Monday, June 6 - Enjoying Vancouver

Breakfast this morning was among the best we have ever had.  We started with a parfait that included whipped yogurt with tiny pieces of strawberry and granola.  Our “main course” had eggs that were gently poached in butter for 14 minutes.  Dave can only do that when they have just 2 guests because the eggs require so much attention.  We also had nicely done Canadian bacon, tomatoes that had been lightly fried in olive oil and the remainders of the bacon.  There were top-of-the line orange slices coated in strawberry bits and toasted homemade bread with a choice of homemade jams.  Oh, and coffee/tea and cranberry juice.  Wow!!!

Both our hosts and Diane recommended taking public transportation, so Jim headed out to get a day pass for each of us (unlimited rides for $7).  While he was headed the half mile to the 7-Eleven, he remembered that he needed to change money.  He thought the banks were 2 miles away, but they were 4 miles away.  When he got there, both banks in the shopping center were closed Mondays.

Vancouver had rail lines (called SkyTrain) built in conjunction with the 2010 Winter Olympics.  A lot of people resisted, but they are a huge success.  We got a bus less than a block from our B&B that took us to the rail line, then took the train into the heart of the city.  The Canada line that we used only has 2 car trains (compared with 6 to 8 in DC’s Metro).  Jim liked the fact that you could walk between cars while moving.  The train was well utilized for 10AM.  We noticed that parking cost between 20 and 25 dollars a day so the train and bus pass was well worth it!

We got off in the center of the city and were a bit confused about where things were located.  While trying to find the city tourist bureau we discovered Christ Church, which has recently been restored.  The old stained glass windows were exquisite, but we were surprised by a contemporary set of windows from 2009.  They were at the back of the church and were a very interesting contrast to the older windows.  The church has a massive pipe organ and the 2,500 pipes are works of art in themselves.  The ceiling is made of massive dark beams.  

After leaving the church we found the tourist bureau and were given great information about the city.  We purchased tickets for  hop-on hop-off tour trolleys that gave us unlimited options for seeing most of the city’s attractions.  

 The morning tour took us through many neighborhoods of the city, including Chinatown, the second largest such in North America.  About a third of the shops had fresh produce outside.

We also passed an area with dealers in super-expensive cars: Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, etc.

We loved the crab fountain in front of the Vancouver museum.

The best part of the afternoon Red Line tour was Stanley Park. We stopped there to walk along the seawall path and through the park.  The park is named for Lord Stanley of Stanley Cup fame (oh, and Governor-General of Canada).  This seemed appropriate since the Vancouver Canucks are currently in the Stanley Cup finals.  Stanley Park at 1001 acres is 10% larger than New York’s Central Park.  There are massive trees, mostly cedar, many over 1000 years old.  

Our guide stopped the trolley by the stump of a tree that had been cut down about 100 years ago that had been over 1000 years old when it was felled.  He explained how they were cut using springboarding.  Large notches were hewn out of the sides of the tree at a certain height, then a 10 inch diameter tree was felled and the log inserted into the notches.  A pair of lumberjacks then stood on the ends of the log and got it springing in a rhythm.  The energy from the springing motion gave them the oomph they needed to fell the massive tree with their 2-man hand saws. 

There is a statue of a girl in a wet suit on a very large rock in the harbor by the park.  People can tell the tide by where the water is on her.  The tip of her hand marks high tide, the bottom of the rock, low.  The difference is 35 feet. Someone had put a Canucks shirt on her.

There were several places in the park where people were enjoying being in or near the water, including a beach filled with people at 5PM on a weekday with a temperature of about 65 degrees.

The park had a section devoted to traditional poles.  True totem poles are used to tell stories.  There are also ceremonial poles and commemorative poles.

The city has a lot of impressive buildings, both modern and old.  The Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel has a one line poem repeated on 18 of its 50 or so stories: “Lying on top of a building, the clouds looked no nearer than when I was lying on the street”.  

They are re-doing the baseball stadium including a new dome.  The removed all the old 19 inch wide seats and put in 20 and 21 inchers, reducing the capacity from 60,000 to 56,000.

There were numerous interesting murals in many places in the city.

We ate lunch outdoors at The Mill Marine Bistro overlooking the harbor, watching seaplanes taking off and landing, and lots of people biking and walking along the seawall.  The path covers about 15 miles of shoreline.  Our lunch was very good. Ardith had a salad and meatloaf sandwich with mushrooms, red onions and sauce.  Jim had a pulled pork sandwich and a salad. Jim was wearing a cap from his alma mater, Drexel.  A guy came up to us who graduated 8 years before Jim and struck up a conversation.

The weather yesterday and today was quite fine – sunny with a high in the upper 60s.  Folks told us that these were the first 2 nice days this year.  People took advantage in the parks and bared a lot of flesh.  During last year’s Olympics, they needed to make snow in the mountains above Vancouver.  Due to so much snow earlier this year, people are still skiing in June!

Everyone here is hockey crazy, wearing team jerseys and eager for the third game of the Stanley Cup playoffs against Boston to start at 5pm.  One of the tour bus operators said that the jerseys with names and numbers cost $400.  That seems a bit dubious to us, considering how many we saw.  The city has several large screens set up so that fans can sit outside and watch the game.  The city even re-lit the Olympic cauldron today in honor of the team.  We saw the cauldron on TV during the 2010 winter Olympics but it is really impressive in person.  Unfortunately for the local folks, the Canucks lost 8-1.  One newspaper’s headline screamed “Boston Massacre”.

We stopped at the food court in one of the malls between our Skytrain and bus ride back to the B &B, to grab something lite to eat.  When we entered the mall we spotted our friend Diane who had been out shopping.  We grabbed chicken brochettes for a quick meal at a Thai food place in the mall.  We took the bus back to the B & B and Lesley served us tea and pumpkin bread.  We got to meet the two other guests who are staying tonight, a woman from Calgary and her mother from Edmonton.