when we walked through the area where the Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA used to be housed. The remnants of having a basketball team in town is that, still, sixteen years later, there are way taller than normal doors in certain areas of the arena. Here’s 5’10.5″ me underneath a chin-up bar in the midst of them. If you sit on one of the stalls in the former Grizzlies dressing room, your feet still out like a child’s.

After checking out all there was to see at ice level, we headed back up an elevator and to the 100 level before finishing off the tour. All in all, we spent about an hour and a half exploring the arena and I’d recommend it to anyone who is interested. Taking the tour also gets you a special 10% discount in the Canucks store on the same day.

Want to check out Rogers Arena? It’s $12 per adult ($6 per child over four, $8 per senior) and reservations are not required. For more information, check out their tours page.

To check out more photos from our tour, go to my album on Facebook. (Like my page while you’re there!)