Greetings from on the road
I’m just back from Vancouver, where I and a couple of friends spent the weekend for the wedding of a mutual friend of ours. Among the highlights of our visit: hiking five miles around the periphery of Stanley Park, watching fireworks over the English Bay, admiring the sealife at the Vancouver Aquarium, and hanging out on two beaches (Jericho and Sunset) staring at miles and miles of mountains and clouds. Vancouver has the most stunning scenery of any city I’ve ever seen, and manages to remind me oddly of California, perhaps because of the palmettos and hibiscus flowers growing amidst the conifers and maple trees. For once, my tendency to pack for every possible weather condition paid off. Parts of the weekend were a crash course in converting centigrade to Fahrenheit in my head. ("Up to 22 today? Hey, that’s not bad!")
Scattered impressions: Great blue herons in the harbor, cormorants diving, and lots of ravens. Incredibly clean air that smells like the sea. People ordering crepes in French at a creperie where we had breakfast. Mountains visible everywhere except amid the tall buildings downtown. Separate lanes for pedestrian and bike traffic in the park, and more cyclists than I’ve seen anywhere else. Lots of internet cafes. Rainbow flags all over and same-sex couples unselfconsciously holding hands (after two years in Virginia, this was like having a weight lifted off my chest). Excellent Malaysian food. No film crews filming anything that we could see, but maybe we were in the wrong places for that. People playing cricket. Strange juxtaposition of west-coast-ness (laid-back, mellow, hippie vibe) with Canadian-ness (polite drivers, tidy streets, low risk of mugging). Sudden, uncharacteristic thoughts along the lines of "If I lived here, I’d learn to kayak, and maybe to ski, too." Impulsive grabbing of brochures for Canadian backwoods adventure-travel tours, which was disconcerting, given that my usual idea of a vacation is to go to a city at least several hundred years old and take in the museums. But if I lived in Canada I’d definitely spend my summer vacations in Vancouver.
Oddest sight seen: a backpacker downtown with a water bottle perfectly balanced on his head and a small, fluffy, black-and-white kitten perching on top of his backpack.
Vancouver sounds nice. Mountains and tall buildings make a good combo. And oh, isn’t it nice to be reminded that not everyplace is the south (even to the extent that Charlottesville is the south.)
Of course, you must be terribly busy…but how is the new place? Are you there yet?