Veralynn, coming to you live from Vancouver

2006-06-05 - 11:18 p.m.

Howdee, all.

I am here to report that Vancouver is still an amazing, wondrous place, a fact which offers me great relief.

Arrived Friday afternoon, caught the immediate obligatory coffee, and spent much of the afternoon and evening wandering Robson Street, home to restaurants, bars and shopping galore. Had crazy-cheap sushi for dinner, sitting outside in a little park. The salmon here is, of course, out of this world.

Saturday was a perfect Vancouver day. Started off with a walk in Stanley Park. Lost Lagoon was beautiful as always and, being springtime, it's baby season. Spent ages watching a pileup of eight ducklings taking a nap. Unbelievably cute. Mom and Dad sat off to either side of the kiddos and Dad chased off a duck he didn't like that came too close.

Next up, a great wander to Second Beach, English Bay Beach and down to the Aquatic Center to catch an aquabus over to Granville Island, home to the public markets. Wandered through vendors and sat on the dock nibbling a spanakopita for lunch. Walked on to the movie theater where I caught a showing of Souvenir of Canada, a great little film about Douglas Coupland (go, now, and buy Jpod at the bookstore! His new novel...highly recommend it!). Soooooo cool to see in the theater of Canadians wahoo! On to Kitsilano to the hippie shops, coffee joints, and a wander into the salvation army thrift store where I picked up a volume of Canadian short fiction I'm working my way through now.
Dinner at my favorite vegetarian place, The Naam, the restaurant I've been daydreaming about for seven years. Killer meal and I took a slice of pie back to the hotel with me to eat later. Mmm blueberry pie.

I got to thinking about how to describe Vancouver and came to the conclusion that it's just not possible. You can't take it in completely. All you can do is to watch the ducklings and hold onto that feeling, stare off from the beach at the mountains and hold that feeling, see the way the sky is full of so many types of cloud formations all at once and hold that feeling, catch the buzzing downtown vibe or the earthy-connectedness of Kits or the eclectic casual feeling of Denman Street and hold that...you can only taste Vancouver in small bites; it refuses to be gulped down as a whole.

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