September 3 - My Shadow, Canada Place, Some History and A Little Bit of Ha Ha Ha

Today was the last unofficial day of summer, as all the kids head back to school tomorrow. Howard and I had this Labour Day holiday off work, so this morning we walked up to the mall - just for something to do. I was just a few feet from the door, walking down the sidewalk, when I realized I had left my cell phone at home, but since we were just going to be out for a wee while, I didn't bother going back for it. Silly me.

I think the walk turned out to be a bit too much for Howard, as his back started to ache by the time we got to the Food Court, so he suggested we sit for a while, then go back home on bus. I find sitting in Food Courts quite boring, unless I am stuffing my face with yummy stuff, so I made sure he had bus fare, and said I would walk home. So he replied, 'I guess we could go to downtown Vancouver for a while.' And I said 'Sure.' Even though my phone was home, I had the camera and he had his IPhone, so all was good.

Don't I just love Sky Trains. My oh my. We waited for the next one to come along, and were just ready to step in the door when this young couple with two kids slithered in front of us. It's so nice to see parents teaching their kids good manners, and taking turns, and all that crap. Kind of reminds me of Class, this really cool song from the musical Chicago. Although it is a bit course. You might not want your kids to listen to it.

The little boy was sitting sideways on the seat right behind me and my head, and he was amazed at everything.

'Hey - I can see houses!'

'Hey - I can see cars!'

His voice was high and shrill - and it woke up my shadow.

'Hey - I can see trees and forests!'

ms: Can you see the homeless guy sleeping under the tree?

'Hey - I can see Subway's roof!'

ms: Can you see the sex shop? If they don't have it, it hasn't been invented yet. At least that's what their sign says, you can find out for yourself in about ten years.

'Hey - I can see a church!'

ms: Can you see the drug addicts hanging around the homeless shelter beside it?

I almost had to thump my shadow's head in order to get it to shut up and enjoy the trip.

We hadn't been to Canada Place in quite a long time, so it was actually quite nice to walk around again. There weren't a lot of people around, so it was a peaceful stroll around the waterfront.

Howard was looking across at Canada Place when I called his name. I wanted him to turn around so I could take his picture. I think he thought I wanted something, according to the look on his face. As in, 'Will you fix Breehy's tire when we get home?' or 'Can we have East Indian food for lunch?' But all I wanted was his picture, and I am glad the wind didn't change while he looked at me.

Cormorants just hanging around the shoreline -

- and we were lucky enough to see two seals splashing along. They didn't want to come closer to the camera, though.

We took the lower walk to check out the seaplanes. I didn't know that part of the path was on really really really thick (so Howard said) glass, and I don't like walking on glass with a lot of nothing underneath. I really really really don't. You will never see me here.

A picture perfect day, especially if you like boats and marinas and that kind of stuff.

I always liked this piece of 'artwork' along the promenade. Scroll down quickly if you don't like looking at naked men.

To my utter shock and dismay, this is when the batteries in my camera gave up the ghost. So next was to figure out how to use the camera on Howard's cell phone. And that didn't work out so good - amazingly enough some of the pics were pretty crappy quality, and some others turned into little tiny video clips instead of the photos I really wanted. Really. Here, way on the left side, you can see part of the roof top garden at the new Convention Centre. To me the whole roof just looked like a mess of shrubs and grasses gone wild. Almost like my Butterfly Garden with no flowers.

I know my hometown of Traytown, Newfoundland is being besieged by bears, but we also have bears in BC. This one was actually standing guard in front of a souvenir shop in the Convention Centre.

As we walked around Canada Place so Howard could see the cruise ship that was docked there (surprise, surprise), we found a lot of new information markers which were very interesting. For example did you know why the Pig War got its name? And, be honest now, did you even know there was such a war as the Pig War?

And without the Canadian Pacific Railway, Ray Griff would never have written Canadian Pacific  for George Hamilton lV.

Emily Carr may have been a bit strange, but she had good words.

Hey, watch out for that Square Rigger behind ya!

And then it was a 'little' wait while the Coral Princess got checked out. She was being loaded for a trip out, so there were cranes, forklifts, and pallet jacks scooting around. And I waited on a bench.

Oh. Wrong pic. Oops.

Howard just had a 'few words' with me, putting me in my place. It seems I was 'highly unprofessional' because I didn't get a picture of the cruise ship. He seems to forget I told him to take some pics with his cell phone while I sat patiently waiting for him. And when I told him I couldn't remember her name - well, that put the icing on the proverbial cake. 

If I really was the gal in the picture above, I wouldn't be long thumping him on the head with my purse ...

... it sorta leaves me with a warm feeling, anyway. 

Thank you, Rowan and Martin and your wonderfully funny Laugh In show.