Gallivanting Grandma

September 1 – 4, 2019

Vancouver remains one of our favorite cities in the world. It’s an enjoyable city to visit and seems very livable: great public transportation, outdoors activities, mild year-round climate, multi-cultural population, friendly people, and many cultural events and activities. Did I mention incredibly beautiful?!! There are many parks and gorgeous view of the sea and mountains everywhere.

Sunday afternoon we took a taxi to Vanier Park to see a performance of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. It was performed by Bard on the Beach which is a professional summer theater group. This production was a very funny ‘Wild West’ cowboy version of the famous play and very enjoyable.

Before the performance, we sat on a bench near Kitsilano Beach and Jeff noticed a pink paper origami bird hanging in a tree. According to the label, someone travels the world and hangs origami from trees in public parks and posts locations on social media. The sign said: “It’s never too late to start again.”

The little ferries on False Creek are practical and so much fun!

Canada Place on the waterfront is a convention center, hotel, meeting place, world trade center, and cruise ship terminal with great views across the bay to North Vancouver:

We took advantage of a beautiful sunny day to explore Stanley Park. The thousand acre park on the edge of downtown Vancouver remains densely forested. There are public beaches, trails, lakes, a heated pool, an aquarium, and an outdoor theater. We went to see the collection of totem poles:

We enjoyed walking several miles along the outer walking/running/biking trail. There’s also a statue of a swimmer on a rock which reminded us of The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.

On another day, we visited Bill Reid’s Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. He was featured on the Canadian $20 banknote. The gallery also had several wonderful exhibits by contemporary indigenous artists.

Downtown Vancouver in the glistening sunshine:

Our time in Vancouver passed quickly and we said goodbye to Vancouver early Wednesday morning. This trip home ended the same as it had begun, with a long delay at the Seattle airport. I took this photo from the plane of Mt. Ranier poking above the clouds, with Mount St. Helens in the background.

The view was a wonderful way to end a great adventure to Alaska and Vancouver.

Saturday August 31, 2019

One of our favorite places in Vancouver is the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. The museum is renowned for its collection of world arts and cultures and especially of First Nations of the Pacific Northwest.

The museum is an anthropological research center and has an excellent assortment of totems and other cultural artifacts.

One exhibit in the collection is an impressive sculpture by the Canadian artist, Bill Reid. The title of the work is Raven and the First Men and it depicts a Haida creation myth.

There is a meeting house and a variety of totems on the grounds of the museum.

We left the museum and went to Kitsilano Beach near the Maritime Museum to take one of the tiny False Creek ferries back to the city.

It was a beautiful day so we decided to ride the entire route of the ferry:

We left the ferry at Yaletown and walked to the nearest metro station. The SkyTrain is the oldest automated driverless light rapid transit systems in the world. The trains connect people from the airport to downtown Vancouver.

Here’s a photo from our hotel looking toward the mountains of North Vancouver. The city has grown a lot with many new tall buildings and more are under construction. It’s still a beautiful city and a fun place to visit.

Friday August 30, 2019

Vancouver is one of our favorite cities in the world and we were excited to return after our last visit seven years ago. The Celebrity Millennium arrived early in the morning and docked in the heart of the city at Canada Place. With its sweeping sails and panoramic views, Canada Place is a dramatic gateway to this lovely city.

The weather was overcast and 66 degrees. We were off the ship early and wanted to spend some time before going to our hotel, so we booked a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. It was fun to see how much Vancouver had changed since our last visit. Also, the Ho-Ho bus was a good activity for a cool drizzly day. Here’s a view of the city from Stanley Park. There are many more tall buildings!

The H0-Ho bus driver was an older local woman who grew up in Vancouver. Everywhere we went she had stories about what the neighborhood was like when she was growing up. Fantastic!! Stanley Park is a jewel in the crown of this attractive city:

We drove past English Bay and memories surfaced of my first visit to Vancouver more than 30 years ago. I sat on the beach at night as music from the Vancouver Folk Festival drifted across bay. I remember hearing Buffy Sainte-Marie and other Native North American and international folk singers.

Jeff and I decided to get off the bus at Granville Island and walk around.

Bagels have arrived at the Public Market on Granville Island:

Back on the Ho-Ho bus we passed through “Gastown.” Tourists were lined up to see the famous Steam Clock:

We got off the bus at the downtown Pacific Centre which was near our hotel. We checked in, got settled, and were ready to begin our northwestern Vancouver adventure.