The Vancouver Experience: Day 1

We just returned from a lovely trip to Vancouver.  I thought I'd give you a quick tour of the sights from Day 1.  We stayed at the beautiful downtown Four Seasons where David attended a conference.  I could get very accustomed to a $24 breakfast buffet every day (pain au chocolate, beautiful fresh fruit and pastries, Bircher muesli, etc.) and having a smart young man in uniform open the door for me every time I walk by. 

We stayed here: 

And this was our room (right after I got up!).  The down pillows were almost too squishy and the featherbed made it impossible to turn over, let alone get out of bed when required.  In other words, perfection:

The room was tastefully decorated but rather plain.  I loved the leather headboard and the beautifully pale wallpaper that looked like grasscloth. The colours were very quiet.  There was twice-daily housekeeping and a wonderful concierge (thanks Winnie!).  We really enjoyed staying there.  All the bathroom goodies were from l'Occitane, and smelled delicious (lemon body wash!).  Ahhh...to be independently wealthy in my next life...I should like to live in a hotel.

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On my first morning, I got a Starbucks (not hard to find in Seattle, er, Vancouver...sorry forgot where I was with a Starbucks on every corner!).  Then I walked around the eastern part of downtown where I came upon Canada Place, which was the Canadian pavillion from Expo 86:

Vancouver sits oceanside and downtown is surrounded by water on three sides, so it is truly gorgeous and there are water views everywhere you look.

This is the view of downtown looking back from Canada Place, which was lonely except for a few tourists:

After wandering a bit, I visited historic Gastown, where I forgot to take photos!  I did visit two antique/junk/curio shops - for the locals, these are "Salmagundi" (eccentric and fun) and "Uniques" (junky) on West Cordova.

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Then I walked all the way to Yaletown, a former industrial area that's been gentrified and yuppified within an inch of its life and is packed with hip restaurants and shops.

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Of course, en route I stopped at Chintz & Co to admire the pickled white mahogany furniture: 

I really wanted the little table above, which was about $750 and made of solid mahogany.  Doesn't look like your Grandma's mahogany, does it?  It made me suffer a moment of deep sadness that all my furniture is brown and I cannot redecorate on a whim!

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I liked this little pedestal table (below).  Luckily it was too high for the space I want to fill:

This cabinet (below) almost came home with me, but since I don't have 10 foot ceilings I would have had to build a room on to accomodate it.  Not so practical maybe:

I also liked this little vignette with the giant wicker chair and cerused demin-lune.  A little Miami perhaps.  Loved the faux forsythias too (that is me in the mirror!):

Next stop, naturally, was the ever famous The Cross store, a large decor store where all the traditional and boho girls in Vancouver get their style fix:

I grabbed a shot of this painting as it beckoned me to take it home.  I was also very fond of the sophisticated silvery sconces:

The store was full of staff and shoppers and I was feeling uncharacteristically shy, so I didn't grab too many photos.  I did love this whole bedroom story:

Everything in this photo was very expensive.  I wanted to bring home a pillow, but they were $400 each.  But what glorious colours and patterns for girls with maxed out credit cards and/or rich husbands:

After leaving The Cross empty-handed, I came across this wonderful hat store on Hamilton at Davie, called Goorin's. I had a nice chat with the shop keeper.  They sell very cool hats to very cool people, mostly young people I reckon who do cool jobs and have cool lives I don't understand:

Then I had lunch at a wonderful little French pastry shop (sorry, no photos) where I sat out in the sun and fed the birds my sandwich and then had a big latte.  Ahh...the life! 

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After 9h of walking, I came back to the hotel and met David. I wanted to sleep and rest, but he insisted we go out again.  We had a nice dinner over on English Bay and then walked along the western sea wall:

Vancouver is just so beautiful.  If I lived here, I would walk along the water every day!  And do more yoga, and get a dog.

Hope you've enjoyed my first day in Vancouver.  Sorry this was a quick post, but I have a busy week and just wanted to share as I know you were all dying to find out about my trip!!!