On the road in Vancouver. . .

After one flight delay, too many cups of coffee, one longish drive, one far too-late-night dinner, and two presentations to the lovely librarians in Maple Ridge (building one Jonathan Coe fan at a time), we're now relaxing at our favourite cozy Vancouver hotel, The Sylvia, located right on English Bay. It was originally built in 1912 and has more charm, comfort and character than any modern steel-and-glass hotel I know, yet is still very reasonably priced
(for Vancouver at any rate) and all their rooms are wireless! We like the medieval knights in the stained glass windows. And they even host a book club! We've gone for a walk along the beach before indulging in a seafood supper. And even though it's quite chilly and cloudy (moreso since Toronto is basking in double digit sunshine this week), there is something about seeing palm trees and cherry blossoms that is very soothing to the soul.

In search of soothing our sweet tooths, we stumbled across Cupcakes, which had just the perfect dessert for us. These come in mini-bite-sizes too in a variety of flavours - a dozen seemed to do the trick with leftovers for the road. Highly recommended as a breakfast appetizer. And now, high on sugar and chocolate, we can settle in for a couple of hours of reading.