The Sandbar Seafood Restaurant in Vancouver

On a recent warm and rain-free evening in Vancouver, Dave and I went out for a walk along the Seaside Bike Path in Kitsilano. As we approached Granville Island Dave announced that he had quite a hankering for some crab so we ducked under the Granville Bridge and continued our walk by winding through Granville Island's paths and streets, looking for the ideal crab-serving establishment.

We scoped out a few restaurants' menus before deciding to eat at The Sandbar - a seafood restaurant next to the big Granville Public Market building. The menu looked expensive, but we don't eat at truly expensive restaurants too often, so we thought #WHATTHEHELL. #TreatYoSelf. If my guy wants some crab, by all means, let's get him some crab.

.  the sandbar / false creek / granville island  .

And, um, yeah they certainly had crabs there. Full tanks of the little guys greet you at the downstairs entrance of the 3-story restaurant. We immediately wondered if we were not dressed well enough to be eating there but #psht #whateva. Not like we were wearing rags. Passing the sushi chefs who were hard at work on the first floor, we climbed up a flight of stairs to the second floor where we were greeted by the hostess... who then invited us to dine up on the third floor on their covered, heated patio. So many stairs. They were all worth it.

The patio upstairs at The Sandbar was absolutely perfect and was bumpin' with well behaved yet totally happy people. The building itself is right on the water beneath the Granville Bridge, so we had views in several directions via the partial glass walls on the False Creek side of the patio. We happened to be able to sit at a two-top right against the glass wall - probably one of the best seats in the house :)

.  view from the patio  .

The patio also featured tall, West-coast style heaters, two fireplaces with beautiful (probably fake) fires, a good sized bar, and lots of low wooden tables with Adirondack-style cushioned chairs. We opted not to sit at one of those, thinking that maybe the low seats would be too awkward to sit and eat at. (They'd probably be perfect for enjoying a drink with a buddy on a nice night, though.)

.  under the granville bridge  .

For dinner I ordered pan seared scallops, which were served with citrus butter, jasmine rice and a broccolini/cherry tomato medley. It was all really effing good.

.  i ate the shit out of this  .

Dave ordered a 1/2 Dungeness crab with French fries and the broccolini/tomato veggie side. He attacked it with fervor and appeared to enjoy it.

.  dave ate the crab out of this shell  .

We were both, seriously, very pleased with the entire evening at The Sandbar. The patio's atmosphere was a great balance between comfort and luxury, the food was worth every penny, and the waitstaff was really friendly and professional. I'm pretty sure we'll happily go back again sometime!

A Walk in the Vancouver Rain

In case you hadn't picked up on it yet, we really enjoy going for walks. If a destination is within 2-3 miles of our home, there's a solid chance we'll opt to walk to it rather than drive. I'd add "weather permitting" to the end of that last sentence, but I'd be lying to you. Even when weather is not permitting, we'll still usually walk. Case in point:  we once casually walked from our apartment in Falmouth down to the beach... during 2011's Hurricane Irene, with tree limbs large and small ominously scattered EVERYWHERE and wind whipping tiny pieces of who-knows-what into my eyes and face.

Well that was all quite a lot of build up to get to, "We went for a walk in the rain the other day." Sorry.

This past weekend was so rainy but it seems like a waste to not go for a walk in our new awesome neighborhood. We live right next to the beach and a great bike/walking path that conveniently takes us right to the popular Granville Island, so how could we resist taking a stroll along the oceanside walkway?

Even in the fog and rain, our tree trunk-lined beach and the large ships in the English Bay are a sight to see.

.  dark spots in the water in the background are ships  .

As I've mentioned before, Vancouver is very well set up for getting around on foot or bike, with special bike lanes on the roads and drivers who appear to be very respectful of giving pedestrians and bikers the right of way, when appropriate. They also have this great bike path that goes along the beaches - the aptly named Seaside Bike Path.  Here's part of it, where you can see it's split in half and demarcated for bikers and walkers:

.  very little room for confusion  .

Here are some things we saw from the path:

.   Downtown Vancouvzie  .

.   bitches be sailin'  .

.   let's get dangerous  .

Granville Island is a popular market area beneath the Granville Bridge. It's sort of a cross between Disney World and Pike Place Market in Seattle - lots of vendors of all different kinds of food, goods, shops, fishing boats, and what-have-you. I'd imagine it's pretty bumpin' on a sunny day.

.  Canadian Epcot  .

Our walk was about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) round trip:

.  professional map-doodler by evening  . 

Everything seems so very walkable here - look how freaking close we are to the city! It reminds me of living in Brookline, when we'd take walks from our apartment in Coolidge Corner all the way down through Boston to the harbor. Here in Vancouver, we're even closer to the city - with the bonus of also being right next to beaches and mountains and bike paths and big bridges. Not. Too. Shabs.

Eventually we'll put our walking to even better use and hike some of these mountains!