Picture Day remains in Canada

Let's finish up our three-day trip to Vancouver in late May 2001, shall we?

These first two pictures are of seal lions hanging out on logs in the Burrard Inlet. The first one shows how close we are to the city, while the second shows the sea lions up close.


Check it out: it's the world's narrowest building! Yes, it's an actual working building - the insurance offices inside are fully functional!

I may have showed a picture of this before, but we still found it extremely funny. It's the man on the traffic symbol, and we just love that he looks so jaunty!

This is the public library in downtown Vancouver. Two things about it: I love that it looks like the Roman Coliseum, and if you've ever seen the horrid Schwarzeneggar movie The Sixth Day, it's the building where Robert Duvall is holding the big event near the beginning of the movie.

We passed this restaurant on Sunday, and it was closed, so we did not get to see the sushi-making robots. But how awesome is robots making sushi?!?!?!? Next: they use their sushi-making skills to take over the world!

Krys and I went out to a fancy Native American restaurant our last night in town. This is us!

When we left on Monday, we drove around West Vancouver and stopped to get one last look at the city. I dig the dramatic sky. This is late May, remember, and it was pretty stinkin' cold. Vancouver is beautiful, but I can't believe it's all that pleasant, weather-wise.

On the way home, we stopped at a Buddhist monastery south of the city. It was very neat, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. So this is the exterior. It was pouring down raining, but we didn't care - we lived in Portland, for crying out loud!

And here's the border!

We really liked visiting Vancouver, but as long-time readers of this blog (you know you're out there!) may remember, while we were there, someone broke into our car and stole ten CDs. It was partly my fault - I left them in the car while it was parked in the hotel garage, but come on - anyone could get into that garage! So whenever we talk about Canada, we mention what a crime-ridden cesspool it is. Yes, I'm kidding - Vancouver in particular and Canada in general are wonderful places to visit. Plan your trip today!

Picture Day goes north of the border!

For the Memorial Day weekend in 2001, Krys and I decided to take a short trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, which we had never visited in our eight years in Portland. We had always wanted to, so we seized the day! Boy, it was a lot easier to carpe diem when we didn't have two kids. Isn't that always the way?

In case you've never been to Vancouver, here's a map. I also found some cool images on-line:


The downtown area is that thumb of land with the park at its tip, which is part of the reason why Vancouver is one if the most picturesque cities I've ever visited. Grouse Mountain, where some of these pictures were taken, is at the top of these pictures, behind North Vancouver. Just so you know.

Our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is quite awesome. It's up in North Vancouver, and is quite the tourist attraction. Note all the people in these pictures!



In that last picture, we were trying to get across the idea that the bridge sways a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't have a video camera, so you really can't get that from a still photo. But it sways. A lot. It's actually kind of difficult to walk across!

This next photo is the cable car up to Grouse Mountain, which is the ski resort that, technically I guess, is inside city limits. How neat. Of course, we went there in May, so there wasn't a whole lot of skiing going on. But that doesn't mean there wasn't snow!

This is a rather hazy shot of downtown. The wooded area off to the right is Stanley Park, which is a nice big area right to the northwest of downtown. The bridge from Stanley Park to the north shore, which you can see vaguely, is Lion's Gate Bridge, and is the only outlet from downtown to that part of the city, which makes traffic on it hellish.

This is me, of course, in the snow. I rule!

We took a boat tour around Vancouver, so I took photographs of downtown, of course! I took this one specifically because of the floating gas stations in the water there. Yes, they're actually gas stations. How are you going to fill up your boat, after all?

The building in the middle of this picture is interesting. You can see the "suspenders" that extend from its top, which makes it rather eye-catching. This is apparently to keep it safe in an earthquake. Vancouver is on the "Ring of Fire," which means it gets frequent earthquakes, and engineers claim this is a safe design. I'm not an engineer, so who am I to argue?

This is Gastown, the historic part of Vancouver. It was the place that was first settled, and has become a trendy spot after years of neglect. We walked around later on. Pictures to follow!


So that's the first part of our Vancouver trip. As I've mentioned in the past, this is one of my favorite cities, so I wish I could return. Maybe some day!

Picture Day goes north to Canada

For the long July Fourth weekend in 1998, Krys and I did the most patriotic thing we could think of: visited Victoria, the capital of British Columbia in Canada! Well of course we did - all liberals, after all, hate America!

Victoria is a beautiful city. It's located on Vancouver Island and is south of quite a bit of mainland Washington state (see the map). For some reason the Canadians thought it would be a good idea to put the capital of the province on an island far away from everything else in the province. Oh, those wacky Canadians!

Victoria is also very proud of its Britishness. It cultivates it for the tourists, naturally, but the people are still very proud of it. It means that unlike Vancouver, which is much more cosmopolitan and therefore the presence of Asians doesn't seem that weird, the mix of British and Chinese cultures in Victoria is a bit strange. But it works.

We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called the Humboldt House in the Oriental Room. Political correctness be damned - it was a cool room! It wasn't very big, but it was very classy:




In the room was a book where you could write about your experiences at the b-and-b and in Victoria. Most of the entries were kind of dull, but one guy wrote, and I kid you not, that when he saw his wife in a new nightgown, he felt "an uneasy stirring in his trousers." That may be one of the funniest things we have ever read, and we still mention it from time to time. Of course, many of the subsequent entries were commenting on this guy. Krys and I did not write anything in the book, but if you visit Victoria and stay in the Oriental Room, the book might still be there!

Here is Krys on the front porch of the Humboldt House. Our room was on the second floor. The back two windows were our room.


One of the landmarks in Victoria is the Empress Hotel, where we had high tea. That was Krys' idea - I'm not much for tea. But the Empress is a beautiful old hotel, and very British.


This is the Parliament building. It's the capital, remember. The inner harbour (note the English spelling!) of Victoria is a very picturesque place.


We took a bus tour around Victoria and cruised through Chinatown. This is the Gate of Harmonious Interest. Oh, those wacky Chinese!


In Chinatown you can find the narrowest street in North America! It's Fan Tan Alley! It's an actual street, too - you can't see it too well in this picture because of the shadows, but it's filled with shops and is very neat.


We also went up to the Butchart Gardens, which are very, well, flowery. It was actually a nice trip. You may question my masculinity, but I like gardens. Here's Krys with a bunch of roses.


Finally, we were hanging out at a restaurant the night before we left and the waitress took our picture. We're a tired but happy couple!


Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. Victoria is a relatively small city, and you can get a lot of places by walking. We only went this one time, but it's a place we would go back to if we had the chance.

Next week: good question. I'm not sure yet!