Summer in the Pacific NW … what could be better? Just a brief 3-night trip from Seattle to Van. 14th time here, starting in 1971 when I was still a Californian; moved to Seattle in 1973.
Vancouver has as lovely a setting as any city on the west coast of North America. Filled with wonderful bike paths in the city and along its miles of shorelines. Over the past 55 years, old stone buildings that once graced downtown have largely given way to gleaming office towers, pricey residential towers and hotels. But Stanley Park remains one of the three nicest parks that I know in North America, along with San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Central Park in NY. Yup, I understand folks from New Orleans, Chicago, San Diego and Washington DC may think they deserve a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal for their parks, but I can’t agree on that one.
What a day and a half, so far. We’re staying on Granville Island. Quite touristy, yes, but the market is pretty nice, our little hotel here is lovely and quiet, and the setting on the “False Creek” inlet with boats along the inlet and views of the city is pretty deluxe.
By and large, the “Art” on Granville Island is not ringing bells for us, except for Ukama Gallery with lots of wonderful sculpture from a host of artists in Zimbabwe, as well as paintings by B.C. artists of locally inspired water, shore, forest and mountain scenes.
Vancouver - as a major city in a Commonwealth country - is culturally diverse. The Chinese community that started in the 19th C. got a huge boost with Hong Kong’s 1999 absorption into China, as well as 21st C mainland Chinese who have migrated to Vancouver and the city of Richmond, nearby. And the South Asian presence is considerable. Last night we had Indian food at Spicy Six and tonight we went to Vancouver’s 125+ year-old Chinatown for dinner at Chinese BBQ. Neither was fancy. Both were quite good. Tonight’s ice cream dessert at Earnest Ice Cream was absolutely spectacular. Not fancy, but OMG the Whiskey Hazelnut ice cream was incredible.
Earlier today, we rode our bikes along the seawall, through Stanley Park, across the Lions Gate Bridge and to the Inuit Gallery in North Vancouver - and back. All works at the gallery are by First Nations artists, from Salish to Haida to Tlingit and Inuit and many more. Soapstone sculptures, wooden masks and carvings, bentwood boxes and lithographs. All were quite impressive and most were well beyond our budget, even at CAN$ 1.00 to 0.71 USD. We decided to get a limited edition print, Nits’iits-im-Simgan (Grandmother Cedar) by Erica Davis, a Nisga’a artist with Heiltsuk ties. Those are nations along the northwest and central BC coast, respectively. We will pick up the print the day after tomorrow, as we head home to Seattle.
One last observation so far on this journey. In one particular way, the US could learn something from our neighbor to the north. Safeway had wooden spoons wrapped in paper for “to go” food, rather than plastic, wrapped in plastic. At the ice cream shop, all waste was natural and compostable so there was only a single disposable receptacle and no issue of folks putting plastic garbage in with the compost or recycling. And the spoons for tastes were metal spoons to be washed and re-used.
Not saying that Canada is stellar on the environment, across the board. But in this respect, BC at least seems to be ahead of the US.
More biking tomorrow and perhaps a dip in the remarkable Kitsilano Pool, the longest pool in North America at 149 meters.