A couple weeks ago, Ryan and I had two of our closest friends visit us from New Mexico. We’ve known Matt since the early days of college, where he and Ryan were both in early engineering classes together. For the longest time, the three of us did what seemed like everything together. He was our favorite “third wheel,” but when he and Rachel started dating not quite two years ago now, we settled easily into a close couples friendship. When we moved to the Seattle area, they assured us that they would visit, and we’re so glad that they did!

The first couple of days they were in town, I took them around to all of the best spots around Seattle. Then we took off for a long weekend in Vancouver. None of us had ever been to Canada before, except Ryan when he was pretty young, and we had so much fun!

The sun was shining on us the whole weekend, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather to hit up all the best sights—Granville Island, Stanley Park, Lynn Canyon Park, and everywhere in between. Flowers were blooming everywhere, the sun glinted off the water and the tall glass buildings. We pretty much ate and walked our way through the city, and it’s safe to say we fell in love.

Highlights: renting tandem bikes to ride around Stanley Park; eating ice cream and watching the sunset over English Bay; eating at Nook, the best Italian restaurant I’ve eaten at outside of Italy; brunching at Oru; gelato at the world-renowned Bella Gelateria; buying maple syrup at Granville Island; and crossing the Granville Island Bridge. I told you—the trip involved a lot of food, and then working it off exploring! ;)

We can’t wait to get back to Vancouver again soon. It fast became one of my favorite cities!