Through the pandemic a group of our friends started a zoom-hosted wine club where one of us would pick two wines, a few recipes that would pair well, and then we’d get together to eat and drink and stare at the little electronic rectangles of our respective likenesses on our screens as we caught up and laughed. Laughed a lot. During a few of those get togethers, we chatted (as one is apt to do) about doing a real-life wine tasting trip when it was safe to do so again. Fast forward to this May when those wine-soaked plans turned real and landed us in Vancouver to attend the Vancouver International Wine Festival.

My wife and I built a fun and relaxed Vancouver itinerary around the large wine tasting we we all going to. For me, any trip to Vancouver needs to start with a hike around Stanley Park.

With my wife enjoying sleeping in back at our hotel, I did the approximately 8km hike anti-clockwise around the seawall to take in the views of downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver. I could not have asked for a better early morning. A light breeze, perfectly blue skies, and a delicious coffee buoyed my spirits in one of my favourite cities and one of my favourite travel rituals.

While after numerous trips to Vancouver it gets progressively more difficult to find new things to do, I had somehow never explored the craft beer scene in North Vancouver. I rectified that with a couple of spare hours on yet another beautiful afternoon. First stop was La Cerveceria Astilleros with their Mexican-inspired beers and on point tacos. I also ventured a few blocks away to sample some exquisite sour beers from Beer Brewing Company. I’ll be back in Vancouver later in October and will be returning to North Van to hit a number of the breweries I didn’t have time to visit on this trip.

After a lovely tapas meal with our friends at Bodega on Main on the Friday night after we were all in town, it was time to gather for the event that brought all of us to the city. As a group of wine nerds, the idea of unlimited sampling of a conference hall of wines had us all a little giddy. This is the before tasting picture… no after tasting pictures were taken in an effort to protect all of us from seeing ourselves after three hours of liberal wine tasting.

The tasting room had ample space due to a lowered number of tickets available compared to the previous time I had attended this event. There was a really exceptional selection of British Columbia wines as the international wineries were scaled back due to the ongoing pandemic. It was a great leisurely event and my wife and I would occasionally take a glass of wine over to those large windows overlooking the mountains across the harbour.

The next morning not too much worse for wear, my wife make a great impromptu selection for brunch. Palate Kitchen’s offerings were delicious and over brunch we debated plans for the rest of the day and landed on a walk along the seawall to take advantage of (another!) perfect weather day.

On a sunny day, I’m not sure there’s a prettier city than Vancouver. Here in later May, while our hometown of Saskatoon was just coming into bloom, Vancouver was fully lush and green. We meandered along the seawall and decided to venture onto Granville Island with the idea of grabbing a drink.

…. and wouldn’t you know it, a couple of our friends independently had the same idea and had popped into Granville Island Brewing about an hour ahead of us. We joined them at a table and caught up on how well we were all feeling after over-indulging the previous night. I felt good enough to sample a few of the beers that are brewed on site on the island.

On a tip from another Saskatoon friend who used to live in Vancouver, my wife and I wrapped up our Vancouver plans with dinner at La Mezcaleria. It quickly became a new favourite as we enjoyed a few delicious cocktails (mine, all with mezcal as the primary spirit), some ceviche and a number of amazing tacos.

When I made the reservation for the evening, the restaurant’s website forced me to select a special occasion. In order to submit the reservation request and not have to speak with someone on the phone, I just selected birthday as that was the closest special occasion as it was going to be my birthday later the next week. I had forgotten what I had done until our server casually mentioned it earlier in the meal. As our final dishes were being cleared away, I saw the serving staff gathering on their way over to celebrate – some churros on the house and being serenaded with “happy birthday”. I lost it laughing at the absurdity of it, but was very happy for the bonus churros! A great end to a wonderful trip!