It’s good to know that I don’t need to fly across the world to kickstart my poor travel planning. I can misjudge, misunderstand and make bad decisons in North America as well.
We’re up here in Vancouver because I have about $500 worth of Amtrak credit (I am too embarassed to reveal why – just know that the Amtrak credit is in good company with the Delta credit, the Southwest credit and the Alaska credit) to burn within the next 6 months and with trips to Portland at $50 round trip, I needed something a bit more expensive to help clear that credit.
Frugal as ever, I booked the last possible weekend for the shoulder season hotel rooms, scoring a one bedroom at the Times Square Suites for $115 per night and the only thing I overlooked is a Vancouver Calendar of Events check which would have revealed the Vancouver Sun Run, taking place tomorrow. This run attracts 50,000 people and it is scheduled to go LITERALLY in front of our balcony at 9am tomorrow. The website says that we may have trouble arriving to or leaving from our hotel room but Ron is unconcerned and says we will just weave our way through the barriers and the 50,000 people.
Here is a picture of beautiful Vancouver:
I should not complain about Ron as it is ever a miracle that he does not abandon me when we travel. Just yesterday, when I announced that we were going to walk to Granville Island to see the market, Ron didn’t ask me any questions whatsoever. He just gamely followed me from the hotel, we crossed town and then I declared that we needed to cross the bay to get to Granville Island and so I randomly walked us to the Granville Bridge when, perhaps, a little research would have directed us to take a foot ferry or the more pedestrian-friendly Burrard bridge. Undeterred by the 8 lanes of traffic, we marched across (there was a small sidewalk so I did not feel we needed to abandon our plan) and when we got about halfway across it became clear that the bridge was going to cause us to overshoot Granville Island completely.
We ended up somewhere else…but in the midst of Vancouver’s super-high-end car market and so we got to wander through the Lamborghini dealership and the McLaren dealership, where cars are 450,000 and 200,000, respectively.
We did make it over to Granville Island eventually and then over to the Museum of Vancouver, which had a really great photo exhibit of Vancouver in the 1970s, embroiled in a fit of liberalism a la San Francisco. There was also a fantastic neon sign exhibit and a well-constructed argument both for and against the aesthetics of neon, which I followed closely without picking sides. (Contrast this with today’s stroll through the Vancouver Museum of Anthropology, where I was overwhelmed with the history, the totem poles and the creepy masks but found the red leather chairs quite comfortable as I sat waiting for Ron to look around.)
While we were at the Museum of Vancouver, I chatted with the cashier about our further plans and asked him about the possibility of walking from The Times Square Suites down to the University of British Columbia campus. He was unequivocal that it was unwalkable but I felt he didn’t know what he was talking about. I studied the map at the hotel last night for at least 2 or 3 minutes and I told Ron it was only about 5 miles and that the idiot at the desk was just like the rest of the world – too lazy to walk and lacking a real appreciation for an urban hike.
We set out at 9:30 and the real psychosis didn’t set in until about 2 hours later. My math just didn’t seem right. It should have taken two hours max but at noon we were well…I don’t know where we were. I started replaying my map assessment and the more I thought about it the more I realized that the distance I mapped out was 12 kilomters and it’s not clear to me why I thought that was equal to 5 miles. Let me be the first to tell you that it’s 7.46 miles and, surprise!!…right at the 7.5 mile mark we saw the campus in front of us.
We walked the campus in the pouring rain (one more mile!) headed straight to the Anthropology Museum (stated reason for the 7.5 mile walk), paid our 30 dollars to get in and then I promptly plopped myself down into a chair, too tired to care what the museum had to offer. I did get to try an O’Henry Peanut Butter Bar that I’ve never seen before south of the border and found it to my liking so I had that to show for my day.
I apologize for the lack of pictures but I didn’t even think I was going to post from this trip and it took my staggeringly bad decisionmaking to remind me that it’s important to document this kind of travel. My memory fades as I age (in print for you SDS!) and there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to recall just how consistently dunderheaded I can be.
We did pass this thing today. I suppose it’s what happens when you’ve got two vintage houses, limited funds for an architect and an unyielding desire to join the two vintage houses together. And just think – if I hadn’t misjudged the distance to the UBC, none of you could enjoy this:
Travels with Valerie 