Since today is American Independence Day and I had a light work day I signed up for a food tour of Granville Island. I’ve strolled through the market the last time I was here with Emilybeth but we just kind of wandered so I didn’t really know what I was about.

Food tours like this have become one of my go-to first activities when landing in a new city because, well who doesn’t love food? But it’s also a good way to meet other people passing through the city.

I woke up and got in a workout before snagging a Mobi bike and riding out to the island. We strolled through the market and covered a fair amount of ground.

Turns out most of the merchants in this market are totally local and their sole location is within the market. It’s also a market that locals still come to in order to do their weekly shopping. There was a passel of people from Seattle on my tour and they said they liked it much better than Seattle’s market because it wasn’t totally overrun by tourists like in Seattle. Our guide also said that in something like ten years of doing this she’d only seen three vendors ever leave the market and that there’s a wait list of like 300 trying to get in.

My thoughts on these places are all on FourSquare but we hit Granville Island Tea Company, Kaylin & Hobbs Pickles, Longliner Seafood, Benton Brothers Fine Cheese, ChocolaTas, and Edible Canada at the Market.

Really enjoyed the whole thing and it was really interesting to hear how many hoops the food and alcohol industry has to go through in Canada. Apparently, you can’t even get European cheese up here. More serious Vancouverites apparently drive down to The States to get groceries and alcohol because you can get more and it’s so much cheaper.

Even though it was a holiday I had to head home and do some work afterword. And, of course, had to call my wee mom and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Despite doing the food tour, or maybe because of it, I was unusually hungry so I went out again for dinner. I walked down to Rodney’s Oyster House which was excellent. Even at 4p on a Thursday this place was a party. I had to really push in at the bar but ended up hitting it off with everyone sitting around me. …shots may have ensued. But I still got home at an early hour.

…then I binged all of the new season of Stranger Things obviously, leaving me much too exhausted for the next day.