Vancouver Layover

As I rotate my head to grab a breath midway through my morning swim at the Second Beach pool, I notice a sea gull gracefully gliding overhead, its wings beating the salty air, the whiteness of his wing drawn body accented against the cloudless morning blue sky. Wow, this almost calls for one of those cheesy inspirational quotes you sometimes get on Facebook, you know the kind that one of your Facebook pseudo friends shares with you in hope that it will give you the jump start you need to get your act together. In this case, my swim companion the seagull, which I named Jonathan, really did appear overhead and will forever be lodged in my memory file under the heading 'ephemeral snapshots of my 5 week summer 2016 layover'. 

As our return to Bangkok fast approaches, I've come to once again appreciate how wonderful our summers 'back home' have been.  Granted, the ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ adage may apply here as we have been away for 6 years, and some of those places we've been to were quite dismal. But let’s face it, this country of ours and especially this small corner of the world we call Vancouver is a pretty wonderful place to live. Every summer, this city never disappoints and more than lives up to its oft-touted record on livability. So what exactly causes me to be newly enamoured with this little hamlet by the sea every year. Well, as far as this summer goes, let me count the ways...

1) Living in the West End, and taking full advantage of its west end vibe. Every community amenity that one could need or want is just a few steps away from your front door, restaurants, clubs, parks (including Stanley Park, the mother of all parks), pools, public library, beach, street furniture, post office, food stores, drug stores, coffee shops, sea wall promenade, you name it, it’s here! And then, our biggest find of the summer while living here, the strong sense of community that permeates this great high density neighbourhood. People talk to each other. Within five minutes of walking into one of our neighbourhood Starbucks, I had met Duncan who’s an architect but hopes to get into municipal politics, I had been introduced to Gladys, who had recently lost over 60 pounds since last summer and felt great for it, and then there was scraggly looking Thomas who joined our little impromptu coffee shop meeting of the minds, who turns out is the custodian at St-Paul's Church on Davie, and who after complimenting Gladys for her weight loss, encouraged Duncan to pursue his dream of becoming a politician because ‘we need some good ones to replace the ones we have now’.  Now that’s what coffee shops are for, getting people together!



2) Watching the Celebration of Lights fireworks at English Bay, always a visual treat, especially this year when we didn’t have to stress about fighting traffic getting back home after the show. As much as I was impressed with the fireworks, I was equally impressed with my fellow +400,000 spectators, all out for a good time. Hats off for the Vancouver Police’s managing of the logistics and the containment of that amount of people that had agglomerated on the beach of English Bay, a mass tenfold the amount that call the West End their neighbourhood. The orderly and orchestrated dispersing of that crowd after the show was almost a pageant in itself. Within 30 minutes after the show, the West End was back to its usual neat humming self. 

3) Eating local blueberries until I couldn’t eat any more. I think I’ll be good for another year of blueberryless Bangkok.

4) Walking the Coal Harbour seawall, usually after dinner. And what a great way to work down that extra chicken thigh that you really weren't hungry for but didn't want it to go to waste. In any case, an extremely pleasant walk, scenic, teeming with people but not crowded, cool breeze, and who could forget that young classical violinist playing a goose-bump inducing rendition of Ave Maria; this lone young man standing in front of the spectacular panorama that is Burrard Inlet framed by the North Shore Mountains. Yes, I did put money in his violin case, and yes, I also asked him if he wanted to meet my daughter.

5) Joining the half million fellow Vancouverites who attended and enjoyed the Pride parade. I especially enjoyed the party atmosphere build up that precluded the actual parade spectacle. Got up early at 7:00 am to grab a coffee at the Starbucks down the street and was surprised to find people already sitting on their lawn chairs on the curbs of Denman, waiting for the 1:00 PM passing of the 3-hour parade. It turned out to be a great parade, flamboyant as usual but far less outrageous than it used to be a few years back. I guess now that Canadian society has 'grown up' and evolved in its acceptance of alternate life styles, there is less need for the shock factor that used to be prevalent at these Pride parades. There are still speedo clad young men gyrating on those floats (how on earth can they do that without putting out their backs?!) but nothing like it was was let's say 10 years ago. Even the customary harbinger of Pride parades, the rowdy Dykes on Bikes toned down their big bike procession with just the occasional random boob peeking out of big Mama's restricting halter top. Oh yeah, and one of the highlights of the parade for me was seeing our Prime Minister JT walking with his family, and especially bearing witness to the enthusiastic and welcoming reception he got from the crowds all along the parade route. A real rock star that one…wonder how long that’s going to last?

PM JT walking with his family.

6) Reading the Georgia Straight while enjoying a good cup of coffee on a rainy afternoon, nestled in one of the many new funky coffee shops that are springing up on the Pleasant Side strip of Main Street.

7) Enjoying the Theatre Under the Stars rendition of Beauty and the Beast. Ok, I admit, I like musicals, and especially the sappy ones. The sappier, the better; and Beauty and the Beast has to be one of the sappiest, from the singing and dancing anthropomorphic candlesticks to the tear jerking dance scene as Beauty and Belle sweep around the stage under the glow of that giant chandelier that suddenly came down from the heights of the Stanley Park evergreens. Broadway stage magic at its cheesiest, and I loved every minute of it.
  
8) Early morning walking around the Stanley Park sea wall, just for the heck of it. We’re talking Stanley Park here... big trees, ocean, boats, seagulls, waves, more even bigger trees,... I think you get the idea.




9) People watching while enjoying a Shwarma dinner on the terrasse of the Mediterranean Grill on Denman. Well, not really a terrasse... more like a few tables and chairs on the sidewalk. Last time I ate good authentic Shwarma like this, I was in Riyadh.

10) Swimming at Second Beach Pool, and of course the spectacle of Jonathan Livingston Seagull flying overhead. This pool stands out for its setting, on the water in Stanley Park. Again, ocean, big trees, salt water air, no further explanation needed, you get the picture. 

There certainly were many more moments during my Vancouver sojourn when I would ask myself ‘why would I want to live anywhere other than here?’ Yes the city is VERY expensive to live in, yes the job market isn’t all that great, and yes the city has more than its fair share of vapid/shallow/superficial lululemon wearing people (but doesn't every city have them?), but hey, at this point in my life, I would not want to live anywhere else in the world.