ALASKA TRIP 2018 - SUNDAY, MAY 6TH, 2018 - A MARKET AND A GARDEN

I will add this on every post, just to let anyone who doesn't know, that we are actually back home.  I am now sharing my journal from the beginning of May.  If you want to see all the posts written so far, you can click on the label below this post entitled : Alaska Trip May 2018.

Granville Public Market and Vandusen Botanical Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday, May 6th, 2018

Today we went to two places.

The first was Granville Island Public Market a friend of Gregg's recommended on Facebook. It was wonderful! The first place we walked by was a coffee kiosk and I got my morning coffee, made with a whole lot of love.

Next door was a chocolate shop and surprise!  I was drawn to it and bought a few fancy little chocolates....

which I had for breakfast, not my normal breakfast but hey, I am on holiday, it was on a whim...

like a bee to a honey pot.

Next to that was a bakery and Gregg bought a Napoleon, another whim.  

We walked around the market for a while. You can see more of it here. It reminded us of Pikes Place Market in Seattle. 

We walked outside to the river - False Creek - and watched small taxi boats and others go back and forth. 

I didn't have the right camera and there are no photos, but there were Cormorants flying high above the river, carrying nesting materials in their beaks. There were a few pigeons around also.  This I did get a photo of, he landed right in front of me.  A bit blurry but it's a memory of a funny little pigeon trying to attract the attention of another funny little pigeon.



It was warm today and I didn’t need a cardigan. Gregg didn’t bring any short sleeves so we may have to go shopping sometime. Not sure what the weather will be like in Alaska. 

After we walked back to the car we said this area reminded us of Cannery Row in Monterey, California. It had the same feel to it.

Underneath the bridge there were artists painting murals. 

The whole area was full of this kind of art and

there was one big parking area that had dozens of cement trucks painted very colorfully in different designs.  Tall towers nearby that looked like silos were also painted.

There were sculptures also along the street. We left this delightful area and thought our niece and nephew might enjoy it. We pick them up tomorrow afternoon. 

Gregg suggested we go to the VanDusen Botanical Garden a few miles away next. It is a lovely garden. The tulips were in bloom, past peak perhaps but still beautiful.  

There was a statue I was very curious about when we first entered the garden, of a couple who seemed to be sleeping on a bench.  It's title was “Departure”, a life size bronze sculpture by the American artist, George Lundeen. 

According to the artist, “The original piece came from a sketch I did in the Rome train station. There were a couple of kids across from me on the marble floor. It became the first life-size piece I ever did.” The work was completed in 1984.  You can see other works of his here.

The artist is a native of Nebraska, and was a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar studying in Florence, Italy. He established his studio in Loveland, Colorado in the mid 1970s where he continues to live and work. This beautiful bronze work was donated to VanDusen by the late Paul Heller of Vancouver.

We headed to the cafe/restaurant near the entrance. Neither of us was that hungry but knew we should eat something else other than our not so healthy breakfast. We decided on a cheese plate. It was for one person but was more than enough for two people. They were also offering afternoon teas which looked delicious, but far too much food even for one, and we knew we would be leaving a lot on the plate. Our cheese plate included two cheeses, Cheddar and Brie, slices of prosciutto and ham, little oblongs of bread, small individual pots of mustard, jam and tiny pickled pearl onions. We weren't sure what kind of jam as we didn't recognize the taste, but it was an excellent and light meal. 

I wasn’t too successful getting photos of birds. Well, one crow, or is that a raven?  I can never remember the difference.  Book comes out later.  I did see a hummingbird a couple of times, but it was way too fast, and knowing that we would have to wait a while before it came back we moved on.

In another spot a couple of photographers had their cameras trained on a hummingbird nest and were taking up a prime spot.  It was the only clear view, without any of the tree branches getting in the way.  The nest was protected by a wrap-around fence of chicken wire to prevent people getting too close.  These photographers must have gotten there early and were waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect light. There was no sign of them leaving.  I stayed as long as I could but there was again no chance to take a photo.  Other photographers came and went.  In every other direction tree branches full of leaves were in the way.  The two had staked their claim, planted their flag and had no intention of moving, patiently waiting for as long as it took for those baby hummers to pop their heads up. I mean, look at that lens!  A crowd had gathered and everyone was speaking in very hushed tones.  A man heard me ask what everyone was looking at when I first arrived, and started talking to me. He was a local and his wife was sitting patiently on the grass nearby. We moved away from the vicinity of the nest and he told me he was here the day before trying to get pictures of the baby hummers, was unsuccessful and was too late to get that special spot today. He did tell me about an osprey he had seen fishing on the nearby lake and had gotten decent photos. He asked me if I would like to take a look and seemed happy when I said yes please. Gregg had walked on ahead at this point and was taking his own photos.  It was a bit hard for me to look at the bird on the man's viewfinder without my reading glasses, but he magnified them and I could definitely see an osprey with a fish in its claws. I remarked that they were excellent, after he had also pointed out the feather patterns. It was a pleasure to talk to a bird enthusiast and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at his photos.  But it was time to continue our walk and I thanked him. Gregg had come back and I explained that we were vacationers and he asked from where.  It was another few minutes before we left.  Another very nice man, his wife too.  She remained seated on the grass but joined in a few times.  And off we went back to the hotel.

When we returned it was later than usual, and we had a good appetite. Tonight we could not resist the Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, but added the Caesar Salad that we had last night.  (Sorry, no pictures.  We were too tired and too hungry, and it was a bit of a weak-willed day today.  Again we swapped each other’s plate half way through, and enjoyed sampling two meals instead of one.  When we go to our hotel restaurant, we have been lucky and it is usually before the crowds arrive, so I feel we can do this without raising eyebrows.)

We are very impressed with the place, the food is excellent and we like the staff.  As we are usually tired after a day of sight-seeing, it is very nice not to have to go too far.  All we have to do is enter the hotel, walk across the foyer and down the hall, then after we have had a nice leisurely meal, we retrace our steps, find the elevator and get up to our room. 

 

Tonight there was a function going on in the large room across the hall from the restaurant.  Both men and women were dressed in black, at least a hundred. To a person they looked very sharp and elegant, smiling and chatty.  Many of the ladies wore a simple strand of pearls. 

Tomorrow we head to the airport, and when I think of seeing our niece and nephew, whom we haven't seen in three years, I get a very, very happy feeling.