Of course, I had to start my first morning with a walk. Since we are staying on Eastern time, that meant getting up around 5. So when I went out, it was dark and everything was closed. The city is glutted with Starbucks; the closest one, across the street, didn't open until 5:30, so I walked around the block and passed another Starbucks and another coffee shop that was open.

After coffee, I walked down to the water. Guess I should be more specific, because it would be hard to walk for more than a few minutes in any direction without hitting water. But I walked north, I guess, down toward the convention center, which is next to both high-end marinas and industrial ports. I could see the sky brightening on the horizon.

I turned west and followed the coast for quite a way, until I reached a beach with the amazing full moon reflecting off the bay, then came inland and headed back through a nice neighborhood.

What really strikes me is that Vancouver has the feel of a real city, not just a tourist attraction that has people living in it. After Dublin and Bruges and Amsterdam that's a nice change. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those places, they're all lovely, but I was always very aware that their prime as real cities is in the past and that the present is significantly dependent on trading on that past. Italy is probably the most extreme version of it, but a lot of European cities have that feel.

But this place has a vibrancy to it that you don't see elsewhere. Even at 6:00 AM there's an energy that's unmistakeable. I can't imagine that it's not growing quickly.

As the day progressed, it became even clearer why it must be growing. It's absolutely beautiful here. Water and mountains everywhere, cool neighborhood, good mass transit, great parks.

We had breakfast and went to the most famous of the parks, Stanley Park. Perched on a peninsula (oh god, did I really just write that?) it features paths (one for walking, one for biking and blading) that wrap around between the water. Gotta say, they rent bikes to anyone, but beware if you're not a good cyclist, because the path is often narrow, and even though they're one-way, if you're not solid, you're likely to get clipped.

But the scenery is drop dead gorgeous. You're right on the harbor and bay, between ancient trees and mussel beds. Just beautiful.

So we made it around, returned the bikes, and headed for an enclave called Granville Island.

Aside from the true bodies of water surrounding Vancouver, there is also something called False Creek, which I assume is called that because it isn’t actually a creek. I’m not sure, I didn’t really check. So in False Creek is this little island, which appears to have originally been mostly and industrial site, but is now a kind of arts center/tourist attraction.

We walked around the island for a while. There was some great public art at the concrete plant, a whole bunch of theaters, art supply stores, and an art and design college.

There are also various crafty type shops and eating places. Also a small distillery,where we stopped to a tasting of their vodka, whiskey (clean, unaged) and gin. The whiskey was kind of sharp, but we liked the others enough to buy a couple of small bottles.

There’s also a large public market, not unlike Reading Terminal, for you Philly folks, where we had lunch. After a stop at the hotel, we visited an area called Gastown, named after the owner of the local pub who was a noted talker, raconteur, and all-round gasbag.

It’s one of those transitional neighborhoods where there are hipsters and homeless in close proximity. Cool shops and pubs. We then walked over to the Vancouver Overlook, which is a 550 high observation tower with a revolving restaurant (which we didn’t visit).

Back to the hotel, where I had a nice swim, and then Ronnie told me what we were doing for the remainder of the trip. Taking a train through the Canadian Rockies! A longtime dream of mine. Then out to dinner in an area called Yaletown, where we ate in a place called Rodney’s Oyster House. That was great. Fantastic oysters. Sat at the bar and drank and ate shellfish. Loud but not unpleasantly rowdy. Properly stuffed, we walked around the neighborhood.

Then early to bed because we had to board our bus to the train station at 6:30 AM. Yes, you heard that right. More to come.