Walking Club 10 Oct

Today under cloudy skies, I met Linda, Susan and Judi at Britannia Centre from where we hopped the #20 Victoria bus to Broadway and transferred to the 99 B-Line heading west ... we met Marilyn and Ken at the City Hall Canada Line Station and looked for Lorna but, having missed her, we took the next train to Brighouse (Richmond Centre) ... after a scramble trying to locate our #410 Railway bus stop where the bus passed us by, we had to relocate to a stop in front of Sears on No. 3 Road where we were able to get the #410 to Steveston - by this time (12:15 pm) under sunny skies .

In the Historic Fishing Village of Steveston http://www.tourismrichmond.com/, we walked to the Gulf of Georgia Cannery http://www.gulfofgeorgiacannery.com/ and had lunch at a picnic table in the park ... we then headed to the boardwalk where many people were enjoying the sunshine and the waterfront cafes, including Pajos Fish & Chips on a low barge in the harbour http://www.pajosstevestonvillage.com/ ... past the shops and restaurants, we continued east to the old BC Packers site which is now condos ... placards on viewing piers provide photos and data about the early days of the major fishing industry that was at its prime in the early 1900's http://www.bckpackersheritagesite.com/.


Beyond BC Packers is the site of Britannia Heritage Shipyard www.richmond.ca/britannia owned and operated by the City of Richmond ... there we spoke with Al Smith, a volunteer at the Richmond Boat Works building, and later with Peter Mitchell, on-site caretaker at the shipyard community comprised of canneries, the bunkhouses of the Japanese fishermen, and the Murakami heritage cottage which celebrated its 100Th anniversary in 2002 ... in 2000, the cottage was restored to its original condition complete with furnishings and gardens ... in that year the descendants of the original occupant brought her from Japan in her 102ND year to visit her cottage .


Susan left around 2:00 pm and the rest of us returned to Vancouver on the 2:30 #402 bus going to Brighouse station, the terminus of the Canada Line in downtown Richmond ... the ride takes 14 minutes to Broadway along the Cambie corridor - a third of the time it would have taken on the old 98 B-Line Richmond express ...

We all want to return to Steveston - leaving at 9:30 am on a warm Saturday - to spend more quality time in the village ... we barely touched the surface of its history and didn't have time to spend in the town centre ...

Lorna later called to say she had preceded us to Richmond and, after waiting some time, she took the Canada Line to the Vancouver Airport for sightseeing ...

Contributor Virginia