Ireland day 1315. Monday 05 May 2025- Vancouver 4

Today’s summary	Still a bit jet-lagged so we woke up quite early. After cups of tea, walked down to nearby MEC outdoor sports shop (brilliant) and I bought some trainers while Val got some energy gels. Then went to brunch with the family at Fable diner and afterwards for a sauna at Tality Wellness, Mount Pleasant. Refreshing (“proper”!) beers at nearby R&B Brewing Co. Returned to accommodation briefly then went for a family dinner at “Published” on Main Street at 8pm. A fabulous relaxing day
Today’s weather	Dry with brilliant sun and blue skies almost all day. Light westerly wind. Appx 17c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

After yesterdays exertions, none of the three runners were particularly inclined to do anything too dramatic today. Rob had wisely taken the day off work to recover, and even I, who had only just pottered around supporting the marathoners yet still managed to walk 17km, was feeling quite tired this morning.

So we all agreed to do our own things for the first part of the day. Val and I are still waking quite early, as our bodies slowly acclimatise to the time difference, which does at least give us lots of time to get going with things before the world wakes up. We spent our morning enjoying a leisurely cup of tea and then wandered over to the MEC outdoor sports shop, which conveniently is just across the street from where we are staying.

MEC is a fabulous shop for anyone – like me – who is interested in the outdoors. You could spend all day browsing its aisles of tents, boots and rucksacks, and come out thousands of dollars poorer. I had wanted to get an extra pair of trainers to take with us on our travels, and Val wanted to buy some energy gels. In the end we both got what we wanted, and my “Norda” trainers were even 10% off on account of the fact that the shop had lost the box and nobody knew exactly what they were.

Determined to make the most of our “recovery” day, after shopping we headed up to “Fable” diner for brunch, where we met up with the rest of the family. The eggs benedict with pulled pork were superb! Once we’d eaten, we didn’t let the grass grow under our feet, and so we pottered as quickly as marathon-weary legs would let us, to a new sauna that had opened up just around the corner. Exactly as in Ireland, saunas have suddenly become all the rage here in Vancouver – although the accompanying plunge pools tend to be more of the stainless steel and chrome variety, than of the muddy Irish Sea equivalent, which is altogether more enjoyable. Insofar as immersion in icy water can ever be.

So we spent an enjoyable couple of hours enjoying the ministrations of Tality Wellness, which is improbably located on the 5th floor of an office block on East 3rd Avenue. It was great – exactly what the doctor ordered – and relaxing on the terrace outside afterwards, catching the sun’s warming rays, was just sublime.

We rounded off this stage in the day’s proceedings with a couple of beers outdoors in the sun at the R&B Brewing Co in Mount Pleasant. I, for one, really enjoyed it as – almost uniquely in North America – they served what I would call “proper” beers that weren’t super chilled and super carbonated. Almost like the kind of beer you would get in a London pub. Fabulous. I had a couple of pints of an on-site brewed beer which contained jalapeño, which was more enjoyable than the ingredients list might suggest.

From R&B, James Rob and Val went on to “Steamworks” for yet more beers whereas I, being the weaker sex on this occasion, retired to our accommodation for a cup of tea. At the same time Katie, perhaps inspired by Val’s and my experience this morning, went down to have a look round MEC.

After a brief pause, we all reconvened at 7:30 pm to walk up to dinner, which tonight was at “Published” restaurant on Main Street. The main purpose was to celebrate Val’s and my anniversary which, although technically yesterday, was much better commemorated today when everyone was at least semi-coherent.

It was a wonderful evening – great food, great company and a great atmosphere. And to crown it all, Rob, James and Katie paid for our meals. Which was fantastic as it was a very up-market restaurant A pretty perfect end to a pretty perfect day in this pretty perfect city. I think if I lived here I would rapidly become pretty fat and pretty poor but very happy!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Inside MEC – formerly known as Mountain Equipment Co-operative. It’s a giant store with so many temptations to do damage to your bank account. I escaped relatively lightly with “just” a pair of running shoes at Can$300	The Tality Wellness sauna is on the fifth floor (with terrace) of the brown tower block in the centre of the photo

Inside the sauna – it was quite busy but super clean and very relaxing	Rooftop view of Vancouver from the terrace

Val adopting the “purchase” position at the R&B Bar	“Published on Main” – our venue for dinner tonight. It featured small tapas-style dishes from all over the world and was very good. I later learned that it has a Michelin star

My Norda Dyneema trail running shoes. To be honest, I bought them because I liked the colour and because they fitted perfectly. Plus the fact that they were in the sale, with 10% off. They are super-light, so I’m looking forward to trying them out. Not sure how well they will stand up to Irish conditions, as they aren’t waterproof. But at least they should dry quickly.