Vancouver, BC: April 24, Part 1

April 24, Part 1

Vancouver, BC

Today we took the Hop-On-Hop-Off tour trolley. It runs throughout the city, making 24 stops. You can get off and board another as often as you like for two days. A new trolley comes along at each stop about every 20 minutes, unless you are really, really tired and cold, then it comes late or skips your stop.

Most of the trolleys today were filled with cruise ship passengers. The ships leave tonight, so the trolleys may not be as jammed tomorrow. But the ship passengers were very nice and quite chatty.

Our first bus driver could not abide a second without sound and talked constantly, usually about topics that had nothing to do with the tour. We got off quickly so that we could board another trolley with a different driver, and this one was great. He gave us good information about what we were seeing at that moment.

The ride through Stanley Park was wonderful. It is huge and still beautiful even with all the storm damage. A horrible wind storm two years ago took down 10,000 trees, many of them the oldest and tallest. They are still working on restoring the damage, and are attempting to replace the trees with the same species, mostly western red cedar and alders. It has been difficult to find enough cedar trees of the correct species, necessitating cloning, which is a slow process.

We stopped at the totem poles and picked up some First Nation history. In 1884 the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch and other First Nation ceremonies. They encouraged the sale of masks and other cultural and sacred objects. Totem Poles, which told the history of the families and communities, were sold to collectors and museums, as the government tried to “reform” traditional ways of life and language of the First Nations.

No new totem poles were made for many years. Now a new generation of artists have created replicas and created new ones. Stanley Park displays an impressive collection of this traditional art form which memorializes families and provides powerful symbols of the First Nation communities.

One of my favorite one was carved, natural wood finish, not painted—the Beaver Crest Pole. It was carved in 1987 by a Nis ga’a member, Norman Tate and his family. Their family crest is the beaver.

My other favorite was the Sky Chief Pole.

We saw some good views of the city from across the road from the totem poles.

I thought Canada Place, near the Cruise Ship Center, was quite interesting. It reminded a little of the airport in Denver, Colorado, as both have the same sort of high white peaks making up the roof. I know it is supposed to make an artistic statement, but I think of circus tents

We passed by Lionsgate Bridge:

Our next stop was Prospect Point, still in Stanley Park. We saw some good views of North Vancouver this time.

We also saw Lionsgate Bridge from the end instead of the side.

Along the way, the driver pointed out a broken off tree that houses a bald eagle nest. There are five active bald eagle nests in Stanley Park. This pair lost their nest in a storm and rebuilt this one. The mother eagle was perched on a branch high above the nest. (The nest is on a lower left branch, the mother eagle on the top right of the tree.)

This was the second bald eagle I had seen on this trip. We also saw one at Astoria tower. (I thought I saw one over the dunes the day before, but Tom didn’t see it and it doesn’t count if you don’t have collaboration—we tend to cheat watching meteor showers, so there is a trust deficit in nature sightings.)

We went by the addition to the Convention center that will be used for as an Olympic media center during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. We saw the Inukshuk in Stanley Park that was the inspiration for the symbol for the 2010 Olympics..

The Inukshuk is a traditional stone statue used by Canada's Inuit people. For centuries the Inuit people have stacked rocks into a human shape as guideposts. They have has come to be a symbol of hope and friendship, representing hospitiality.

The gift shops here are filled with shirts, hats, little paperweights, and pendants with this symbol. My favorite was in a jade shop; the Inukshuk was actually made of jade and stood about four feet tall. We thought it might make our suitcases overweight.

We also saw the count down clock, which measures the time until the start of the Olympics:

After the 2010 Olympics, the count down clock will be taken to the site of the next Olympiad.

This building was voted the “ugliest condo building in Vancouver”. The chartreuse stripes sort of match the sickly green vines that crawl dis-spiritedly up the ends of the building. Units for one million and up because it is on Granville Island. Ugly does not necessarily mean cheap.

This metal sculpture/fountain in the shape of a crab was given to the city by the First Nations as a gesture of good will .

The Time and Gold Building was formerly owned by a clock maker. The one end of the building has a mural of clockmakers that covers the entire side of the building. I have heard two different stories about this mural. (1) It is not painted, but is integral to the wall—the design is made from the different colors of the bricks used in constructing it. (2) The wall is painted, but in a pointillist manner, with each brick being one solid color. It has been repainted once, but artist is now in her 70’s and trying to find the next artist who will touch up the painting as she no longer does scaffolding. Take your pick, I can find no collaboration for either version. But it is incredible no matter which way it was created.

This carved jade entrance was created for a bank, but is used for the entrance of the “Daily Planet” in “Smallville” television program. Several TV shows are filmed in Vancouver.

I have so many pictures of our visit to Chinatown and the formal Chinese garden, that I am splitting this day’s entry.

For the rest of April 24, please see Part 2, Chinatown.