Today, I called Flora and Linda, made coffee, and set out some Christmas cookies and tarts ... they both arrived before 11:00 am (this really does work!) and Brian came into the Seniors Centre shortly afterwards ...
As the day was wet and cold, we caught the #20 bus to Broadway and boarded the Skytrain to Columbia Station in New Westminster ... we browsed the few remaining shops in Westminster Quay before setting out on the broad boardwalk that follows the north shore of the north arm of the Fraser River ... from previous blogs you may recall our last visit to this large indoor market ... most of the kiosks have gone out of business since the Riverboat Casino closed last year ... word is that the rest of the shops will close down soon as the entire market area is being renovated for 2010 ...
Along the first section of the boardwalk are hotels and restaurants, some set on pillars over the walkway ... further on are condo buildings 3-6 storeys high, with a few new condo towers located behind ... ground level railway tracks that are still in use parallel the raised skytrain system behind the condo developments ... many signposts of historical interest, too many to mention in this blog, are set up at viewing points along the walkway ... next summer I will take a notebook and record some of the information about this city, the oldest major shipping port on the west coast ... in the meantime, we found one item worth mentioning during this Christmas Season:
A 32-foot tall statue, weighing five tons, built by Sheet Metal Workers International in November 2000 and guaranteed to last more than 100 hundred years ... originally located at the Armory of the New Westminster Regiment on Queens Avenue, it was moved to the Quay on Valentines Day on 2002 ... on that day, a time capsule was buried in the statue to be opened in 2025 ... this statue is The World's Largest Tin Soldier, wearing a Sergeant Major's scarlet tunic, flat round hat and dark blue trousers with wide red stripe down the outside ... the statue was built for the Royal Christmas Festival and dedicated to Simon Fraser Society for Community Living which helps special needs children and adults with disabilities ... it could use a fresh coat of paint which will likely be done during the upgrading next year ...
Next Saturday, we are thinking of going to Gastown to soak up some Christmas atmosphere in Gassy Jack's neighbourhood ... Gassy Jack was a rebel with a cause during the early days of Vancouver ... at that time, a teetotaller (can't remember his name) owned all of the downtown lands ... he would not allow any liquor to be brought or consumed on his property, which ended at the square where Gassy Jack's statue stands ... Jack had just landed a shipload of barrels of liquor ... he bought the piece of land immediately adjacent to the prohibitionist's property and, having no resources of his own to build a saloon, invited idle workers to build a saloon in exchange for as much liquor as they could drink ... the saloon was built in two days and the town was no longer in the control of the Prohibition ... such is the character of Gastown, named after Gassy Jack ... why he was called Gassy Jack is any one's guess ...
Until next week, drive safely and keep the home fires burning.
Contributor Virginia B
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