More Vancouver

I'm dog-tired, so I hope this post is coherent!  I don't think I mentioned why I'm in Vancouver; I'm here for an annual meeting of the members of the Executive MBA Council (basically, business school administrators who run EMBA programs).  It's a great conference - truly one of the most useful trips I take all year - but I am always completely zonked by the end.  Sessions all day (although, I didn't have to present anything this year, which was a nice break), networking for all meals, and then in-between and at night, I have to catch up on "real work."  Add to that mix that I'm 6 mos pregnant, and you have a recipe for exhaustion by day 3 or 4.  So, there's the context.

I head home tomorrow - after one more meeting in the morning - and I'm ready!  But, the meetings have gone very well, and I've picked up some great information from my colleagues at other business schools.  This afternoon, one of my colleagues and I did have an opportunity to get out in Vancouver.  We walked about a mile to a ferry dock and took a short ferry to Granville Island, a great island filled with a public market and more shops than you can imagine...and surrounded by water.  Really pretty.  The public market reminded me of one of the things I miss not living in a big city (although I wouldn't trade my small-town Chapel Hill life for anything, save perhaps a little beach-living!).  The market was inside a huge warehouse type of structure, and comprised of stall after staff of food vendors.  Produce, meats, cheeses, gourmet foods, etc.  The closest places I can think of like it (that I've been) are the market in East London and a huge market in Decatur, GA.  It was a foodie's paradise. I had to treat myself to a crepe at the crepe stand.

In addition to the market, it was nice to just walk around in this beautiful city, enjoy the scenery and leisurely shop.  I'm not a big shopper, but I did pick up a couple small gifts for my daughter; hope she'll like them.  The was a huge "Kids Market," which included 20+ vendors selling children's wares.

I then completed the evening w/ a dinner (this one organized by the conference) at a restaurant on the island.  This is about the point when I realized I may fall asleep standing up, so now here I am, back in my hotel room and ready for a good night's sleep.

So, I didn't get an incredible amount of time to sightsee, but I what I did experience whetted my appetite to return to Vancouver for more.  Beautiful, beautiful city; I know I only scraped the surface of what it has to offer.