Sat 28th Walking Group

Best foot Forward
Today, Lorna joined Flora, Linda and me for a walk to Broadway where we caught the #9 bus west, got off at Burrard and walked to Kitsilano Park ... as the day was chilly, we didn't stay long and caught the bus back to Britannia Centre ...

On the bus, Flora chatted with a charming young girl who was drawing on a large pad of paper ... each step of her drawing was shown to Flora with a smile ... the end result was a person with tiny stick legs, no arms, a huge body and a stunning smile ...
On the street, we headed north towards Kits beach where we found a 100 foot totem pole ... the plaque attached to the base noted that this was a replica of one carved by Mungo Martin for Queen Elizabeth II ... the replica was dedicated in 1968 to the ten tribes of the Kwakiutl Nation ... these tribes occupied the northern part of Vancouver Island and the coast of mainland British Columbia ...
At Kitsilano Park, we found a large granite stone on which was carved a short story written by Regan Amitrade in 1999 ... it told of his impressions of Vancouver's various forms of rain ... he gave different names to our rains: sideways rain, butterfly rain that lightly touched your cheek, hard rain that soaked you through, soft rain, the rain that lulled you to sleep, soft rain, warm rain ... one day, on his way home from one of the hard rains, he was feeling chilled and depressed and not liking Vancouver's rain ... as he stepped into the courtyard of the apartment building where he lived, he saw a Peking duck happily splashing in a puddle ... this scene brought a smile to Regan's face and he loved the rain once again ...
Flora and Lorna walked up to Broadway to catch the 99 B-Line back to the Drive ... Linda and I caught the #22 bus into downtown Vancouver ... as we crossed the Burrard Bridge, I couldn't help but notice the glass towers in various shades of blue, green, pink and gold reflected off each other's surfaces ... Vancouver has grown up in many ways and does not resemble the Vancouver I met in 1966 when I moved here from Ottawa ... the buildings I remember - Christ Church, Hotel Vancouver, the Art Gallery that once was the Court House, the Birks Building and Hudson Bay Building - are all dwarfed by these new shiny giants on their glittering pedestals housing high-end stores ... the old Library building at Burrard and Robson, once occupied by Virgin Records, is now occupied by the Globe & Mail news office and CTV studios ...
At Hastings & Seymour, while we waited to transfer to the #20 Victoria bus, I noticed words on the banners attached to the lamp standards "Heritage District" ... my eyes wandered from the banners to the buildings around us, all older classical architecture built 100 years ago in old Vancouver, the Vancouver I remember and love ...

Contributor Virginia