Hi Gram!
I apparently need to visit Tom’s family more often, or maybe leave pictures lying around so they remember what I look like. We knocked on their door when we arrived Wednesday afternoon as Elizabeth was headed out the door for an appointment. She opened the door quickly and said “listen, this isn’t a good time. I’m headed out the door. What do you need?” I stood there at a loss for words briefly before taking off my sunglasses and stammering, “umm.. Elizabeth? It’s Keith and Zibby. Did Tom tell you that we were coming?” Our laughter vanquished the tension as she realized that we weren’t selling religion or vacuum cleaners, and we realized that she wasn’t telling us to go circle the block for a while until she got back home. We all hugged and the kids ran down to say hi, then she headed off to her appointment while the two of us carried some bags up to the room we’d be staying in. Howard was headed out to walk around the neighborhood, so I joined him to stretch my legs and catch up on his latest news. The next few days were spent playing games, doing laundry, and hearing all about cellos, manuscripts, trumpets, Minecraft (a video game), school, Dungeons and Dragons, and house remodeling. Friday night the kids and I headed to dinner and a movie, Sonic the Hedgehog. The movie was surprisingly better than I would have expected, and both kids were impressed with it as well. AMC gave me a birthday certificate for a free large popcorn and large drink some time ago, and I thought this would be a great chance to use it, since I’d have other people to share with. I was not prepared for what they call a “larger popcorn”, though. The bucket probably could have held three gallons, and required two hands to carry. Between a full sized adult and two kids, we didn’t even finish half the bucket before the movie was over. My drink was the biggest “single serving” drink container I’d ever seen. I was able to carry it with one hand, but I was worried it was going to slip from my fingers. Luckily, I don’t drink sugary sodas, so I just had an ocean’s worth of carbonated water with which to wash down my popcorn. I’m really glad that some theaters, gas stations, and fast food joints offer a no-calorie option like that, sometimes with flavors like lime or orange. We headed home and the kids rolled their waterlogged uncle into the house for the night.
When we were planning our visit, Tom and I had talked about maybe taking the kids go-kart racing or something fun in town on Saturday. The weather was kind of so-so, and everybody in the house slept in a little – Tom and Elizabeth had a date and the kids and I had our fill of popcorn after dinner – so we ended up having a relaxing day of board games, sitting around talking, and each going off on our own to recharge our personal batteries, then followed the same script for the most part on Sunday.
Her first Canadian meal – Poutine
Monday morning, the two of us got up bright and early and pointed the car towards Canada. Zibby has never been north of the border, and I didn’t get enough time to explore Vancouver when I stopped through on my way home from Whistler last year. We joked on the drive up, wondering how different things would be in this foreign country – will they have chairs and tables like we do in America? I wonder which side the warm and cold water are on? (a side note – although there seems to be a standard of hot on the left and cold on the right, that standard isn’t followed everywhere in the world, nor everywhere in America. We’ve each had apartments where the sides were switched, it’s always a game when we get to a hotel to see which side things will be on, and we stayed at one hotel on this trip where, in the shower, hot was on both sides and cold was in the middle.) From the time we crossed the border until we arrived at our first stop, Zibby had fun trying to convert speed limits and distances from metric to the imperial measurements that she’s familiar with.
Looking for her friend, Cliff Lions Gate Bridge
Our first stop was Stanley Park, a large rounded peninsula that has been kept mostly as a nature preserve as the iron and concrete jungle of a city sprouted up around it. Native inhabitants hunted and lived in the area for centuries, with stories passed down shaping their history, the British built fortifications and gun turrets over the years to defend their port, and finally the armaments were stripped and the citizens demanded that it become a park, available to everyone. The city built a seawall with paths along the entire coast of the park and stretching beyond into the city itself, and has a number of lookout decks and patios where visitors can see the city across the bay and the enormous ships waiting their turn to offload or take on cargo in port. We parked near Prospect Point and, after getting a few pictures of the Lions Gate Bridge, started down one of the many paths through the park, hoping to walk along the famous seawall. Having misread the map, we had a fun hike up and down some steep paths, took in some gorgeous views, and took in some history from the plaques positioned along the trails. After a couple miles, the equivalence to 21 flights of stairs up and down, and the realization that I was looking at the map wrong (a dotted line indicative of a trail did not, in fact, quite connect the trail we were on to the seawall – it was a lookout over the bay with the seawall and path right below us), we found our way back to the gift store and coffee shop where we started. A short drive later, we parked the car closer in elevation to the waterfront, and took some stairs down to the seawall path. The planners were very smart when they laid out the park. There are two lanes on the path – one for pedestrians and the other for bikes and roller blades – and the bike lane is one way so riders don’t collide as they come around a bend. There are also benches along the pedestrian path with plaques, many of which were donated by family after a loved one, who had spent their lives enjoying the park, had passed away. It was touching to read the brief story on each plaque and imagine the person who inspired it. The wall has stairs down to the occasional beach of washed up sand, rocks, and drift wood where we saw people walking their dogs, sketching in an artist’s pad, or reading. At one of these beaches, Zibby saw a twisted and weather-worn piece of driftwood, probably a tree stump, lying on its side as far around as we were tall.
A familiar piece of driftwood Hello, Sea Plane!
While she took pictures and marveled at the marbling of the twists and knots, I joyfully told her that I had sent her a picture of that exact piece last year. It warmed my heart for her to be able to see, in person, something that had reminded me of her when I first saw it. We walked the path for about an hour, seeing ducks and ships and Candians along the way before we returned, exhausted, to the car ready to find a hotel. A short drive later across the Lions Gate Bridge (which was built by the Guiness family in 1938 to gain access to their land on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, and later sold to the province) we were checking into an Econo Lodge not far from the shops and restaurants. We cleaned up and unpacked, then headed out to Yummy Donair and Kebab, a local healthy fast food restaurant serving kebabs and Mediterranean food. Tuesday was forecast to be colder and rainy, so Zibby got some work done while I went shopping at Canadian Tire, a chain store that sells all kinds of auto, hardware, tools, paint, sports, and outdoor products. I didn’t see any tires, but they assured me they sell some of those too. We headed down to Gastown, a district just outside of the downtown Vancouver, to walk the cobblestone roads, gaze in the unique shops, and eat dinner.
Oh, and the dinner we had was Amazing! We found a little Lebanese place, Nuba, tucked in the basement of a big residential and commercial building. The place was packed, especially for a rainy Tuesday night, but we were seated almost right away at a candlelit romantic table for two. We decided to split a few smaller dishes so we could try the greatest number of new and interesting flavors. Our fest began with Mama Dallou’ah, a Roasted beet dip with garlic, pomegranate, lemon, and tahini, topped with walnuts. We took turns dipping little triangles of flatbread and raving about how delicious it was. With perfect timing, our waitress brought us some Falafel just as we finished savoring our last triangle of the beet dip. The spices were well balanced, the flavors popped, and each bite was the right temperature and texture. That was paired with some hummus and a basket of pita, which we used to wipe up the last of the Dallou’ah. The meal was finished off with some Chicken Shish Tawook, subtly flavored skewers of chicken that just melted in our mouths. Satiated, we reluctantly left our comfortable, warm environment to explore more of Gastown. I really enjoy seeing the different people going by as we stroll vibrant neighborhoods like this one. People of many ages, races, and cultures meld together to provide an electric vibe, the sum greater than the parts. The cobblestone streets and sidewalks, the classic architecture, and the unique shops all served to transport us back to a yesteryear that we usually only see in movies. After stopping in a few shops and discussing what it might be like living here, we came to the Gastown clock. We took turns getting pictures in front of the historic steam powered clock, which releases a puff of steam and whistles on the quarter hour, with a more elaborate show on the hour. The clock was originally built in 1977, designed to look like a remnant of the 19th century. In addition to its classic look, it was built to keep the homeless from sleeping on the warm grate, part of a steam distribution system that heats most of the downtown core. Exhausted from all of the walking we had done in the past couple days, we found our way back to the car and headed to the hotel to rest up for the next day’s adventure.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Zibby LOVES bridges. We look for them whenever we road trip together, and even took a day trip for her birthday last year to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel when we were in Virginia. I surprised her on Wednesday with a trip to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, just up the road from our hotel. The namesake feature is a pedestrian suspension bridge, 450 feet long and 230 feet above the Capilano river. The view is gorgeous looking down at the river rushing below as the bridge sways to and fro. The joyful smile on Zibby’s face, though, was even more rewarding. The bridge is suspended by thick steel cables, anchored by concrete piers on either side. In 2006, one of the massive trees toppled over from a perfect storm of rainfall that softened the ground followed by wet heavy snow that weighed down the branches. The tree landed on the bridge and move the anchors two meters, but the steel cables held and the bridge survived! They carefully removed the tree, then sank even larger anchors and reinforced the bridge further. Knowing all that, we felt entirely safe walking across this bridge capable of holding several 747 airliners.
On the other side of the bridge, we climbed some stairs and wandered through the treetops along bridges spanning between platforms from tree to tree. I marveled at the engineering and construction of these platforms built with no nails driven into the trees, instead built on bands that hug the tree and are adjusted to allow the tree to grow. Meanwhile, Zibby marveled at the nature and wildlife all around us, learning about the squirrels, moss, and ecosystem of the rain forest.
Tree that fell on the bridge, now nursing new life
Once we exited the Treetops Adventure, signs pointed us down paths that wove through the forest, past ponds and trees, under the suspension bridge, up the hills, and delivered us safely back where we started. At this point, our adrenaline was easing up so we walked across the long suspension bridge again to see what else was on the near side. The souvenir shop warmed us up for a few minutes, then we headed to the Cliffwalk, a series of platforms and bridges cantilevered out over the river from a granite precipice. The views were breathtaking, of course, as we looked down between our feet at the rocks and river rushing below. Zibby declared that this was one of the very few experiences she’s had since she started skydiving that really got her motor pumping. The whole thing was designed with steel mesh railings and platforms to give us an almost 360 degree view of the land (and distance down to it!) around us.
After climbing some narrow stairs back up, we were once again on solid ground as we headed back towards the gift shop. The entire time we were in the store, however, we both kept commenting that it still felt like the earth was swaying below us. It was almost unreal. Warmed and flush with souvenir purchases, we decided to walk back and forth across the suspension bridge one more time before making our way to the bus. After a short ride on the fully electric bus, we were back at the hotel and hungry for some lunch. First, though, we had to get a picture of the street where we would live if we moved here.
We found a small Indian Fusion restaurant nearby, and split a meal of Chili Chicken with some Naan and Basmati rice, careful not to fill up too much. After lunch, we crossed the street to a London Drug to mail some postcards and buy a couple items for the drive back to America. We must have picked rush hour for our departure because traffic was crawling as we wound our way out of Vancouver, but we had podcasts and conversation to keep us company. We made one more quick stop so Zibby could experience Tim Horton’s while we were still in Canada. Tim Horton’s is a franchise coffee and doughnut shop famous in Canada, similar to Dunkin Donuts in America. With donuts in hand, we crossed the border and made it back to Tom and Elizabeth’s house in time to chat with them before everyone headed to bed.
Thursday morning, Zibby got a little computer work done while I fixed a switch in the kitchen, then we headed downtown to see Pike Place Market, Seattle’s permanent farmer’s market, established in 1907. Traffic was light and we found parking right away, then headed into the market. As we walked through the door of the crafts vendor area, Zibby stopped to look at a scarf at the very first stall that we came to. As she reached for a knit scarf draped around a hangar, a crotchety old man in the next stall over yelled at her “DON’T PULL ON THE SCARVES! IF YOU HAVE TO TOUCH IT, USE THE BACK OF YOUR HAND! THERE’S A SIGN RIGHT THERE!” as he pointed at a small sign on the table. We both recoiled at the sound of his voice and walked 180 degrees in the opposite direction to look at other vendors’ wares. Stunned by her first impression of this world famous market, I was worried that she would form a negative opinion of the whole experience. Luckily, we came shortly thereafter to MJ Yarns, where we met a warm and inviting gentleman selling skeins of hand-dyed yarn with whom she was able to geek out about spinning and dying yarn, discuss uses of the different weights of yarn, and commiserate about the crotchety old man she first encountered. He did as much or more to give her a good, friendly opinion of the market as the cantankerous geezer had done to scare her away, and single-handedly made her memory a positive one. After chatting with him for a while, we wandered past other stalls, seeing all sorts of unique artwork, functional gifts, and homemade foods and desserts. She really wanted to see the fish being thrown, so she staked out a spot near the corner of their booth to wait for the show while I looped back to some other stalls to get some dried fruit and jellies to take home. One of the fish throwers asked if he could help her, to which she replied “oh, I just want to see fish get thrown.” He let her know that they throw the fish when someone makes a purchase, but she let him know that she doesn’t like fish and wouldn’t be buying any. “You’re saying all the right things, lady!” he answered, and they both laughed. Eventually, they threw some fish back and forth just to give her a show while announcing to everyone that if they wanted to see a bigger show, someone should buy something. She recounted this story to me when I returned, then decided to buy some hot sauce from them for entertaining her.
We bid adieu, then went downstairs to see what other shops the place held. We wandered in and out of a magic shop and some stalls selling knick knacks, then into a bookstore where the proprietor and Zibby recited poetry together and talked about some of her childhood favorite books. Eventually, we brought our purchases back to the car and went looking for some lunch. With lots to choose from, we settled on “Turkish Delights”, a small family run cafe selling authentic Turkish food, and split a chicken and mushroom Borek. As we were leaving, we heard the grandmother who runs the place stop by a table and ask “have you had enough stew? Would you like some more? You’re so skinny!”
Down the block, we got in line to go into the first Starbucks. It’s very small and still has the original flooring, light fixtures, and counter, required as it’s now a historical landmark. The line didn’t take too long, and everyone was friendly and chatting as we each waited our turn. Zibby got a coffee to go, then we were soon doubling back on some of our earlier trek to decide which bakery would be chosen for our dessert. The smells were fabulous as we walked in and out of each spot, perusing their wares, and moving on to see what else we could find. We ended up at a small shop with their counter on the sidewalk, where I chose a big cookie and she decided on a cinnamon bun. With our sweets in hand, we kept moving down the sidewalk, absorbing the sights, sounds, and scents of the world around us. With one more stop to get some flavored greek yogurt for my breakfast tomorrow, we traipsed our way back to the car to go see more of Seattle.
We decided to stop by the Museum of Pop Culture and walk around outside a little, strolling past the oversized art around the building and through the giant playground. It was too late in the day to go inside for the full museum experience, as we needed to get back for dinner sooner than later, but it was a lot of fun looking at the art and landscaping of the grounds. As our final stop, we headed to Amazon Go, a convenience store similar to 7-Eleven, but with no cashiers, to have the experience of shopping, grabbing what we wanted, then walking out without having to stand in line. We just showed my phone screen to a reader at the door, which opened a gate for us to enter. Once inside, a network of cameras and sensors in the ceiling track what we take off the shelf and what we put back, follow us through the store, then send us a receipt after we’ve left. We grabbed a can of fizzy water and a dried chicken snack, wandered around the store a bit, then left. Before we got to the car, a notification popped up on my phone screen with an accurate receipt showing what I had purchased. It was a very surreal experience, although I don’t know that I liked being tracked that closely with cameras and sensors. It felt very 1984-ish. Regardless, we headed back over the bridge and returned to Tom and Elizabeth’s house, arriving in plenty of time for dinner. Elizabeth, as always, made a delicious meal and the five of us (one of the kids had a previous engagement) sat around laughing and talking about the day. Zibby and I spent today packing the car and doing laundry in preparation for leaving in the morning in our gradual trek back home. I’ll have stories about that trek next time!