I know it's been ages since I last wrote - please forgive me - I have not deserted you. I think I just really needed to take some time to get back to me. And somehow, I just couldn't get the words down to say my town in Vancouver was o ver. Maybe I just haven't wanted to admit that it was done and writing would just make it too real. And I had writer's block, really. Strange feeling after spewing for so many weeks. But I'm back and ready to get verbose all over again, so hope you're ready!So as I sit here in my backyard with my two fat cats next to me, I will reflect on my last couple of weeks on the west coast and bring you up to speed on my return home. The time has flown and yet it seemed not really to have moved at all. I have been busy taking time to catch up, reconnect with family and friends, reacquaint myself with my home town and find my footing again.
I didn’t work the last week I was in BC, which gave me time to do a bit more sightseeing and have those good bye visits with my friends. Who knows when I will be back or when they will head east. Nevertheless, we’ve made up for lost time and opened the door to staying better connected in the future. Yes technology sure will help – how easy it is to drop a line in an email and just let someone know you are thinking about them. But it’s more than that – as Michelle said – you are my heart – and all of you will always hold a special spot, each for your own reasons. Lifelong friends, friends that become such through growing families, co-workers who became friends, and just those people you meet in life, it’s so wonderful the connections we make as human beings and the way we bond. Friendship is like one of those stretchy bands – it can pull far apart but it always comes back together, so even though distances between us are long, that’s just geography, as people, we will always be connected. And the ones I spent time with in BC – well – you will hold a special spot in my heart because you made me feel at home, Like Larissa and the kids. 
I took my last chances to sightsee Vancouver. I walked around downtown to take in the architecture - the city doens't have many great buildings, but the library - Wow! And of course I had to go back to Granville Market. Yes to buy some coffee and little souvenirs, but more to revel in the colours and the sounds. The day I went, the weather was another one of those picture perfect Vancouver days – sunny, warm, blue skies that showed off those beautiful vistas. I bought my several ½ pound bags of JJ Mugs beans for coffee loving friends and walking past the fresh oysters and the berries piled mountain-like in their baskets headed outside to savour my free cup of coffee. Starbucks – you should take a lesson from this – a free coffee for a loyal customer – pretty good marketing strategy if you ask me! . 
The back of the market looks out across to Yaletown and this beautiful day had brought out all kinds of people – rowers, lovers, pet walkers and the gulls – OMG – Vancouver has the biggest gulls I have ever seen – these birds were the size of an eagle or they sure seemed to be. The homeless guy with the Blue Merle puppies for sale, families watching their children skip around between the gulls and the puppies and the magician and the musicians performing. What a fabulous way to spend a couple of hours. Fond memories forever.
And I took in the last of the Olympics. Some of the pavillions I couldn;t get into when the crowds were there had no more line-ups - or really short ones. The BC pavillion at the Art Gallery was fab - interactive walk through the forests teaching you all about the province and the things it had to offer. The Canada pavillion - well the Mounties got their woman! Another interactive chance to test your knowledge about the country - I passed, but not with flying colours@! Another stop at the Bay to pick up those last minute Olympic souvenirs - no line-ups at all. But I didn;t make the mint - can you imagine on March 19, the wait was still 5 hours long! Oh well, the nearest I got to a medal was at the airport - but hey that was good enough for me!
Margaret and I took off for a couple of days to Seattle – what a neat city – I’d like to go back some day and spend a bit more time as our trip really was only a little over 24 hours. But we sure packed it in – Pike’s Place Market on the waterfront – deceivingly small selection of vendors of fresh foods, but the market is on multiple levels sloping down toward the waterfront. Maybe smaller really than Granville or even St Lawrence, but this market such neat vendors – and fish and seafood everywhere. And yes those are tulips on the roof, 1000's of them! 
I must say one of my favourites though was the sausage vendor – he had dozens and so artfully displayed. Flowers galore – this is really one of the things I have missed most since I got back home – Vancouver and Seattle, maybe because their spring starts earlier or maybe just because they love flowers, reminded me more of Paris – massive selections of tulips and gerberas and so many others in all the colours of the rainbow and more! And not just the odd store here and there. As I walk along my neighbourhood street back home, only the supermarket and Chinese fruit market offer blooms, but so few to choose from that the burst of colour is just sadly lacking. If you know me, you know I love flowers. I have vowed to add some colour to my garden this year (and hopefully the cats won’t dig things up as soon as I plant them)! 
This city has got it right - public transit is free in the downtown core! Can you imagine that happening anywhere in Toronto or Vancouver? OK, so it's not a huge city and walking can be quite a challenge - from the water up to our hotel - about ten blocks is a 25 degree slope - a killer for anyone with bad knees! A quick stop at the Sculpture Garden - this city loves its art and it proud to display it - and this park offered some from the best - mark Savera, RIchard Serra - so cool! And of course we had to go by the Space Needle and Gehry's cool tribute to music. Unfortuantely not many pics of this - just a teaser for you.
My last full day, I decided I would just walk, all over, North Vancouver, Lonsdale Avenue, Yaletown, downtown, just to soak it in so the images would be imbedded in my memory forever. As one of my friends said to me, it doesn’t matter if you have a camera or not, the picture is in your head. So I wanted to make sure the picture of the mountains, the blossoms, the sea, the mountains would be forever etched in my memory.
On Vancouver, the memorable things are many. I have written about most of them and shared some photos, but it’s good to recap – remember you’re also helping me remember this chapter in my life. And even though these aren't the only things I will remember, these are the biggest.
The mountains – I know I go on and on about these peaks, but there is something in the majesty of the peaks that you can see from almost anywhere in the city, even when the sun is not shining! Awesome.
The Skytrain and the Seabus. Where else can you hop on public transit, bus, LRT or boat and sit next to people with skies or snowboards who will be whooshing down a mountain in less than an hour! Inspiring.
Steveston –what a wonderful place, so calm, so serene, on the water, fresh fish, sunniest spot in Greater Vancouver, the ocean, the sunsets. Just beautiful.
The Olympics - I may not have gotten to any games events, but I sure felt the spirit. Kudos to the city - they did a fabulous job of brining the spirit of the games to everyone through the many large screens all over town where throngs would gather and watch and cheer on our teams and all the different venues. I totally get why people become Olympic junkies. I believe!
Tofino – the tip of Canada and even though I didn’t see any whales, I did see sky meet the ocean in the huge expanse beyond, topped off by a spectacular sunset. Moving.
Blossoms –Vancouver has the biggest profusion of cherry apple and other blossoms I have ever seen – a sea of pink along a busy road making even a dull gray dreary day bright. Enchanting.
Spring - I have been blessed to see two springs this year – the time when the ground and the trees wake up after a cold, wet Canadian winter. And The progressions from the west coast, with crocuses greeting me my first weekend in Vancouver to the little crocuses that were popping their heads up in my garden greeting me home at the end of March. OK, so maybe this isn’t that kind of thing they would put in the tourist books, but it was a real memory of Vancouver for me, starting spring sop early for the first time ever. Exciting.
Friends – need I say more? Love.
I can understand why people come here and don’t leave or decide that they want to retire here one day. You are still in Canada, but you have great weather, beautiful scenery and a much less stressed lifestyle.
First couple of weeks at home were really weird. I felt strange in my own house, things were where they should be and yet, not. Because I had stayed at many homes in the last two months, I wasn’t sure really where things should be. So I took off to visit Corrinne in Montreal – such a pleasure to spend so much time with my girl. As I told one friend, we spent probably the longest consecutive time together we have since she was about 10! Really – five straight days and granted although she went out a couple of the nights I was there – she didn’t go until 10pm when I was truly winding down for the day and quite content to putter around her cute apartment before I tucked in for the night.
Lazy, oh how lazy I have been. Never a morning person, I have enjoyed the time to sleep in, sit with the newspaper, read it end to end, do my daily Sudoku and watch daytime TV. Boring you say? You betcha, but that’s ok – i know I will soon be up and trotting around getting busy, thinking about what to do next and where to go, how to fill my days and make plans for the future. What a luxury to have this time. As I said to a friend the other day, it’s almost like being on sabbatical, except I don’t have a job to go back to. So one of these days, I will become serious and put on my logical hat, think about business and banking and mortgages and all of those realities. But for the moment, there is no stress, I am the master of my own time and perhaps my own destiny and I love, love, love it!
Signing off as I head out to meet a friend for lunch to chat about everything and nothing.
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