Voyage to Vancouver

Canada Day commemorates the historic moment on July 1, 1867 when Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (i.e. Ontario and Quebec) joined in a federation to officially become Canada.  As such, it is often referred to as Canada’s birthday.  The Canadians in Vancouver take this somewhat literally, because at every event we looked at attending, birthday cake was part of the agenda.  Which really goes to show how fabulous this country truly is.  (I mean, if FREE CAKE doesn’t light your immigration fire, I don’t know what will.)

We spent the majority of our warm and sunny Canada Day with the crowd massive, road-clogging crowds on Granville Island.  Highlights of the day included a parade, free flags and pins, a giant map of the world (with rocks symbolizing where attendees were from) and the aforementioned FREE CAKE (preceded by singing the national anthem).  It was fun, although hectic (especially with our bikes!), what with all those people off work.

In the evening, we walked over to the east side of the Stanley Park seawall for fireworks.  The show took place from a barge anchored in Coal Harbour.  By our American standards, the pyrotechnics were remarkably tame.  But the spectators were appreciative (or happily drunk) (or more likely a combination of the two).  All it took was a single big or colourful explosion and everyone would enthusiastically ooh, aah, clap or honk a yacht horn.

Come to think of it, the crowd was probably more entertaining than the display.  I was also amused by the adorable twin boys sitting in front of us.  They cheered for the first five minutes, carefully enunciating “yay Can-na-DAH” as only toddlers can do.  And there were not one but TWO groups of random young people who belted out the national anthem at separate times – both were met by cheers and applause from the viewing masses.

Overall, it was interesting to see how another country observes its national holiday of patriotism.  Compared to the U.S., I would say the day was less about concepts (e.g. freedom, independence) and more about simply raising a glass to mark another year with a good friend.

Happy 141^st, Canada!  Thanks for having us.

Unbelievably, we’ve been living in Vancouver now for three months.  That’s one quarter of a year!  It feels like only three weeks ago we were packing up to make the long drive out here.  I guess it’s true what they say about the time and the flying and the fun.

Our weeks here really have been enjoyable.  We’ve loved getting to know the city as residents – figuring out the little things like where to buy the best fruit, what papers we like to read, how to get from one location to another via bus or foot or bike.  It seems like every day we discover something new about this place we call home.

Of course, the homesickness still comes and goes in waves.  We’ve been sad to miss out on opportunities to hang out with (or show support for) our friends and family.  But we also see how those connections are sustained by the wonderfully versatile Internet.  It’s awesome how email, instant messaging and webcams can erase at least some of the distance between BC and MN.

So are we happy with the choice we made to pack up the entirety of our lives and haul it all to Canada?  Honestly, I can’t say.  Not yet.  Without jobs (and with the summer sun shining down upon us), it’s all too easy to think we’re simply on a long (and glorious) Vancouver vacation.  While it sounds silly at this point to say we need more time to mentally adjust to living here permanently, well, that’s exactly where we’re at.  Check in with me at the 6-month mark, and hopefully I’ll have a more concrete answer.

(And, you know, a JOB.)

We hit the streets again this past weekend, attending two outdoor festivals on opposite ends of town.

Saturday it was the Dragonboat Festival.  We made our way down to False Creek near Science World, where the dragonboat races were being held.  There were eight dragon-shaped boats in each heat (with competing teams ranging from recreational to hard-core).  The individual boats contained around 20 paddlers, a steersperson and a drummer (to keep the two paddling sides in sync).  The groups would line up and race 500 meters, working the oars as fast as possible the whole time.  We were impressed at just how quickly the boats were going – the average finishing time for the course was between two and two-and-a-half minutes.

We watched a handful of heats and walked around the festival grounds for awhile.  It’s amazing to me how many people were a part of this event.  The informational handout estimated that 180 teams and more than 4000 athletes were participating in the two-day competition.

On Sunday, we biked over to Greek Day on Broadway (one of the major commercial streets in the Kitsilano neighbourhood).  Similar to last weekend’s Car-Free Day, the road was closed to traffic.  So we traversed several blocks on Broadway on foot, discovering another loose-leaf tea store and enjoying the Greek entertainment (techno music! and dancing!) along the way.  We ate a fabulous gyro and tried loukoumades, which are like mini donuts flavored with honey, cinnamon and sesame seeds.  Near the evening's end, we also felt compelled to devour this ethnic gem from a familiar store (but in a new location):

As you may have surmised by now, there is a real affection in this city for anything anti-car.  We’ve been here just short of three months, and we’ve witnessed at least one event or demonstration every other week.  We’ve even been stuck at a major intersection walking back from grocery-shopping once, due to the (seemingly never-ending) parade of bicyclists (clothed ones, thankfully) participating in the monthly Critical Mass ride.  I love it!

So of course we joined in on the fun during Sunday’s Car-Free Festival.  Throughout the day, various streets and blocks in Vancouver were limited to traffic of the foot and bike variety.  In the West End, Denman Street (one of the major commercial roads in our area) was closed to vehicles from 12-6.  Much like the Grand Old Day event in St. Paul, food and merchandise vendors lined the street and local businesses spilled over from the sidewalks.

The variety of entertainment was impressive.  We saw musical acts ranging from native to folk (banjo included) to techno to punk.  We watched demonstrations in break-dancing, tango, salsa, and Brazilian martial arts.  And I just about died of happiness over the number of cute puppies running about.

Conveniently, this event was held THREE BLOCKS from where we live.  So we were able to walk the walk (literally) and leave the car behind.  No worries though, Prius, we still love your adorable (albeit semi-polluting) self!

This Saturday, Tisha and I took a trip to Seattle to visit family.  Our trip started with a quick stop at the Ikea in Richmond (the suburb to the south of Vancouver).  We were looking for a small table/stand for my laptop so I don't have to sit at the kitchen table.  Tisha did some research ahead of time and found a nice little laptop stand named DAVE (for those who don't know, Ikea has weird names for their products).  We bought DAVE and on our way back to the car saw a couple parking spots that had signs stating "This Space Reserved For Hybrid Vehicles."  We missed out this time, but we may have to go back just to park in one of those spots.

Our next stop was Top Foods in Everett (a suburb north of Seattle).  Whenever we go to Washington, we plan a visit to a grocery store to buy two things: breakfast cereal and Powerade.  These items are more expensive in Vancouver, so we always take the opportunity to stock up.  We bought 7 boxes of cereal, 8 bottles of Powerade, 2 boxes of Butter Mints, and 1 bag of Peach-O's (for my brother, Lucas).  It came to about $32 - a steal, considering it would've cost around $50 in Vancouver.

From Top Foods, we picked up Tisha's brother, Ian, at his apartment and then headed to Bellevue (a suburb east of Seattle) to meet up with my mom, Rick and Lucas at their hotel.

We all ate dinner at Azteca, a Mexican restaurant.  We had pretty good food, and I had a pineapple chipotle mojito as well.  That sounds weird, but the two flavors actually gave it a nice sweet/spicy combo.  (It did backfire a couple of times when I took a sip to cool down a spicy bite of food, only to have my mouth burn more from the chipotle flavor.)  I've never been to a Mexican restaurant in my life and not been stuffed to the gills when I left, and Azteca did not disappoint me in this regard.  Thank you complimentary chips and salsa and combo platters!

To cap off the evening, Mom, Rick, Lucas and I went to a Seattle Mariners baseball game at Safeco Field.  (Warning: if you don't follow baseball, some of the following may not make complete sense to you.)  The Mariners aren't very good, but they were playing the Washington Nationals, who are almost as bad.  Unfortunately, the Mariners still ended up losing 5-2.  Here are some highlights:

- On our way into the stadium, staff were handing out t-shirts to all of the dads for Father's Day.  Rick, Lucas and I each got one.  Go figure.

- You haven't lived until you've seen Dmitri Young try to score from second base on a single to right field.  (And you guessed right: the catcher was waiting for him at home with the ball in hand.)

- I took a walk around the concourse during the game and came across a sushi stand.  One of the items on the menu was the Ichiroll, named after Seattle's popular player Ichiro Suzuki.

- Watching a bad team this season has taken its toll on the Seattle fans.  The loudest cheers of the night came late in the game after the fans successfully got the wave going around the stadium, with both the lower and upper decks in-sync.

- Mom spent a majority of the game trying to stay warm under three XL Father's Day t-shirts.

- The fans in Seattle absolutely hate Richie Sexson.  After he struck out in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs, the fans were irate.  I haven't heard booing that loud in a long time, and for a moment, I thought 30,000 people were going to charge the field and send Richie to the Disabled List.  They were almost as mad when he struck out in the bottom of the ninth.

- I got to see Miguel Batista, the 4th starter for my Strato team, come in and pitch the 7th inning.  He promptly gave up a two-run homer.

- We saw the tallest pitcher in baseball, Jon Rauch (at 6'11"), close out the game for the Nationals.  After I told Mom and Rick this tidbit, Rick replied, "He's taller than the Major Unit?"  (He meant to say "Big Unit," the nickname of Randy Johnson, who is 6'10".)  As funny as that was, I'll admit I was impressed that he knew enough to ask the question.

After the game, we met Tisha and Ian back at the hotel, as they had spent the evening hanging out (between seeing her brother or baseball, baseball easily lost).  Tisha and I dropped Ian off and headed north, getting home around 2 a.m.  We were exhausted, but at least we learned that the line at the border for customs is really short that early in the morning.

The headlining events we saw this past weekend had two things in common: bikes and a change of clothing.  But the similarities ended there.

First up, the Vancouver Triathlon World Championships.  This four-day competition featured 10 different triathlons for athletes from around the world, all conducted right in our backyard!  We watched the Elite Men’s race in its entirety and were left feeling exhausted by merely witnessing what participants go through.  At that level, they swim 1500m, bike 40k and run 10k, all at speeds that make my running pace the equivalent of standing still.  Add in some unseasonably cool temperatures (plus icy cold ocean water), and you can further see why we were glad to observe this event.  (In fact, it was so chilly, some athletes in the first race of the week suffered from hypothermia.  And a later contest cut the swimming portion out entirely.)

Next up – and just about as far away on the sporting spectrum as one can get – the Vancouver World Naked Bike Ride.  (Yes, you read that right.)  We had heard rumors about this anti-car protest over the years, but never had the, um, pleasure of seeing it ourselves.  The cyclists met at Sunset Beach, where they stripped down (some partially, others completely) and applied body paint before the ride began.  We watched from a healthy distance as the parade of bikes and bums started their slow-moving journey through the streets of downtown, led by official police escorts.  While I don’t understand the exact connection between nudity and car culture, it is certainly an effective way to attract attention.

So we had an interesting weekend, to say the least.   And it opened my eyes to a new and awesome possibility for next year – The Vancouver World Naked Triathlon Championships.  Who’s in?

My mom was kind enough to make us some curtains for our living room, which she brought out here on her recent visit.  They look awesome and match the rest of the room perfectly – an impressive feat considering she did this based on rough measurements and a simple picture I took!

So now our "guest room" will give our visitors a little more privacy.  Which is great, because I know how much some of you like walking around in the buff.