Monday, July 18, 2011

A saunter into Gastown

This afternoon the clouds finally parted, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Perfect timing for my evening saunter into Gastown with my friend Michele. We wanted to try out the Smart Mouth Cafe which, unfortunately, turned out to be closed.  We will have to try and make it there for breakfast or lunch, since they close up at 5:00 pm.


However, our journey there was a destination in itself, because on our way down to Water Street we went along Richards and stumbled on McLeod's Books.

"I'm thinking of buying a Kobo," Michele was just saying as we stepped through the door...and then her voice trailed off.  It was one of those Pearly Gate moments - as soon as we entered we knew we had found Book Heaven.


Imagine floor to ceiling shelves of books....books piled on the floor, on tables and on window sills....aisles and aisles and aisles of books. Old books, new books, books I've read, books I've always wanted to read, and a million more books I never knew existed. We wandered happily and finally had to tear ourselves away with our treasures - a Father Brown anthology for me, and for Michele, Bill Bryson's Troublesome Words.  I don't know if I managed to convince Michele not to buy a digital reader, although I did point out to her that I didn't think a Kobo could render quite the same OMG moment like we had when we walked into McLeod's.

After discovering that the Smart Mouth Cafe was closed for the day, we walked farther down Water Street, past the line-up at The Old Spaghetti Factory, to a little Italian place called Incendio which I remembered seeing on a previous Gastown foray. Michele had the Carnivore pizza (chorizo and prosciutto on a delectable, wood-oven-baked crust) and I had the creamy wild mushroom pasta.


Good books, good food, a good friend - and sunshine.  What more could you want from a day?


Share/Bookmark

No comments:

Related Posts with Thumbnails