Another Excellent Adventure

Some of you may remember "Leslie and Josie's Excellent Spring Adventure" from back in April, 2007. We've been on a few adventures since then, but today was really fun and we actually got lost! Anyway, we love driving over to the North Shore (West and North Vancouver) via the Burrard Street Bridge and through the downtown area, bypassing Stanley Park, and over the Lions Gate Bridge.

Our first destination was "The Village," a part of the Park Royal shopping complex. It is fairly new, built in 2004, and is an open-air “village-style” extension of the South Mall with a unique and charming "feel" of its own. First stop was for a cappuccino before heading over to Home Hardware to look at lighting fixtures for my place. I think I might have found what I'm looking for but will have to phone my electrician to see if he can do what I want with them.

These street lamps were scattered throughout the village, giving it an old-world charm.

Then we strolled along and admired the architecture of the village and took a few photos. We went into Danier Leather where Josie helped me choose some red leather gloves and a beautiful scarlet scarf that will look perfect with either my black leather jacket or my brown wool winter coat. We also ambled into a housewares place and saw lots of neat things and where Josie picked up a little something as a Christmas present for someone.

By then, we'd made our way all the way back to the car so decided to head up toward Cleveland Dam at the top of the mountain. We got lost and never did find the Dam. It seemed like we ended up going in circles and had to resort to asking a pedestrian how to get back down to the highway! But did we see some gorgeous homes! In the photo below, imagine us above the buildings (on the left side) driving on cedar tree-lined streets almost to the top!

We decided to go to "our" place, Presto Cucina (a wonderful little Italian place just a few blocks from Josie's place in the Kits district of Vancouver), and had a scrumptious meal complete with a Shiraz. Home again, home again, jiggedy jig...I'll let Josie tell you the story of what we else we saw up the mountain! Be sure to go over there. I'll leave you with a picture of me across the table from Josie at dinner and my supple new red leather gloves and my new so-soft scarf.