Things I will miss about Vancouver

After much thought and consideration, I've decided to leave Vancouver in November for some more travelling. I am really looking forward to spending 2 weeks seeing a bit more of Canada, and then it's on to South and Central America for 2-3 months...but there are definitely some things I will miss about Vancouver....here comes another list:

1. Riding my bike over the Cambie bridge to work every morning - beautiful.
2. Potluck dinners.
3. The wonderful friends I have made, who helped me make a life here.
4. The patio on a sunny afternoon and the vegetable garden at my place.
5. The biking culture here - everyone has a bike, the bike lanes and streets are excellent, and of course, Critical Mass.
6. Fireball - tastes like heaven, burns like hell.
7. Cheap and fresh fruit and veggies.
8. Food - Foundation's fantastic veggie fare, Slickety Jim's bennies, The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe's amazing pannekoek and Budgie's Burritos.
9. Craigslist - anything you want, you can get....and I mean ANYTHING.
10. Being able to see the mountains from right in the middle of downtown - pretty amazing when there's snow on them.
11. Great thrift stores.
12. Awesome hiking and lakes so close to the city.
13. How helpful and friendly people are...most of the time.
14. The smiley bus drivers - yes, these mythical creatures do exisit in Vancouver.
15. Danger Knife. Although I'm taking this particular backyard game with me, and I plan to spread it to the far corners of the earth. All you need is a frisbee, 2 poles, a section of grass and a couple of friends with drinks.

And just because I'm starting to second guess myself....

A few things I won't miss:

1. Tax never being included in prices and having to tip for everything.
2. Not being able to get a flat white.
3. Expensive alcohol...in fact, expensive everything.
4. The difficulty of finding somewhere to watch a rugby game.
5. All the homeless people.

So as you can see, the things I will miss about Vancouver (and there are so many more than what I've listed here) outnumber the things I won't....and hey, I will still have 2 months left of my visa come February when I will most likely finish my trekking about....so Vancouver may not have seen the last of me yet!