vancouver 'ay!

best hostesses: chloe and julie!!! i heart my canadian gals and they showed me a good time in van. apparently, van is closely knit because julie and chloe have a good friend in common and were at the same party a few years back. yay for friends of friends!

must dessert: la casa gelato. ever wanted 218 gelato flavors including things like curry, corn and licorice? this place has it and you can prolly just get full off samples. i opted for the chocolate ginger. i think it's because i was still dreaming of the cake jac made for gloria's birthday.

best bar above a 7-11: railway club. julie is so hip and clued me into this spot, where you can drink like a sailor and listen to alt-coutry-ish bands. as in canada you drink canadian, so i had a granville pale ale (a special of the night), a rye (canadian whiskey) and coke, upper canada brewing co brew (they didn't have the maple brown unfortunately) and lastly a canadian cider that I can't recall the name of.

must warehouse sale: karma. shar loves her some karma yoga goodness. i've been in love with this canadian yoga retailer since 2005 when i got my first pair of pants. how fitting that the warehouse sale is going on while the sharster is in town. it was fate. all the kids love the lululemon, but something about the only in canada quality of karma gets me.

best place to get your indie tunes: zulu records. they have ol' school atari tabletop consoles and helpful staff. got me the last copy of basia bulat's album. love getting artists' cds in their homeland. something extra special about it. also picked up the adele album. she's not canadian but she's playing sunday in van at the red room.