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So, here's part two. The grand plan was to have an "uphill pub crawl". We planned to start at the bottom of Lonsdale Avenue in Vancouver and walk up the road, which is a vertical climb of some 800 feet over a distance of three or four miles. Our goal was to stop at every booze-serving establishment along the way, and spend no more than 20 minutes at each destination. We were hoping for a total of at least seven establishments.
The plan got screwed up pretty much at the beginning - the Marley clan hosted an open house, and the plan was to start there. Problem is, the muchies and company there was too good, which delayed our start. I mean, there's so many baked goodies by Marnie, and the host bar... it's a little hard to leave. Additionally, Ryan was entertaining the veritable horde of relatives and he was held for an extra hour and a half. We couldn't wait, so the main team bailed and left him to meet us later. By the time we got to bar #2, pretty much everything was closed! Stupid North Shore. I hate the god damned North Shore. Last time I try to have a pub crawl there. We ended up at Clint's house in defeat, swearing to do better next year. Mark my words, next year we're staying downtown! |
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Ahh, Ginger Ale, one of the key ingredients of Rye and Ginger, which seems to be
Ryan's new beverage of choice.
Sarah and Gio share an intimate moment on the offensively comfortable couch.
Nerky Noop!
Ryan is too popular to leave, and Marnie hasn't seen him for months, so he stays
behind (along with a small detatchment) while a scouting party heads to
Raglans, the first stop on our official Lonsdale tour.
A little blurry, but this show shows the scope of the joint. It's faux Tiki fun.
We're ready to get to work here. Thankfully, Raglans has at it's disposal
a large assortment of drunkard's tools...
...such as these five ounce stupidly sized goblets of booze. Sean and Clint
go with an elaborate cocktail consisting of Vodka and Soda. How... creative.
Lach's still reeling from the last expedition, so he's starting off with a more sensibily
sized beverage.
I am NOT drinking a sensibly sized beverage. This is a "Zombie", and it's WONDERFUL.
Drink up Sean, we don't have all night!
The table of equally rowdy guys sitting across from us challenges us to get up and sing "it's raining men",
with a promise to buy us a round of shooters if we pull it off. How can we turn them down?
Jeff adds some wacky hats to our singing ensemble to help us along. The performance judged
too horrible to reward with free booze and we return to our seats.
However, while the song is a failure, The hats are a success.
We continue to drink in them for the next fifteen minutes.
Johnny StylePants here has ordered a cocktail that matches his "Coach Z" T-shirt.
Co-incidence? I think not.
Drop that back, Lachie, we got to move on!
We RIDE!
Storming up the road, we discover our next destination has ALREADY CLOSED!
The North Shore's new "hot spot" lounge, Fiction Five, is shut!.
We divert to the Rusty Gull pub for last call. We're in emergency mode now.
Dino Dinicolo meets us at the 'Gull and joins us for a drink!
Whoah! The gang's all here! Local celebrity Lawrence Putnam and his friend Mike
show up for a drink. You may remember Lawrence, he ran for MP for the Conservative
Party of Canada when he was 21 years old. Aah, Putnam. He's like the Little Engine that Could,
only he's a grumpy right wing hard-liner rather than a friendly little train.
Whoah! Look who's finally showed up! Ryan's managed to break away from the
Marley open house and arrives in time to get one drink in.
Joining Ryan is his cousin, Mark. Later this evening Mark tells me he's "totally awesome
at Halo 2". I tell him "Oh, Halo? That's a game, right? Hmm, I'm not TOO bad... perhaps
we could have a wager, make it interesting? Say, one on one, first to twenty kills, put in
ten bucks each to keep it interesting, winner takes all?".
Final score: Kev: 25 kills. Mark: -1 kill (he blew himself up with a grenade).
I gave him his ten bucks back and told him to go buy some lessons. Instead, he put it toward
an Xbox live subscription and now, instead of fighting each other, we figh side-by-side
online, defeating other players as a team. What a great and happy ending.
Lach makes the call.. "this place is DEAD! We ride for the RANCH!"
Ryan is eager to attempt to catch up! This Tequila will be just the trick!
A couple of rounds later and Ryan's beginning to think the Tequila may not have been
a great idea. Look, it's the sleepy eyelids again. What a wreck. Clint's got the same problem.
I'm hammered, but at least I still manage to keep it together on the outside.
Uhg, I gotta go home. I don't feel so well. I'm done here (rumor is that Ryan
expelled most of the Tequila a short while after this photo was taken).
Lach and I close the party down, and return downtown. We'll get it right next year!
