Getaway day in Vancouver

I don't like you and I shall scream in your ear

After our visit to Vancouver's Capilano Park, we hopped into the car and returned to Stanley Park. We drove around the park's peninsula shoreline, stopping at several beaches where we observed crows and gulls napping, feeding, and wading.  There were geese in a small park there and while we were taking pictures of a goose couple, up comes a goose striding purposefully and carrying nothing but bad attitude. There was much honking, squawking, and feather pulling. My guess is that the bad goose was the jilted husband.

So this goose walks into a bar...

From there we drove into the downtown area and ate Lebanese food, a rarity for us Roseburgians as most Roseburgians think Lebanon is a small town in Oregon with no cuisine of note. Nearby was a collection of odd little men statutes. Well, not all that little, each one was several feet taller than me. We had stumbled on the A-Mazing-Laughter whose little men are dedicated to the power of laughter, frozen forever in time guffawing at the latest off-color joke involving a bad goose.

I felt right at home

Fore!

But this is a hiking blog (allegedly) and we would be remiss if we didn't start walking at some point. Beginning near Science World, whose building resembles a giant golf ball waiting to be smacked by a 3-iron club, we set out on the bike path on the seawall alongside False Creek. I'm not sure what was false about False Creek, but the "creek" was way too wide to be considered a creek, no matter how many beers had been imbibed.

We walked by Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks (hockey!). I yelled out "Go Portland Winterhawks!" and no one paid attention, apparently our Oregon team is too minor league. A "Go Sharks!" did the trick and drew dirty looks.

How many apartments does a city need?

I swear Vancouver must be the apartment tower capital of the world;  tall towers sprung up like weeds on both sides of the creek, false as it is. At any rate, we passed a bunch of tall buildings before ducking under the Cambie Street Bridge and coming upon a Time Top.

Maybe this is where President Obama was born

Yes, it really was a Time Top and I have no idea what a Time Top does. But there was one there, looking all the world like an alien artifact. A nearby plaque identified the contraption as a Time Top. Actually, after doing a little bit of research I found out the Time Top made its appearance in the Brick Bradford (yes, that Brick Bradford!) comic strip and the artist came from Canada. So the Time Top found a home, randomly placed, under a bridge in Vancouver.

The next item on our agenda, which was as random as the Time Top's final resting place, was the iconic Canada Place. Passing the Olympic Flame cauldron (flame extinguished when the Olympics left), we strolled on the wide promenade on the Place. Canada Place is adorned with distinctive "sails" above the businesses, hotels, and promenade walkers.  The net effect is that it feels a lot like walking a deck on the Love Boat, not that the Love Boat ever had sails on it.

Paging Captain Stubing

We had spent most of the day in Vancouver and only scratched the surface of this interesting and beautiful city. But we had a long drive to return us to the interesting and beautiful city of Winston, Oregon (sarcasm intended). On the plus side, this blog will return to the more familiar theme of hiking on trails.

Get that camera out of my face, now!