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& SURROUNDING AREA CAN OFFER TO OUR 55 plus.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

June 14th Walking Club reports


Today seven seniors set out at 11:15 am passing Britannia Secondary School and weaving our way through the streets until we arrived at the southwest corner of McLean Park where we came upon a huge outdoor market of used household and personal effects put together by the residents of Strathcona neighbourhood ... as we passed the northeast corner of the park, we saw many families with small children on the playground equipment with the water park fountains blasting in the sunlight ...

Just beyond McLean Park near Campbell and Union Streets is Barker House, a designated Heritage Building constructed in 1893 - 115 years old and looking as good as new ... it has been beautifully refurbished and sits amongst other older houses that are in great condition considering their age ... large trees overhang the streets as we went our way past Waymur Project, one of the few remaining affordable multi-family housing complexes to be found in downtown Vancouver ... across the street behind an oriental painted gate stands the Villa Cathay Home Care center for elderly Chinese ... it was heartening to see several older homes being renovated, restoring the Strathcona area into a vibrant desirable community ...

Along the walk, we saw several Chinese cultural and senior housing developments in the neighbourhood, as well as the Vancouver Chinese Mennonite Church and the Christ Church of China ... we came upon Strathcona Community Center which is on the same property as Strathcona School ... we entered the center to find a large meeting room full of Chinese people attending a workshop ... on one wall of the hallway hangs a display called "2000 views of Strathcona", a collage of tiles imprinted with photographs of every part of the neighborhood including views of cranes along the waterfront where container ships dock for unloading ... the Seniors Center has a large kitchen with stainless steel appliances and cabinets, and a large room with mirrors on one wall and dance bars on the opposite wall ... their activity board is full, showing many styles of dance classes (line dance, folk dance, sword dance to name a few), Tai Chi, calligraphy, Peking Opera, and Karaoke ...

At Strathcona School we stopped to admire the beautiful Sacred Heart Catholic Church located across the street ... we passed the eastern end of Chinatown on our way back through Strathcona neighbourhood to Britannia Center where we enjoyed a light lunch and recorded the results of our pedometers ... the pedometers were provided by the Community Center to track our progress during walks: the number of steps, the distance in kilometers, and the calories burned ... each person's results are different depending on height, weight and speed of walking ... to Linda's 10,000+ steps, I take only 7,400; she burns 361 calories, I burn 249 ... we are not competing with each other ... our focus is on getting out into the fresh air for exercise and companionship.

Contributor
Virginia B.

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