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07.07.03
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Dinner at Todd's on Sunday was a lemony,
chickeny, wear-my-shades-on-the-patio, urban-dining
extravaganza. Tara did an outstanding job
as hostess and Walter, the dog, did a great
job at keep Jack occupied.
Tonight we had dinner at Brian's, my old
grad school supervisor and renown archaeologist.
As we expected it was an evening filled with
fine wine, cheese, Celtic music, and sultry
Balinese wood sculptures. We got to hear
all about his recent work on traditional
feasting in Indonesia and the South Pacific.
Tomorrow we'll be getting ready for
our overnight
camping trip to Salt Spring Island.
The great weather has held and things
are
looking really good.
07.04.03
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The wedding is over, my parents have
gone
back out east, and I've finally gotten
Internet
access: Things are starting to smooth
out.
We had to move out of Jean's townhouse in
Surrey because the new owners moved in, and
now we're staying in a Boler trailer (little
bubble-shaped fibreglass camper) at Gary's,
my father-in-law, in Crescent Beach.
We're finally starting to do, what I consider
at least, the fun stuff. Yesterday we had
a barbeque party at Brett and Mel's funky
little East Vancouver house. Jack and their
kids Otis and Sylvie spent the day eating
raspberries off the bush and goofing around
in the kiddie pool. I spent the day drinking
beer and goofing around with Brett's guitar.
On Sunday we're going to a dinner party at
Todd's near Commercial Drive (East Vancouver),
and then on Monday we're having dinner with
Brian Hayden, my old supervising professor
from graduate school. Brian's been doing
ethnoarchaeological research in Indonesia
these past few years and I'm looking forward
to hearing some of his stories.
Then, on Tuesday or Wednesday, possibly with
Brett and Mel, we'll be spending a night
on Salt Spring Island. That should be cool.
I'll be taking a lot of pictures. It's one
of the places that Karen and I are considering
living when we move back to Canada, but neither
of us really know much about it, so this
trip is for us to check it out and to see
if it lives up to its reputation.
Finally, by the Sunday of next week I'll
be on my way back to Tokyo, so you Japan-junkies
out there will be able to get your Nippon
fix soon after that.
Thanks for stopping by. More great Vancouver
pictures coming up soon.
06.28.03
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Things are going well. The great weather
has held.
I can't talk right now. I'm at our
friend
Melody's house using her computer,
but I
have to run. Julie's wedding is this
afternoon
and I have to drive back out to Surrey
to
pick up Jack and my parents.
Today's pictures are all from the trip
that
we took to Stanley Park which I told
you
about in the last post.
More later.
06.25.03
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My parents are here in Vancouver now
and
things are going well. The weather
couldn't
be better and everybody is in good
spirits.
Yesterday I took them, with Jack, to hike
around Stanley Park: a huge urban park with
sections of old-growth Northwest Coast forest
right beside downtown Vancouver. It's on
a bulbous little peninsula surrounded by
the sea and crisscrossed with hiking trails
through the forest. It has a paved walkway
all around its perimeter called the Sea Wall.
It was an enchanting day, full of sunshine,
daisies in the grass, bald eagles, and seals.
Although it was bright and cool there weren't
many people there. We started out near the
Georgia Street entrance where we parked the
car. The parking ticket machine was broken
but my father kept trying to fix it by pumping
more money into it "...Maybe it just
needs another dollar. Geraldine, give me
a loony." Eight dollars later we found
another machine and parked the car.
We cut straight through the west side of
the park, past some parkland and playgrounds,
and came out at the Sea Wall on the Burrard
Inlet side. Then we walked along the Sea
Wall towards the Lion's Gate Bridge, which
spans the inlet, until we came to a little
stream. We followed the stream inland for
a while and walked around Beaver Lake --
actually a large pond filled with blooming
lilies. After my mother finished grazing
on the wild thimbleberries around Beaver
Lake we looped back out towards the Sea Wall.
We walked along the Sea Wall for a long time.
We went under the Lion's Gate and on to the
Vancouver harbour side of the peninsula.
We could see Vancouver Island across the
straight. We stopped for lunch at the beach
near Prospect Point.
A few cheeseburgers later we started to head
back towards the car, but I made a wrong
turn and lead us to the far western side
of the peninsula. We were pretty tired and
a little discouraged by then and considered
taking the shuttle bus that loops round the
park. We stood at the bus stop for a few
minutes, but then I noticed that across the
road was a trail entrance called 'Lover's
Trail', and the dark looming forest that
I could see beyond made me feel a pang of
guilt about taking the shuttle bus, so I
ushered everyone back into the forest and
we headed eastward towards Lost Lagoon and
the parking lot.
I'm glad that we took Lover's trail because
we saw some of the most enormous trees of
the day on the way, the kind that are so
big that they have a presence and you feel
that, if you tried, that you could develop
a personal relationship with the tree, just
because it seemed so special and individual.
After a lot of huffing and puffing and a
few more thimbleberry stops we emerged from
the forest on the shores of Lost Lagoon and
found our way back to the car, sweaty, hungry,
and ready to go home.
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I'll try to get some pictures from Stanley
Park up online for you next time.
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