Click to read Part 1!
Downtown Vancouver
Sightseeing
Vancouver proper (the city) is approximately 44 square miles (slightly smaller than the District of Columbia).Getting around town was easy-metro (they are in the process of implementing their Compass Card system-think Smart or Metro Card), bus (only coins), taxi cabs (they take credit cards), and walking.
Here are some of my sightseeing highlights (I will address more in Part 3):
GranviIle Island Public Market is north of downtown and offers visitors walking trails, food, art, food, shopping, did I mention food?
Stanley Park is downtown-think the Central Park of Vancouver. It is spectacular! My friend Laurel and I rented bicycles at Spoke Bicycle Rentals,with cute baskets to boot. The trail is relatively flat and did not tire our legs before the half.
The Food was amazing-loads of farm (umm…sea) to table. I was able to go to Fable Restaurant, which is owned by a Top Chef Canada contestant (halibut and lavender infused spritzer), Dynasty Seafood Restaurant (roast pork buns), Yew seafood + bar (meringue drink and fish tacos) and Edible Canada (poutine).
Expo
Never have I ever…seen so many lulu lovers! The expo opened at 8:00am Friday (the half was on Saturday). Because the expo is open to both runners and community members, apparently last year there was an issue with long lines and inventory control (ebay arbitrage). Laurel and I decided to arrive at 7:00am to beat the lines…..
Although we were about 200-300 people deep, it did not take long to get inside. I heard that people who arrived at 8:00am had to wait a couple of hours before entering. Check-in was pretty quick and painless-plenty of stations!
Check out the VanSweaty volunteers
We received our gear check bags-how cool are they!? Canvas with a leather SeaWheeze patch. Instead of race bibs, we were given a wristband, and a chip with a picture of their owner, Chip.
After check-in we were permitted to go to the expo. The location was spacious (Nike DC please take note) and the SeaWheeze unique merchandise was organized by size. This year, lululemon instituted a 15 item limit per person. I thought, how does one go over the limit? Well apparently people do:
People were taking heaps of clothes and trying them right on the floor. I tried on a few items, but put them modestly over my clothes. The merchandise had a cute mermaid logo to match the SeaWheeze branding and the check-out lines were pretty efficient. After I found Laurel (thank goodness for text messaging!) we headed outside to check out the rest of the expo.
They had manicure stations, entertainment, lounging areas, yoga, and vendors such as Vega and Laura’s Popsicles-yum!
Signing the banner
The Pace Beavers (leaders)!
Relaxing before Yoga at sunset
More to come in Part 3!
Note: This post was originally written in September 2013, but I just got this tumblr upon and running 🙂
