Touring Vancouver, Clementson-style

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We had a leisurely time packing up and having a bit of coffee, leaving the hotel around 9:30am. I was under the impression that there was a car ferry we could take from Seattle to Vancouver, and was looking forward to seeing the area from a watery perspective. No such ferry. Oh well. So we hit the I-5 route north, which was a picturesque drive nonetheless, with lots of agriculture along the way, including the biggest array of green houses I've ever seen. Mt. Baker loomed in the east, and as we approached Vancouver we got closer to the enormous mountain range containing The Garibaldi Provincial Park and the Whistler ski resort.

Vancouver doesn't have a well-developed network of highways around and through the city, which was fine by me, but it does make me wonder how they're going to handle the winter Olympics that are coming here. We spent a lot of time in slow "surface" traffic. People drive just a bit differently up here and some traffic signals operate in a way I've not seen before, and it takes some getting used to. They have traffic lights and stop signs mixed in the same intersection. The green light flashes. Bizarro.

We made our way through the city and went across the Lions Gate Bridge to West Vancouver, where Jeanette and Bill Clementson live. We found their house without a hitch. It's a small, angular ranch house on the side of a hill looking right across the water at Vancouver. Beautiful spot. Hadn't seen each other in about four years, so not as long as Patti and Andre, but long enough to have quite a bit of catching up to do. We piled into their car and they took us over to Horseshoe Bay for lunch, just a 15 minute drive. We didn't realize it at first, but Jeanette had planned a full-on afternoon of sightseeing, which was fantastic. Thanks Jeanette and Bill!

Horseshoe bay is along the drive up to Whistler, and as you can see it's surrounded by imposing mountains on the north, and Vancouver Island to the west. It's a very active ferry port with three sizes of ferries coming and going between various destinations. (sorry, the photos missed the whole ferry terminal, I must have thought it "ugly") It's remarkable how fast they can empty the ferry, load up again with cars and passengers and be on their way again. During lunch we saw 5 arrivals and departures. There is also a small craft marina off to the left side of the ferry docks, which you can see. Bill told the story of how a few years ago a ferry captain lost all control to the motors of his ferry, and had to steer the ferry into the marina to avoid crashing full-speed into the dock.

All four of us had fish and chips for lunch, sampling the cod (ok), salmon (better) and halibut (best), served in huge oil-laden servings that made me sleepy. Jeanette then directed Bill to drive us up Cypress Mountain to a place with a vista overlooking all of Vancouver, with the Lions Gate and Stanley Park in the foreground, and the water, mountains and islands in the distance. Fantastic view, as seen in the portrait. This is the mountain where the snowboarding competitions will be held.

Bill and Jeanette have lived all over the world, Bill grew up an Air Force kid. He's lived in Germany, Iran etc., with a stint in Pennsylvania. Jeanette is a Kiwi who loves to ski; she teaches one day a week here so she can get a season pass. She says the snow isn't as good as Colorado, but it's still pretty good. Vancouver probably offers the best compromise of proximity to major water and major skiing that exists. It says a lot that they've chosen to settle down here in Vancouver, and it's easy to see why.

After Cypress Mountain we headed to North Vancouver, which is actually east of West Vancouver, go figure. Jeanette took us to a provincial park called Lynn Canyon that has a suspension bridge spanning a steep ravine with a water fall and rapids about 150 feet below. The bridge is pretty bouncy when you get a bunch of people on it. It amused me to see how differently people coped with it. Some folks turn white and need to grab the cable hand over hand, while teenage boys run out and throw rocks overboard. Even saw a couple with a baby in a stroller. The bridge is in an evergreen forest with green moss growing everywhere people don't step. Last stop: Deep Cove, a harbor at the east end of North Vancouver. We didn't spend very long there, but it was similar to Horseshoe Bay, without the ferries, and with sea kayakers paddling around and cherry trees in full bloom in the park.

Bill and Jeanette had an event to make at 7, so we wrapped up and went back to their house. We chatted a bit in the driveway and then we headed off to Vancouver and they to their party.
On the way back to the city we drove the circuit through Stanley Park and then got a room at a big hotel on Robson Street, one of the two main drags in the shopping district. After parking our gear in the room, we headed out for a ramble. Vancouver is full of people from all over the place, but especially from Asia, it seems. In the street, some of the signs are in three kanji, which I'm pretty sure were Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Also some Ukrainian and Greek thrown in for good measure. Altogether a much more worldly place than our white-bread Boulder.

We found a hole in the wall sushi bar called Sushi Miko and had an excellent, if basic, sushi dinner. There was a bizarre Japanese man sitting at the counter, with his pants pulled way above what's healthy. He peered through big plastic framed glasses and inspected each piece of sushi, surgically applying wasabi as needed, then abruptly snapped the piece of work to his mouth with his chopsticks. He did this for over an hour, laboring over each piece for about 5 minutes. It was real-life performance art, reminded me of the delusional son in Kurosawa's Dodes Kaden.