I woke as early as Vera was fixing to go to UBC, even though I did not rise until she’d left. At that time I woke slowly with my book and as well googling what to do for the day since Fred had not really any decisive plan for it. I started by looking for things to do and well, I don’t really like to pay for entering parks, so those options went away. I looked at the science fair, but it was sort of the regular Riley’s world. I did find some art galleries around town that supposedly was good, but then again… I did finally decide on, that if we were going to do something during the day that did not only involve food, drinks and socialising, then the Vancouver Art Gallery might be a good idea. With this in mind I also found a couple of diners in Gastown (old name of Vancouver) and decided that we’d try the Catch 122 Café Bistro (122 W Hastings St, Vancouver) – all of course without having talked to Fred.
Fred sort of woke around 9 am and after some coffee we got talking about what to do for the day. He was not that fond of the idea of the Vancouver Art Gallery, but he let that slide after trying to google up something different. We did decide on going the Catch 122 for brunch though and headed there by bus. The diner is rustic in a fashioned way, a little bit loud but acceptable. The menu was not that comprehensive, which is good and both me and Fred chose the classic brunch (I also ordered some biscuits just because it sounded really nice). After a delightful brunch which was good and to recommend we headed out into down town. We didn’t have anyplace to be or time to be there and I could feel that Fred was not up for the Art Gallery. Thus we walked around a bit and Fred led me to a specific store that Otto & him had felt would suit me – it was a tourist trap/or souvenir store. So, Otto does not seem to know me that well and Fred was just being a bad boy. Walking the streets we got to experience the steam powered clock in Vancouver, supposedly one of the few left in the world.
We decided to walk east, which would take us through “China Town” that Fred told me was not really a correct term for it anymore since the Chinese population did not want to keep it that way. On the way there we went through some other type of neighbourhood where a lot of homeless were receiving the daily lunch. Not something special, I’m just not used to seeing so many homeless (and some were high on something) at the same place at the same time. Then again, maybe that’s because I’m just not regularly in those hoods. After having passed “China Town” we actually entered the quarters were the Chinese live and you could definitely see it on the stores and the people around us. Further on (we actually had somewhat of an idea on where we were heading) we came into neighbourhoods that were, let’s put it “a little bit poorer”. Since we were looking for brewery pubs (or tap rooms really) I shouted out when I saw the first one. It looked real seedy and Fred just straight out refused to enter, thus we continued our search. Later on we came to an intersection and Fred was a little confused on where we were going go – I was watching the Brewery on the other side of the road but didn’t want to mess up what planning he was having, so I said nothing. A few minutes later he looked up from his phone and looked over the street and saw the Strathcona Beer Company. Oh well, since we were a little cold, and thirsty, we headed over even if this bar looked a bit seedy as well from the outside. To our big surprise the inside was quite different and we had one of their brews – NE IPA.
We decided to just have that one beer at this brewery, not that it was a bad beer, it was really nice IPA, but just because we wanted to discover more breweries. So we headed out again, this time with the direction of Commercial street. A little bit later Fred had another check on his phone and we discovered that we could go one of two ways, back or forward. We chose back! A bit later after having crossed a somewhat busy street we entered the Strange Fellows Brewing tasting room. Here we both ordered a flight, I tried out the Bayard (Saison), Ernest (EBS), Nocturnum (Black IPA) and Third Eye (Triple IPA). We also had a spicy beer sausage and sat down to taste and just hang out. Unfortunately it was a little cold in the tasting room, but as the Scandinavians we are we just shut up about it. After the tasters and a short chat with Vera, we decided to do one more brewery, then pick up some food stuff and cook at the apartment for Vera. We continued our walk, this time passing the same busy street which had become even more busy and actually getting to Commercial street. Here we went to a place that Fred had seen from the outside when Otto was visiting, the St. Augustine’s Craft Brew House. This was not a brewery. This was sort of a sport bar with restaurant and a lot of beer on draft. Therefor we decide just to try one out and get going. I chose the Galaxior (Double IPA) and Fred the Trash Panda (IPA), both from Parallel 49 Brewing Company. After that we took the bus with two stops to shop for groceries before arriving at the apartment. We fixed up some tacos and tortillas for all of us before saying good night.