When Jake and I first moved to Vancouver, we lived on Beach Avenue in the West End. We loved it. We felt altogether very “Vancouver” there. We had a view of the water, lived right beside the seawall, and our neighbours smoked a lot of pot. It was the perfect place to get a stereotypical vision of the city.

Next we moved to Yaletown. We also loved that area. We had a beautiful white condo with a view (albeit a small one) of False Creek. Lots of small dogs with Burberry raincoats and Louis Vuitton leashes lived in our building. My right arm practically grew a doppio espresso on the end of it.

Then we had a brief stint a leaky condo. I feel even more Vancouver because of it. Although I was convinced that I was going to die of mold poisoning for about a month.

We never really thought that we wanted to live in Kitsilano, but my sister had a lead on a great big loft above the legendary Zulu Records. The price was right. The location couldn’t be beat. And the patio was larger than most one bedroom apartments. We signed on the dotted line.

Now that we’ve lived in Kits for well over a year, it feels very much like home. My parents spent a good part of their youth in this hood. My sister lived here for a while too. We are two seconds from the beach, we have a view of the city skyline. And living above a record shop rocks. We get to listen to cool beats all day - like our life as a really awesome soundtrack. Plus you inherit instantly cool neighbours.

Finally the endless Vancouver winter rain has ended. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but it feels like summer. All winter I spent hours pouring over travelbestbets.com dreaming of a warm, dry escape. But now that the cherry blossoms are out and the Shangri-La in growing taller and taller in the distance, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be than right here.

Photo: Last weekend after a yuppie trek to the acupuncturist (my Chinese liver is sick apparently, not my Western liver), I went on a long photo walk around Kits. The air was snowing with blossoms and I was on a hunt to find this big old factory that always seems like it was hiding in the distance. I found it, and I think it’s actually a paper company - though it looks like it’s for lease.