vancouver, day 3, at last...

i appologize for dropping off in my blogging of my northwest sojourn. lorena arrived in vancouver on my third day, and we stayed quite busy for the next week. in addition, we camped every night after we left vancouver, so that made blogging somewhat impractical. that said, now that i have returned to orlando, i will do my best to recollect on what was a fabulous week.

on my third day in vancouver, i awoke early and headed back out on my rental bike. i couldn't resist. the rainy weather was still in effect, but i didn't care. i decided to bike the entire coastline of stanley park and despite the overcast, it was exhilarating. i started on the east side and by the time i reached prospect point (which is pretty much at the tip top point of the park) i felt as though i had conquered the world. many parts of the trail were uphill, but i made it! after a delicious salmon burger (the salmon is quite good in british columbia), i completed my trek around the park. it took about 4-5 hours total, i'd say.

a quick note about stanley park. the park is loaded with hiking trails, and i ventured down a few to find enormous trees, very green and lush. for those who watched "return of the jedi" back in the day, the forest reminded me of the endor moon, where the ewoks lived. of course, that was shot in redwood country, so it was not quite like that. but you get the picture. it was something.

lorena texted and said she was running late, so i headed back down to new amsterdam cafe for coffee...not to get high. i didn't want to get high. lorena would be arriving in three or four hours and i wanted to be my normal self. i was both excited and nervous about seeing her.

as i drank my coffee, i befriended a vancouverite named shaun who works in the vancouver film industry. he sounded well connected. he said he could get me a job anytime i want. i think he meant it, though i'm not sure i want to work 15 hour days a la antiparticle. nonethless, vancouver could become my home. i got his number and he said for me to call him when i'm ready to move :)

the actual reason we started talking was because he went to the hip hop show i went to two nights earlier. turns out we like a lot of the same music, and he was very impressed with my knowledge of canadian music. i had a feeling that would come in handy at some point ;)

shaun offered me some of his weed, but i declined and finally biked back to the hostel after lorena texted and said she was on her way. i showered and shaved and finally she arrived around 8:30 (after a being stuck in a long line at customs).

as i said, i was nervous. we went to the grocery store, made food in the hostel kitchen, and finally got to bed. she was understandably tired, so we didn't do anything.

i was nervous things would be weird, but everything got back to normal fairly quickly...