Los Angeles in Vancouver

My good friend Carlos was in Vancouver for work over the weekend + we had a happy reunion!!!

Carlos + I have been friends since high school.  We have some good stories.  I was soooooo excited when he told me that he was coming up to Vancouver!!!  American friends in Vancouver, hooray!!!

Here is a picture of Carlos, Jeff + I from around 3 years ago.  I was working at Warner Brothers + Carlos is at NBC.  Jeff was visiting from Canada, so we met up at the famous Smokehouse in Burbank.

The Smokehouse is a really old school industry establishment that has been around since the ’40s.  We had an awesome time drinking martinis + eating their famous cheesy bread!  Eastern European girls walk around + take your picture which you’re supposed to purchase when you leave.  I don’t remember the exact details, but somehow we made off with this picture gratis!  Carlos looked at this picture + said, “OMG why do we look like 10 years younger in the photo?!”.  It’s called life, my friend….life.  This picture is displayed in my parent’s house of course, because Carlos is one of my mom’s absolute favorites.

The company had Carlos at the Sutton Hotel in downtown Vancouver.  A beautiful day + an out of this world view from his room!  POSH!!!

Vancouver is so pretty when it’s not raining – which is only 1/4 of the entire year!

We walked to a boring, stylish bar on Granville St. to catch up + then wandered into a goth store for kicks.  Jeff met up with us after he got off work + we relocated to the Astoria Pub.

The Astoria Pub is more our speed!  Randomly situated in seedy East Vancouver, it’s old, big, dark + kind of smells weird inside.  We like that.  Pin ball machines!

Carlos filled the juke box with Neil Young, X-Ray Spex, Los Tigres del Norte + a pool game was on!

There were literally 5 people in the pub.

I know we’re old fogeys + we were in the bars early, but Carlos + I remarked that even in Los Angeles there would still be people getting drinks since it was Friday night!  Oh Canada, so underpopulated.

Us in front of the rad neon sign.

There’s a boxing gym in the basement, too!  We are looking older + more grey!

Next we hopped off to another stylish bar that was too stylish for it’s own good so I didn’t take any pictures.  So there.

The next day Carlos + I walked around downtown Vancouver + window shopped.  Here’s Carlos on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery.  I introduced him to Hudson’s Bay because it’s so Canadian.  He is wearing his bombastic new Hudson’s Bay Signature Collection coat.

I told him he looked like a tugboat captain from Benjamin Button.

As we walked around Carlos kept commenting on passerby’s various coat styles.  It was 87 degrees fahrenheit in Los Angeles that day.  Southern Californians don’t understand the concept of warm attire.  He kept going on about how freezing it was, while I laughed triumphantly (my skin has grown thicker over the year).  Check out my post from last year about Canada’s cold weather!

That night we went to go see Gravity in 3D.

If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it.  You cannot miss it when it’s on the big screen!  It’s the only way to see it!  I’m not going to say much because I hate spoilers more than wet dog smell, but Sandra Bullock is so unbelievably perfect for the role!  The film really does an incredible job of putting the viewer into the vastness of space.  And it’s so freaky + nail biting + beautiful at the same time.  We were both speechless + numbed when we left the theater.  It’s been a really long time since we could remember going to a movie that made us feel so impacted.  Movies in general are so horrible nowadays.

Anyways, I was so sad to say goodbye to Carlos.  It was like a breath of fresh air to have him in my new hometown!  It was like he brought sunny Los Angeles to Vancouver!  I hadn’t seen him in over a year, but we picked up right where we left off + it was as if the distance was never there!  I miss my friends in the States!  Ok, I’m going to sign off now to go hug my cat.