A week in Vancouver

We have been here almost a week. We have taken a gazillion pictures of the view out our front window.

Fresh snow on the mountains when they peek out from the clouds

We have walked up to Fourth Ave, the groovy main drag near here. When we lived near here in the early 80s, Fourth Ave still had a bit of a hippie cachet about it, left over from when it was the centre of the action in the 60s. There is a bead store, and the record store we bought our New Wave records at is still there, but there are a lot of sushi restaurants and chic clothing stores. And so many new buildings! A lot can happen in 35 years, even more in 50 or 60!

I have also discovered two of the places we used to live. The Aquarius apartment building, still with the gold writing on the door:

This was our first apartment, a basement place "under the Greeks." I think we lived there for 2 years! And the house is still the same, though there used to be a grapevine above our door, from which the landlord made wine that tasted like Welch's grape juice.

Phew, I think that might be enough exploring down Memory Lane! We had lived in Cambridge before, but then we had been adults, with kids. We left Vancouver in our mid-20s, and along with these things we remember from those days, there are also streets I know from when my mom drove me to swimming lessons when I was 12. Different!

Today we went somewhere I think I have been once before in my life, White Rock. I remembered nothing at all about it.

We were visiting a friend who has moved here from Toronto. She has a house with a view, close to the water, and we went for fish & chips for lunch and then walked along the waterfront and out on the pier.

If you click the picture to embiggen, you can see sea lions on the right-hand side, amongst all the birds. There were a dozen of them, as well as some harbour seals. Apparently a bunch of small fish came in to White Rock, lots died, and the birds and seals are enjoying a bit of a feast.

Tomorrow we hope to go for a walk, but it might be cold or wet or snowy, so we might not. We are very delicate now that we live in Vancouver, it seems!