Bear Returns

Clouds Disperse

Fri Aug 27th 
Sat Aug 28th



























It was a magical sunrise Saturday morning over Hopkins Landing Wharf.   

An early start as we were headed to Vancouver to check out EVs.    The ribbon of cloud against the distant mainland mountains highlighted the scale of the geography and beauty of the surroundings.

It was a different scene to yesterday, with the the cloud clearing as the day went on.

Cloaked in thick cloud, the peaks that had been hidden over the last few days started to emerge.

The small hollow of snow remains, but is getting much smaller. Though it has remained long beyond my predictions it cannot be around for long.

If Friday was a local day, Saturday took us in to Vancouver to check our EV's.

Unlike the UK, the main dealers congregate on auto-malls. We were headed to the one in North Vancouver, just fifteen minutes from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.

After a few test drives we settled on a Nissan Leaf, delivery early next week.  It will ease my conscience when I upgrade to a large-engined pick-up with decent towing capacity!

Car purchased, we headed off to the Lonsdale Quay Market and dockside cafes.  It had a feel of something designed for tourists, though was full of locals enjoying the sun, sea and ambiance of the market and food stalls.  A must-go destination for visitors to BC and Vancouver.  What is especially interesting is the co-location of industrial ship repair and working yards alongside cafes, restaurants and shops, creating a buzzy, vibrant area in a stunning location.  The area looks across to downtown Vancouver, the CBD and Stanley Park.


Lonsdale Quay Market, has a large number of food stalls selling everything from Fish and Chips to Sushi, salads, Vietnamese, Mexican, Thai ..... the list goes on.  A wrap-around deck outside, with more seating on the pier meant it was easy to find somewhere to eat.

A two-piece band were playing on the plaza area making a reasonable stab at Mark Knopfler's Sultans of Swing to general appreciation from the crowd.

The contrast of old and new was well balanced and a rather like Granville Island an old dockyard crane had been carefully preserved and is now gracing the dockside with its rails still embedded in the sidewalk.






Shipbuilding company Seaspan which runs the dockyards, in North Vancouver, builds and refurbishes ships and celebrates its Canadian roots.

It has the largest gantry crane, it says on the West Coast, capable of lifting 300 tons - Big Blue

It is quite an impressive structure and dwarfs the dockyard structures around it.

 

After a lunchtime exploring the dockside, which had a farmers market running at the same time, we headed back towards the ferry via Lynn Valley, to pick up Nick and Lizzie after a 19k mountain trail run and drop them back to their car.

I dropped Fred and Jack by the ferry terminal after we arrived back and she walked back to the house via the beach, giving Jack a chance for a romp and swim.  As we hadn't anticipated any hikes today she didn't have the bear spray with her, only to encounter our local black bear climbing down a tree and heading up a drive away on her walk back with Jack.  The same drive he came down two days earlier. No pics though.... Fred was more concerned to get herself and Jack past safely!!!



Some more pics of North Van below.

Fish Carrier and 'treatment'

Shipyard Pier with huge harbour tug parked up on left

Downtown Vancouver

Lovely cloud formation over Downtown Vancouver




Art Installation on quay alongside political lobbying groups for upcoming Elections











Comments

  1. BobAugust 29, 2021 at 11:47 AM

    So EV = large engined pick up? Hmm.......

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 29, 2021 at 1:13 PM

    Woohooo on the visas/longer stay 👏Congratulations! Do the tourist board know about you!? We are sooo coming over! Fred and bear story made me feel very flaky about my spider encounter - Graham couldn't get his pint glass around it! Maddy R

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Frustrations of Canadian Immigration Services

Image
And other things  Sat June 1st The pause in blogs was due to Immigration Canada announcing at the beginning of May that a further draw would be made from the remaining pool of the 2020 Expressions of Interest (EOI) for Parent and Grandparent sponsored Permanent Residency.    Friday was the last day and again we did not get through.  The fifth year running.  I suspect that later in the year they will invite a new round of EOI's which probably means we will be a small fish back in a very large pool.  On the grand scale of all suffering and instability in the world, it is insignificant  (I keep telling myself),  but it is hugely, bloody frustrating.  Our tenure continues under the Super Visa scheme, which runs until our passports expire in 5 and 8 years time respectively. Other news ...  on Sunday 27th w e went to a wedding reception. It is the first time I have worn a jacket in over three years.  My boarding pass from our Air Can...
Read more

Cream Crackers & Stilton

Image
Blue Sky in Whistler!!!!! Fred on the Piste - not overly busy Before I get on to Whistler ........ In my early BBC career I spent a couple of years working at the BBC’s Television Centre (TVC), in west London.  This was long before the BBC flogged it and it was turned into an apartment hotel and restaurant complex, plus a few TV studios for the industry to use as a nod to its history.   Amongst other things I did a stint as a studio supervisor and worked on the Two Ronnies, Morecombe & Wise and Top of the Pops.  Anyone remember Pan's People? Phwoar! Interesting times. TV Centre was huge and had several thousand staff. The restaurant block, on three floors, included a waitress service restaurant on the '2nd floor' where stars were entertained by their producers over long lunches and the odd glass of wine.  This was the late 70’s before ‘hair shirts’ and the critical public attention the BBC gets today.   Occasionally, a couple of fellow wor...
Read more

Fall Leaves and Rainfall

Image
Jack Vs Car Sat November 9th Fall seems later this year and the deciduous leaves have been a lovely mix of golds and reds with the predominance of Maples in all of its varieties. After last week's storms, most of the leaves are now down along with quite a few trees.  Further up the Coast a tornado was reported taking out multiple trees that closed the main highway and took out power for local residents for around three days.    A local driver caught the trees coming down on video .  After two consecutive dry summers, 2024 has been wetter with no significant water restrictions on the Coast.  I assumed this was good news until reading an article in the UK press that suggested late autumns are just another sign of global warming. The storm left us without power for nearly 12 hours and a huge number of properties were similarly affected across southern and central BC.  Fortunately we had a good supply of candles and a gas lamp.  Some friends near the ...
Read more