August 3 Vancouver

We have a free day in Vancouver as the Rocky Mountaineer leaves tomorrow morning.  The view out of the hotel window in the early morning light remains as impressive as yesterday.  The building in the middle distance has a grass roof.  Everywhere we went in Canada seemed environmentally conscious.

The Pan Pacific Hotel seen from the front.  The low part of the left side is a conference center.  The tower is the hotel.  And in the back is the cruise terminal, as well as a tourist attraction similar to "Soarin" in Disney World, although much longer and more expensive.

This is the view to the east side of the cruise terminal (our room overlooks the west side).  The expedition ship (i.e., small) Roald Amundsen is currently awaiting passengers.

We go to explore Vancouver, and pass the Art Gallery again.

Architecture

Next to the gallery is Robson Square, named for John Robson, the Premier of British Columbia from 1889-1892. The covered ice rink was not in use, it was summer after all.  Apparently there is an off season for hockey in Canada.  Overseeing the rink is the Bird of Spring sculpture.

Here's what it looks like.   Based on 3 minutes of Google search, there is no symbolism for this piece, and there are several others in Vancouver.  Why something named for Spring would be overlooking an ice rink is beyond me.

Architecture.  I always wonder if I could live in the upper levels of a building like this.

Vancouver is a hot area for filming TV and movies.  We stumbled across a professional setup.  You can tell they're professional by a) the camera, and b) the apple box to the right.

We passed through the production and looked back.  They were shooting people crossing the street.  Can you identify the background actors vs. regular people just passing through the shot.  It was easy for us -- the light would change, everybody would start across the street, the guy on the far right would then yell something, and the actors would stop, turn around and go back to their positions.  The actors are generally the ones on the right, holding shopping bags. (I would point out that this picture was taken about 9am, no stores were open, so anybody with a shopping bag would be out of place -- except in movie magic,)

After walking along Robson Street for about a mile west, we went north back to the water, arriving at Coal Harbor.  This panorama shows the marina, and in the foreground the walking path that extended all the way back to the Pan Pacific.  Future Visitors: Note carefully the double yellow line down the middle of the path.  On one side are the pedestrians.  On the other are the bicycles.  DO NOT WALK in the bicycle lane.  They are not forgiving.  Fortunately, further east the bike lane moves further away from the walkers, separated by a short wall.  But they rejoin in the more crowded commercial area near our hotel.  Walkers beware.

Apartment buildings rising in the Coal Harbor area.

Street art.  The shed is a half size replica of the original harbor masters office.  I don't think the original was on stilts.

People using the harbor

For other people using their boats on the harbor, the filling station was located about 500 yards from the marina, floating out in the middle of the water. I think this is a safety issue.  If something goes wrong in the fueling process, the fire/explosion is well away from Coal Harbor Marina.

The harbor was bustling with activity.  Most notable was Harbor Air, with planes taking off in the middle of pleasure boats.

Actually there was plenty of room for the planes.  And they used it.  Here's a plane coming in to land while two others are taxiing out for takeoff.

Sailboat

A children's water play park along the path.

Some Canada geese strolling along the path here in Canada. Seems like a stereotype.

Here's a portion of Harbor Air's terminal.  Passengers would check in at a small terminal office ashore.  When their plane was called they would walk down to the dock and their plane, then climb the steps up into it, and off they'd go.  Disembarking was the reverse -- the plane on the right is unloading passengers in the picture.  

HA flies to lots of local destinations -- remember the HA planes at Victoria?  They also offer sightseeing flights from 20 minutes to all day for the interested.  As airplanes, they make miserable boats.  I watched them move out to take off, and decided that I would fill my barf bag before the plane even left the water.  So no sightseeing flight.

Above the HA terminal, a "wind sock."  the left hand side is kinetic, making fascinating patterns.

We found a place to eat lunch with a view of the HA terminal.  "Tap & Barrel" if you're interested, but they only have about 5 tables with this view. Arrive early.  

Also note the yellow warning sign in the bottom left.  The graphic shows a warning for a bicycle grade, and the pedestrian and bicycle paths have rejoined, separated only by painted lines. From experience I can tell you to be very watchful when bikes are coming down the hill.  Having paid the price to pedal up that hill, they are loathe to use the brakes when coming back down.

A paddle wheel tourist boat. Seems congested, but that's mostly the telephoto lens flattening the distance.  But the plane is yielding to the boat, and followed it out until reaching a clear spot for takeoff.

Architecture, with a forested balcony.

A final, technical note on our hotel.  I have never seen this type of door before. Both pictures are taken from inside the bathroom at the sink. The potty is in its own room to the left. In the left picture, the door is closed (mostly) so that the bathroom is isolated from the outside world. In the right hand picture, the door is opened (mostly) where it now becomes the door to the potty room. One door fits in two different door jambs.  

At first I thought this was a practical and skillful use of a door.  Later, after using it, I found it inconvenient since you'd always have to go around the door, swinging it open and then closed to get to the potty (and maybe swinging it back to close the potty room).  I guess that this was an elegant solution to providing the necessary doors, but the labor necessary to get everything lined up so a single door fits perfectly into two different jambs seems excessive.