A sunny day in Vancouver changes everything. The city buzzes with activity and you can actually see the Vitamin D transforming people’s haggard faces as they become better versions of themselves.  There is nothing like waking up to a sunlit Vancouver.  As my friends in Toronto would likely remind me, the sun shines brightly and often in Toronto and sunny days in Vancouver are only good because they are there are so few of them.  Seriously, let’s not turn this into a Toronto vs. Vancouver debate.  We all know how that ends (Two words: Rob Ford).  Saturday morning I woke up and drove with my friend Lindsay over a sunny bridge to North Vancouver.  We were greeted by a thick patch of fog.  A little disheartened, but knowing that coastal/mountain weather can be fickle, we continued on to Deep Cove with hopeful hearts.

We were wildly delighted when, upon arrival, we were greeted with this view:

Sun or no sun, we both immediately appreciated the rarity of the moment, the astounding beauty of the blurred horizon line and the stillness of the water.

We continued through the forest and each uphill jaunt was rewarded with spectacular views of misty green trees, waterfalls and stoney creeks.

When we got to the destination, Quarry Rock, the fog was brilliant.  We were now mostly above it and could feel the warmth of the sun, but there was no visible horizon or distant landscape.  The harbour below us had vanished and we faced a wall of whitish-grey fading up to clear blue skies.  The whole setting was very ethereal and it felt like we had found the edge of the world or like we had reached that point in the Truman Show when you realize that there is a boundary to the world that you know.  It wasn’t as world-shattering for us as it was for Jim Carrey though.  Man, he really lost it when that happened.

While surveying the view and what we could see of the landscape, I looked to my right and, to my shock, noticed a tiny rainbow.  We took some footage of the rainbow, both intentionally and unintentionally.  Here is the compilation, which will hopefully inspire fond memories of the double rainbow video we all know and love.

By the time we finished cooing over fog, rainbows, and the warmth of the sun, we were ravenously hungry.  We continued our adventure by partaking in February’s ‘food truck fest‘ at the Winter Farmers’ Market at Nat Bailey Stadium.  Food trucks have become increasingly popular in the last few years.  The City of Vancouver plans to increase the number of food trucks on its streets from 103 to 133 by 2014.  Some restaurant owners, however, have asked for a moratorium on the expansion of food trucks.  They argue that, as property tax payers, it is unfair to restaurants for food trucks to zip in during peak times while brick and mortar establishments have to endure both the slow and busy periods.  Food trucks are particularly helpful in serving the areas of a city in which residents don’t have easy access to quality food sources.  Food trucks typically feature innovative food at relatively inexpensive prices, since they have less overhead costs.  Their mobility (hopefully) means that they pose no real threat to any one restaurant.

There were 12 trucks featured at the market this particular Saturday (and all future Saturdays in February).  We arrived at the market with one particular destination in mind: a food truck by the name of Pig on the Street.  The Pig on the Street truck was comically small compared to rest of the trucks, as it was a VW Westfalia and the other trucks were, well, just bigger trucks.

Though it was small in stature, it was gargantuan in flavour.  A pillar of delicious.  A b(e)acon of piggy delight…  We ordered a ‘Pig LT’ which consisted of thick cut double-smoked bacon, avocado, tomato, farmhouse cheddar, bacon-maple mayo and arugula wrapped in a hand-made flat bread.

The sandwich was the perfect reward after a morning of exercise.  Rival to the great sandwich experience (or contributor to its overall awesomeness) were the clever pig puns assigned as order markers.

Our order was lucky enough to get assigned ‘Squeal Young’ which was our favourite.  Honourable mentions go to ‘Ham Solo’, ‘David Hasselhog’, ‘Pamela Hamderson’ and ‘David Bakeham’.  Pig puns are a real snort, aren’t they? They’re just swill.  I think they made the sandwich taste better.

There you have it: a day of grand simplicity.  Sun, fog, rainbows, bacon, market treats, and puns.  Really, what else is there?