Today Linda, Flora, and her friend Brian, walked to Broadway Station and rode the Skytrain to Patterson Station ... across the street is Central Park where they walked almost 8 kilometers along one of the many pathways ... apparently, this park has trails totalling 30-40 kilometres and contains two lakes, a forest of large Douglas Fir, Hemlock and Poplar trees, and hundreds of ducks ... more than a dozen grey and black squirrels surrounded them as Linda tossed biscotti chunks and Flora fed them granola bars ... one bold squirrel ran up Brian's leg and was promptly told to beat it ... on their walk, they noticed large holes in the ground but saw no signs of any furry critters coming or going ... could the holes have led to the lair of foxes or the den of badgers? Who knows? At one point, they came across a tree covered with chickadees, small black and grey birds that are common here during the Autumn and Winter months ...
Central Park includes a play area with a plaque that reads "Variety Park Playground dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales 1961-1997, in commemoration of her love of children" with a relief design of a bouquet of flowers ... Brian's inner child erupted when he found a miniature mechanical digging machine to play with ...
At the perimeter of Central Park is Swangard Stadium, the home of the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team as well as other sporting events including Olympic and World Cup qualifying matches ... a baseball diamond, lawn bowling green, pitch-and-putt golf course, outdoor swimming pool, horseshoe pitch, fitness circuit, and picnic sites are also located in this grand park ... one hardy group of people were having lunch at a picnic table over which they had mounted a canopy to keep out the rain ... the park was named in honour of the wife of Vancouver's second Mayor, David Oppenheimer ... apparently, she was from New York City's Central Park area ...
At the Skytrain Station, as they reached the top of the escalator, they spotted no less than six Skytrain Police and several Skytrain Attendants who were checking for tickets ... passengers coming off the train were being checked as well as the people boarding ... Flora suddenly realized she didn't have her bus pass which she normally carries ... she had changed coats this morning and forgot to transfer the pass ... she stepped off the up escalator and, as the police approached her, Brian deftly stepped in to show his ticket which gave Flora a chance to about-face onto the down escalator where she purchased a ticket from the dispensing machine at ground-level ... when she rejoined Linda and Brian, they had a good laugh at her close call ... the thing is, Flora usually brings extra tickets for anyone in the group who doesn't have bus fare ...
So ended an interesting adventure ... Brian enjoyed himself so much, he said he'd be back for more walks ...
Contributor Virginia
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