Forecast - sunny and 14 degrees

Brace yourselves - this is a long one, because I haven't written for days and there's lots to catch up on. And also I'vve been having technical difficulties connecting - sleepy little Steveston does not offer the best wireless connections!

It’s the weekend and I am pooped. The job is getting to me. I am down to three days a week and yet am still exhausted – may be the hours, may be the lack of mental stimulation. The crowds have dissipated – the random athlete and spectator arriving and departing – but it’s not the throngs that we had seen for the last couple of weeks. This level of activity is expected to continue until the games are over and on March 1 YVR is planning for a doubling of their volume as everyone leaves at the same time so it will be on hands on deck. The last couple of days we got so bored, we resorted to entertaining ourselves. Vaughn, replanted here from Montreal, found some balloons and so we began a game of volley in the international meters, greeters hall, much to the amusement of the children who soon joined us. We had created our own new Olympic sport. We have been given blue and green suckers and so wandered around handing those out. How happy arriving passengers were to receive these thirst quenching Olympic specials!

The Olympic spirit has really got the streets of Vancouver jumping. And I know I am going on and on about this but the weather is giving visitors the most spectacular vistas of this beautiful city. Even though it has unfortunately affected some of the events, the visitors are making the most of it, strolling along that many boardwalks that you can find in every city in the lower mainlaind. There’s a view at every point and the municipal planners have done a fabulous job of finding ways to help people appreciate the natural sea-mountainscape.

My routine has changed a bit with my new responsibilities in Margaret’s absence. No more lazing around when I wake up – the doggies are ready for their morning business. Rising to waggy tails and excited prancing, I make myself a cup of tea in a to-go mug, leash up the pups and stumble outside. The last four days have been so sunny, that I get a quick jolt of vitamin D and boom – I’m raring to go. Of course Morgan and Sidney have little legs so while they are almost at a run to get to the nearest grassy spot I am strolling along at a pretty leisurely pace. Once they have had their eye opener and begin to slow down, it’s time to get them home. Breakfast for them and a quick bite for me, I the head out on my own for a run.

As always, distracted by the ducks in the pond at the edge of the complex, the spectacular view of white-capped mountains in the distance, the crocuses and the buds on trees, I try to focus on running. Maybe you do become immune once you have lived here for awhile – certainly the other runners I pass are intent on their movement rather than on their surroundings. Time to focus - head down determined I finally get my groove on and into a steady pace. I sure am out of shape through – you would think that all the walking around at YVR on an 8 hour shift would steel the muscles. And maybe it has but not done much for the lungs! So I am back to my beginner run class – 3 minute walk, two minute run. Oh well, it will be really easy to build it up again in this environment. No rain in the forecast until late Tuesday at the soonest!

On Monday, I went into the city after taking the dogs for a long noon-time walk to wear them out so they would sleep all afternoon. How convenient having a pass for parking at the airport! I could drive there and then hop on the Canada Line which takes 25 minutes to reach downtown Vancouver’s northern edge – so convenient. An abbreviated geography lesson for those of you who have never been here - the Greater Vancouver area includes Vancouver, on the western edge, essentially the downtown core, tucked in between the northern arm of the Fraser River to the south, and Burrard inlet to the north, so surrounded on three sides by water. Across Burrard are West and North Vancouver and across the Fraser at the south end is Richmond (and Steveston at its most soutwestern end). Heading east from Vancouver are Burnaby and New Westminister where the arms of the Fraser join up and to the south are Delta and Surrey. In addition there are a couple of other cities that make up Greater Vancouver, including Coquitlam and these are all connected by the system of skytrains. The area’s biggest transportation challenge is the fact that water intersects in so many locations that drivers and public transit must rely on a series of bridges and one tunnel to get around and these are not the 12-lane freeways of cities like Toronto. Four lane highways for the most part, an accident can really snarl things up, so for Vancouverites, the skytrain offers a reliable and consistent service not impacted by traffic jams.

OK enough of geography! The city was hopping on Monday. At that point Canada had won two golds and was in 4th place tied with France for medals. The sun was beaming, the tourists were here and the excitement in the air was infectious. Seeing a myriad of patriotic colours from countries around the world amid stores with their welcome world displays (love the peace sign flags!), everybody mingled and took photos of each other, lining up to get into different building like the Canada Mint, and onto rides, like the zipline. This looks like a thrill and I actually thought I might get up the nerve to try it out. But then I found out that the waiting time was 5 hours, so decided that maybe zipping across the main streets at an altitude of several hundred feet above the crowds, attached to the line by a mere couple of cords and harness, was not for me!

So I took in something much calmer, the Canada North pavilion – although I had vowed not to stand in line for anything, I broke down – it didn’t look like it would be possible to do anything noteworthy without a bit of a line-up. In the end it took all of 15 minutes and I chatted to the family in line behind me, who were from – guess where – Toronto – Leaside no less (for those who don’t know TO – Leaside is a five minute drive from my house in Greektown). The whole family was in town for two weeks, with tickets to 8 events and buying more if they could. The pavilion was interesting - see my new favourite puppy? Ok so maybe a white wolf would not make such a good house pet, but he was lovely. Demonstrations of Inuit games and dances and diamond polishing and exhibits of some fabulous art captivated me for about an hour and then I headed over to Gastown.

One of the older parts of the city, the area has been gentrified, the cobblestone streets restored and the original steam clock built in the 1800s was still working. I thought there might be some potential here, but in fact was disappointed – an area that could have offered some authenticity was overrun by tourist shops for first nations art, some decent, but mostly not. What a shame that although there are in fact good galleries here, there were no decent looking restaurants, just a collection of boring coffee shops.

Margaret had warned me Gastown was not all the guide books said, and I must say apart from the clock this was my first disappointment in Vancouver.

I did come across a store where I snapped a photo of moccasins on sale for my brother George – long story short, since he moved to Brazil, the one and only thing he used to ask us to send him from Canada were real moccasins. Well in Toronto, finding authentic moccasins was a mean feat, but here on display were all shapes and sizes and styles of the real thing. Think I’ll need to buy him a pair! Hope his feet are still the same size (George – what size? Pick a style?).


I headed back to Robson Square, where they have put up a huge outdoor skating rink. There was to be a performance of mascots and ice dancers before they opened the rink for public skating. While there I thought I might check out the BC pavilion in the Art Gallery but was disappointed again – twice in one night! – it closed at 5 o’clock. I’m happy to report that the pavilions are staying open past February 28th so I think I’ll save those once the big crowds of tourists have left – shorter lines, I hope. Still having time, before the performance, I decided I would try and buy some tickets so I could say I had been to at least one sporting or Olympic event. Guess what, another two hour line up, so I passed. I’ll try on line, or maybe even succumb to the scalpers. Watched some ice dancing, but really couldn’t get a great vantage point began so wandered over to Granville Street to see the lantern sculptures at night.

In an earlier post, I had some images of the lantern sculptures during the day – they were definitely more impactful at night. Although it was only around 6:30 it was quite dark, so this was perfect, snapped a few pix and headed back to the Skytrain. Doggies would be hungry and ready for their evening walk.

On my last day off, Tuesday, Larissa came by and picked me up and we went for a drive to one of her favourite local spots - Dea’s Island. A quiet, almost lonely conservation area, tucked away at the north end of Delta (across the river from Richmond), the calm was breathtaking. Although the park passes over the busy Highway 99 and the George Massey tunnel runs under the island, you feel as though there is no human life around for miles and miles. Jutting out into the southern arm of the Fraser River, you can see the tall buildings of Richmond and Burrard on the other side of the river, so far away, and shipyards and even a cruise ship! Larissa laughs and corrects me – that is the Tsawassen ferry that goes to Vancouver Island, not one of those Alaskan cruise ships as I had thought. Hmm, sure is bigger than the Toronto Island ferries!

The weekend has been fabulous and although it's Sunday night I will end the posting here and get back on Tuesday - I want to tell you about a very unique place hidden away in Richmond. And of course, I still owe you Steveston West - the other side of town!

PS - still no Olympic tickets, but maybe I'll have some luck on Monday. Heading into the big city and meeting up with Yette for a tour of International Broadcast Centre, and a coffee if she has time. You'll hear more about Yette later.