I arrived in Vancouver in the early morning and decided to do a little bit of walking around as I hadn’t been there in a few years and the last time was only for a weekend, so I got a very brief taste of the city.  I stumbled across the public library and decided to stop in and use a computer for a little bit, to do some research on what i was going to be doing in Vancouver, especially from a Brewery and pinball perspective.  They offer tourist passes for the internet so you can still access a computer without a library card.

The library building reminded me of the Colosseum in Rome.

After a little bit of a wander towards downtown, I met up with my friend Tim who I would be staying with in Vancouver for a brunch and beer!  It was very lucky for me that he actually had the time off while I was there so we got to hang out together the whole time.  I had a quick nap at his place and then we headed off to a few breweries for a fun night out.  First stop was 33 Acres Brewing which had a cool mix of west coast, Belgium and German styles.

I know a lot of people in Vancouver and so I reached out to a bunch about possibly hanging out.  One of my friends who used to live with my Friend Angelo, moved from SF to Vancouver a few years ago and had reached out to hang out.  She has a backyard and a fire pit and actually lives across the street from another friend I know from university (Small world) and they invited us over for a chill and fire night.  Tim and I stopped at Main St brewing to get a growler and then headed over.

I didn’t really take many photos that night, but here is a selfie Martina and I took a selfie and sent it to Angelo.  We also facetimed him for a bit, which was fun!

We had a great night sharing stories and just sitting around the camp fire enjoying everyone’s company.

The next morning I planned a run around Stanley park with a aquiantance I think I had only met in person one time, but we are both runners and follow each other on Strava.  Turns out she just moved to Vancouver and didn’t really know that many people to run with.  It was a beautiful morning and we ended up doing a full loop of the park!

Stanley Park is probably one of my favorite places to run!

After the run, I returned to Tim’s place, cleaned up and we chilled for a bit until it was time to head out for an afternoon of exploration and Breweries!

We headed to one of the breweries across town, but decided to take the scenic route and of course be tourists.

Vancouver has a really cool Harbour airport which operates commercial float planes to some of the places in the general vicinity.

The first brewery stop was called steam works and was one of those slightly more commercial brew pubs, but the beer was pretty good and it was refreshing after our walk around town.

After a pint at steamworks, we headed down the street to a bar that popped up on my pinball radar, and since it was across the street we decided to check it out.  On the way we did have to stop at the steam clock for a quick pic.

After a bit of touristing we hit up the Lamplighter public house which had at least 6 pinball machines in great shape.  Tim and I got to playing and who walks in but two of my Pinball friends from San Francisco who are in league with me.  We didn’t know each other were in Vancouver and we just happened to be at the same place at the same time (small world, although it get’s smaller when you are obsessed with pinball)   Russ and Shannon were on their way to an Alaskan cruise that leaves from Vancouver and had an afternoon to kill.  So they thought they would stop in for some pinball.

It was great to have a few games with them before we headed off to our next brewery stop, Postmark brewing.

The building is apparently in an old post office, but it seemed like more of a sorting and distribution centre, because it was very industrial inside.

The beer here was delicious and we had a pizza to share which was also wonderful.  We actually had to wait a little bit for it, because the fresh ingredients were on their way from the market and were a bit late.

An interesting thing to note about BC liqour laws, is that they allow growler fills, but all to go items had to be sold from a separate bar from the main one.  So all of the breweries had separate areas for to go and growler fills, which meant they had to have two totally separate tap systems.

Next up was Strathcona beer company which was alright but not amazing.

We had a pint then headed out.  Pretty pretty brewery though.

Up next was one of my favorite breweries on the tour, Storm Brewing.  This one requires a bit of a description because it is so different.  Tim had told me there was this dirty brewery, who didn’t have a tasting room license and therefore gave away beer for free with a donation requested for whatever you have.  It’s is in this dark and dirty warehouse and one of the signs says the rats give it flavor.  I didn’t really believe him, but onwards we went to Storm brewing.

For a process that usually requires the cleanest environments in order to avoid infection, somehow they make this work.  The beer was ok, but not fantastic, although they tried to incorporate a lot of different flavors in their beers like fruits or vanilla or whatever.  It was not my thing, but the experience alone was worth it.  They even made an ice beer where they freeze off the water and remove it to bring up the alcohol content.  It wasn’t that great to be honest, but i’ve heard that this one is hit or miss from year to year.

After the treat which was Storm brewing, we moved on to a place nearby called Adina and it was a Spanish inspired brewery, with Tappas and very Spanish decorations.  I don’t think we got a free plate of food with our beer though, so not that authentic.

The beer was ok, but nothing special so we moved on with our afternoon.

I had a few friends that were looking to meet up in the afternoon, so we headed to R&B Ale and Pizza house where people said they would stop by to say hello.  Matt and Mark ended up joining us who both went to school with me in Waterloo.  We had a great time filling each other in on where life has taken us these past few years and it was great to catch up!

Matt had to duck out but the rest of us decided to head to one more brewery down the street called Brassneck.  We each got a flight and continued the conversation!

It was a very fun day and I am glad I got to see some old friends and drink some new beers!

The next day Tim and I decided to go on an adventure down south to Steveston for some famous fish and chips, a stroll along the harbour and of course more beer!

We went to Pajo’s which is a staple in this area.  It was a beautiful day and you sit outside right on the marina.  It was great fish, good company and an amazingly relaxing lunch.

The stevenston pier is also the location of the famous viral video of the sea lion pulling the girl into the water and the guy jumping in to save her.  There are now more ladders and many signs saying do not interact with the sea lions.

There was a brewery in the marina complex, so we stopped for a flight after lunch for a nice chill on the patio.  Did i mention how nice of a day it was?

We then jumped back in the car and headed towards one more brewery stop on the way home.  Fuggle and Warlock is a really cool Brewery who have a bit of a nerd theme.  Their artwork is great and the names of their beers all have a bit of a nerd hint to them.  I also remember seeing them in Seoul which I remember at the time was strange to see a Canadian Beer in Korea (other than unibrou of course).  Apparently the owners have a strong connection to Korea and have tried really hard to break through that market.

The beer was excellent and the day continued to provide amazing weather!  I had the flight and then we headed back to town.

That night meeting up with old friends continued as my friend Lee Ann headed into town to meet up with me.  We met at Red Truck Brewing for a drink or two then went on a long walk around the city with her doggo!

We also made plans to do the grouse grind the next day which is something I had on my list of things to do when i was in Vancouver.  The night was beautiful and the walk was just what the Dr ordered.

The next morning Lee Ann picked me up and we headed over to North Van to tackle the hill which is the Grouse Grind (2800 feet of elevation gain)

I half ran half hiked the grind and made it up in around 40 minutes.  The view from the top is supposed to be wonderful and show off Vancouver below.  However, that morning was pretty foggy, so we didn’t get the view when finished.

Once you get to the top you can either walk down or take the Gondola and in our case we decided to take the Gondola.  Lee Ann had an appointment to get to, so she dropped me off part of the way home and I ran the remaining distance, which took me over the lions gate bridge!

I then got to run Stanley Park’s sea wall again, which is always a treat!

Upon my return to Tim’s place, I cleaned up and then we headed out to a diner to meet another friend for Breakfast.

Sasha has been a close friend for several years and is always checking in to see how things are going.  He is currently attending UBC to continue his studies and is always a smiling face when I come to Vancouver.

We caught up over breakfast and then headed across the street to an old arcade where the reviews said smells like piss.  They weren’t wrong, but the pinball was only .50 and seemed to be in decent shape.

One of the highlights of seeing Sasha was seeing his old Corolla which he has rebuilt several times and was the star of a music video we made a long time ago.  It has a rediculous number of KMs on it and is famous to anyone that knows Sasha.

After breakfast, Tim and I chilled for the afternoon before it was time to head out to a few more breweries with Julie, who I had met up with a few days ago.  She said some of her favorites were in a particular neighborhood, so we met up and checked them out!

First stop was Faculty Brewing, which had a really cool naming scheme.  They were all like courses and they made the introductory 100 level beers the easy drinking ones and then as the courses get higher levels, the beers get more complex.  I thought that was both a cool way of naming the beers as well as giving people an idea of what they are getting into when they order one.

I very much enjoyed my beers which included a saison, ESB and some pales.  They were enjoyable and the company was great too.  We then went a short distance down the street to the second wierdest brewery in Vancouver.  Electric Bicycle brewing company had a waky waving arm flailing inflatable tube man outside and was painted in crazy colors.

The inside was really cool too and the beers were all slightly different including fruit and sours.

After a few beers there, it was time for me to jump on a train to the airport in order to fly back to Toronto.  I made it in a decent ammount of time so I had another beer and some food in the lounge, before jumping on a puddle jumper flight to Kelowna then off to Toronto.