Vancouver is crazy over-regulated so my AirBNB hostess had to come back around this morning so we could sign several reams of paper governing short-term leases or something.

I’d gotten a little behind on work in the run-up to my departure so I had to work for the rest of the morning before I could embark on my traditional aimless wandering all over the city to get my bearings and see what’s what.

From my place I walked down to Canada Place which is the major port for the cruise ships that stop by. Having never done a cruise I found it rather interesting to watch the clip with which these things came and went. There were four docked when I went down and when I was passing back later in the day some had already changed out and others were leaving.

From there I walked down through Gastown and had lunch at this cafe Birds & The Beets. Everyone raves about this place but I didn’t really get what the hype was about. It was a pretty standard cafe. It seems their claim to fame was really just taking every ingredient that hipsters are all about these days and tossing them all into a variety of dishes. It was fine but… not sure I’ll be heading back there.

From there I looped through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is supposed to be some sort of significant Asian Garden but once again I was underwhelmed. (Uh oh, I hope I’m not becoming too jaded from all my travels).

From there I rolled through Yaletown and back up to my place. I worked at home for the rest of the day and then went to sleep early. I’ve been unusually tired and had a headache for much of my early days on this trip. I think all the looking down at the laptop is giving me a tension headaches. I may need to create a “Tierney-Style” standing desk for myself.