Around Town + Hot Chocolate Festival

When you live in a perpetually rainy city, it's a common misconception that you can't have fun exploring new places and having new experiences. While I am more than happy to adhere the Netflix-and-jammies-on-a-rainy-day agenda, I'm glad that I had a long and lovely day with a good friend last week. Although it was raining cats and dogs, we planned to visit several Hot Chocolate Festival spots, use my Tourism Privilege Pass to visit the Aquarium, and eat food (of course).

While we never got as far as the aquarium, we did end up having our first hot chocolate at The Diva at the Met (inside the Metropolitan Hotel), shopping at Oak + Fort and other Gastown boutiques, having ramen in Chinatown, drinking hot chocolate at Bel Cafe, and visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery (also for free with my pass). Not too shabby for a rainy day, n'est-ce pas? 

Hat + Coat // Ever New

Shirt // Sunday Best  (Aritzia)

Pleather Track Pants // Nordstrom Rack

Shoes // Zara

Bag // Marc by Marc Jacobs

Forgive the weird quality of the shot below (I almost have no eyes!), shooting indoors is definitely not our forte. Nevertheless, trying to find a decent place to shoot on a rainy day turned out to be an adventure in itself-- we ended up heading into a random hallway of the SFU Woodwards building, which I've only visited about twice now. 

Delicious shoyu and miso ramen at Taishoken Ramen on Abbott Street.

And last but not least, our wonderful Mango-cream-topped hot chocolate at Bel Cafe located within the Rosewood Hotel Georgia. 

Photos by myself and Natalie

While I am grateful that I can spend an entire day having great conversations and discovering new places with friends, I am really looking forward to the springtime when I can go outside more (and spend less money). In the near future, I'm planning on hiking the Chief in Squamish and other outdoor-ish activities. I'm becoming such a nature freak lately...

What do you look forward to doing this upcoming spring?