Today is – wait for it, wait for it – a day where the weather is supposed to hit a high of ELEVEN DEGREES. Yes, you heard me right. ELEVEN WHOLE DEGREES. After weeks and weeks of trudging through snow at SFU, I almost cried with happiness when I woke up this morning to sun pouring through my blinds. Sun? Warmth?! These things still exist and are not just figments of my imagination? And – dare I say – does this mean the mythical entity of  spring might be coming? (Now that I’ve written that, the weather gods are going to laugh cruelly and snatch my sun away).

It’s been a sleepless week, but I had a great Friday night and I woke up this morning energized and happy. I decided to take advantage of our fleeting spring weather and go for a run along the sea wall of downtown Vancouver. It was the best idea I’ve had all week. When Vancouver is sunny, it really is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and as I ran along the sea wall and looked at the mountains and the water I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. It was a super endorphin high compared to my usual drag-my-butt-to-the-treadmill feeling of running. I wore shorts – shorts. (And yes, my legs got really red and cold once I stopped running, but that’s okay). I saw a heron! I saw ducks! I honestly finished with my run with the biggest exercise high I’ve ever had in my life.

These are pictures taken at the end of my run – the scenery around Stanley Park where I was running was much prettier, but I was too busy running to pull out my phone. Kind of throws off the flow, y’know.

One of my posts wouldn’t be complete without a small rave about food, so I should mention that I tried out Hapa Hour at the new Hapa Izakaya in Coal Harbour (formerly Hapa Umi). It was a pretty good deal – they had a list of tapas that were half price between 3 – 6 PM. Hapa can be pretty pricey, though their food was amazing, so it’s worth hitting up for those three hours.

Beef tataki, ebi mayo

Polenta fries

Karaage

Between two people, we had ebi mayo, beef tataki, chicken karaage, polenta fries, the spicy tuna roll and ika (squid) for $30 overall. The dishes are tapa-sized, so you would typically eat a couple of them. Yum.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go stare out my window like a puppy in love and try to imprint the sun into my memory before it goes away on Monday.