East Vancouver is a great stop. Lisa lives very close to the express bus stop and Commercial Ave. Think of it as Bushwick 10 years ago. Thrifting, cafes, and awesome food are available within 10 minutes on foot. Gastown is about 10 minutes by the 95, 16, or 20. 20 minutes to the Seabus or Canada Line Skytrain. Less than an hour to YVR. An hour to UBC. 30 minutes to Downtown.
We walked around a pretty good portion of the city and there is so much to see we couldn't even scratch the surface in the 5 days we spent.
Lisa's place is comfortable and inviting and because we left early in the morning, she left us a Tim Horton's gift card to grab coffee on the way to the airport.
Great stay, great city, great location if you are going to use public transit (you should).