KATE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, we woke up around 9:30 and went down to the coffee shop/bakery connected to our hostel where we received a free muffin and coffee (I actually drank coffee) for being hostel guests. We took our breakfast to a small park across the street and only saw about 3 or 4 drug deals go down while we ate. Vancouver is VERY tolerant of marijuana and cops tend to turn a blind eye to these things so I'm assuming that these were all pot deals but I don't know. About half a block away from the park is Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters which is owned by (you guessed it!) Marc Emery who is a huge legalization advocate in B.C. and was featured in the film "Super High Me." Next door is a place called New Amsterdam Cafe where you are allowed to smoke weed though they do not sell it there.

No, Kate and I did not smoke weed in Vancouver.

After our breakfast, we walked across town to the Yaletown district of Vancouver where Kate had picked a Thai place for lunch called Simply Thai. Arriving before we were really hungry for lunch, we walked around the neighborhood a little bit where we stumbled upon a park with swings. We spent some time on the swings and various park benches before heading over to Simply Thai. Lunch was quite good and we both ate too much as we weren't going to be taking away any leftovers. I had Chicken Pad Thai and Kate had Red Chicken Curry. Despite saying out loud that we should take a picture of the sign and of our meals, we still forgot.

After lunch, we grabbed the car and headed over to Stanley Park (which I assume is named after the Stanley Cup). The park is ENORMOUS and is right on the water with great views of downtown. While walking around, we found a bench covered in buckeyes which made Kate claim yesterday to be "THE LUCKIEST DAY EVER." Lots of people rollerblading and riding bikes. Very cool. Very Canadian (like me).

Post park, we headed back to the hostel for a bit where Kate took a nap and I caught up on some blogging (you're welcome, world). We then headed across the street to a very nice Lebanese restaurant called Nuba that Kate had picked from the internets. Our waitress was a super nice, super Canadian young lady that reminded me of Winona Ryder. We ordered a bottle of wine which our waitress assured us was from a "sustainable, Chilean winery." This knowledge allowed me to sleep last night. Dinner was very good. Kate had beef tenderloin, rice and hummus and I had lamb kafta and falafel. I did feel like we were borderline not cool enough to be in the place but we seemed to fool them well enough. A man who I assumed was the owner came over and wished Kate a happy birthday and talked to us a little bit. We also received a free piece of baklava that had been flown in from Toronto (our waitress told us that apparently no one in Vancouver can make very good baklava). I can confirm that this baklava was good.

Afer dinner, we headed back to the hostel bar where we continued the birthday celebration. When I told the waitress not to steal my identity when she took my ID to keep our tab open, she told me that she didn't want it because I was american. She defused the situation by telling us that she loved the states and had lived in New York for 4 years. I told her that I lived in Quebec for 4 months. I'm not sure she was impressed.