Vancouver, Whistler & Vancouver Island - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 771

Vancouver Whitecaps SOCCER
( www.whitecapsfc.com ; BC Place Stadium, 777 Pacific Blvd; tickets $25-150; Mar-Oct;
Stadium-Chinatown) Now using BC Place Stadium as its home, Vancouver's leading soccer
team plays in North America's top-tier Major League Soccer (MLS) arena. It's struggled
a little since being promoted to the league in 2011, but has been finding its feet (useful
for a soccer team) in recent seasons. It's a fun couple of hours - save time for a souvenir
soccer-shirt purchase to impress everyone back home.
Shopping
While Robson St is fine for chain-store fashion, it's hard to beat Main St (south of 19th
Ave) for indie boutiques. Gastown and Kitsilano's 4th Ave are also shopping hot spots.
Regional Assembly of Text ARTS & CRAFTS
( www.assemblyoftext.com ; 3934 Main St; 11am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun; 3) This iron-
ic antidote to the digital age lures ink-stained locals with its journals, handmade pencil
boxes and T-shirts printed with typewriter motifs. Check out the tiny under-the-stairs gal-
lery showcasing zines from around the world, and don't miss the monthly letter-writing
club (7pm, first Thursday of every month), where you can sip tea, scoff cookies and
hammer away on vintage typewriters.
It's one of Vancouver's most original stores. Check out the little array of handmade
self-published mini-books near the front window - where else can you read One Shrew
Too Few and Secret Thoughts of a Plain Yellow House ?
Smoking Lily CLOTHING
( www.smokinglily.com ; 3634 Main St; 11am-6pm Mon-Sat, noon-5pm Sun; 3) Art-school
cool rules here, with skirts, belts and halter tops whimsically accented with prints of ants,
bicycles and the periodic table. Men's clothing is also (a smaller) part of the mix, with
fish, skull and tractor T-shirts. It's hard to imagine a better souvenir than the silk tea cozy
printed with a Pierre Trudeau likeness - ask the friendly staff for more recommendations.
John Fluevog Shoes SHOES
MAP GOOGLE MAP
( www.fluevog.com ; 65 Water St; 10am-7pm Mon-Wed, to 8pm Thu & Fri, to 7pm Sat, noon-6pm
Sun; Waterfront) Like an art gallery for shoes, this alluringly cavernous store show-
cases the famed footwear of local designer Fluevog, whose men's and women's boots
and brogues are what Doc Martens would have become if they'd stayed interesting and