NOVEMBER 28 - New Westminster Bucket List - Medieval Martial Arts and Trapeze Act - (not likely!)

Isn't it strange that I absolutely hate commutes to work, but don't seem to mind sky train or bus when I'm just a'trekkin' around? On Wednesday morning I decided to explore another bit of New Westminster, and took the sky train to Columbia Station. I had already biked around Sapperton in August, when I bravely 'did' the Patullo Bridge, so today was for exploring a bit of Columbia Street, Front Avenue and the market at Westminster Quay. It wasn't a great day, but a grey day - Howard said there wouldn't be any rain until Thursday, and I believed him.

The Sky Train drops people off on Columbia Street, a busy street with a mixture of old and new buildings. Note the bike lane - this will hopefully be handy next spring/summer when Breehy and I get going again.

I noticed the Army and Navy Store and thought I'd take a look - I had a little list of gifts to buy, and was a little bit successful there. I couldn't believe what was in store, really - there are four floors (you almost expect  to find a bit of this) and there was everything from fishing lures to Christmas cookies. I bought neither.

After a little bit of shopping, I headed down the street and saw this. Since I love puddling around antique stores, and am a bit of an antique myself, I thought I'd take a detour. I'm used to downhills by now anyway.

One of the warehouse buildings bragged about its movie ties.

And I was lost in thought when this guy seemed to jump in front of me. Needless to say, I got a bit of a shock. After all, this is the lower mainland of British Columbia.

After sidling along out of his way, and eyeing the cool guy-things in the window of this army surplus store, I walked past several antique stores - all of which were closed, even though according to the 'Hours' posted in the window they should have been opened. This street was dark, enclosed by tall buildings and the skytrain platform, and I felt like maybe it wasn't the greatest place to be - until I came across this:

Fantastic red doors. I would love to live behind these - the warehouse behind them seems a bit dilapidated though, so I would have to move them to a palace somewhere.

A couple of doors down I came across this sign - big secret as to what was behind the walls though. Assumed it was a tattoo parlour - but I was wrong. Imagine that. Check it out here and don't forget to sign up for the free class on New Years Day.

You gotta love the signs - Not Too Shabby is a furniture store which specializes in mid century, vintage and modern furniture, and accessories. See the skytrain platform on the left side? See what I mean about being 'enclosed?'

There's a lot of construction going on here - the whole area is going to be 'redone', 'revitalized', whatever. Sure hope they can keep some of these amazing old buildings and not turn the street into a steel and glass jungle.

The park in front of the Quay has some of the obligatory sculpture that adorns our cities.

View from the sculpture - see the uphill? New Westminster has a hell of a lot of uphill, too, just like Surrey.

The stairs and overhead walkway to the River Market.

View of the Sky Bridge - the one the sky train uses to get me across the Fraser River from Surrey to New Westminster three days a week.

The washrooms inside the market building were very neatly signed -

-as were the stalls themselves. I thought this was ultra cool - although some people thought it was lame.

Upstairs is a school - did you ever want to run away and join the circus? Well, this would have been the place to start. Check here to see what they have to offer - your legs could be wrapped around ribbons by this time next year. Wouldn't that be cool? Or maybe you could learn to ride a unicycle.

I met two ladies who were also checking out the training centre.

'Are you thinking about enrolling .....?' was about as far as I got, when I noticed one of them had her arm in a sling.

 'Oh,' I continued, 'I guess you already did.'

They both laughed, and I wandered off in the direction of some craft booths set up in the far corner.

Tucked away in the far corner was Sandy, who was busy piecing together some of the cutest sock monkeys you've ever seen. She had a wonderful display of hand sewn stuffies and knitted scarves and baby hats, so if you go near here before you have all your gifts bought for the season, drop in and check out her 'stuff.' Tell her I sent you.

I got two of the monkeys and they are headed to Manitoba to two very special girls - don't tell please!

Now my tummy starting complaining. Sometimes it acts just like Howard, and doesn't really care about ruffled scarves or unicylces, and only wants a bite to eat (or more possible, drink) so I headed down to the food court.

One really good thing about this food court is the absence of those Eternal Mall food chain restaurants, which like all the other stores in Malls are the same no matter what part of Canada you're in at the time. The first floor is called The Hungry Floor, and if you click on this link you'll see why. Everything looked really good, and it was hard to decide between crepes, bbq, bakery and burgers - I settled with a Canuck Panini and a chocolate something from Tre Galli Gelato Cafe.

The coffee was really good. The panini - with processed meat, cheese and bacon - had a really crispy outside, which I wasn't too torn up about, but it was okay. The bacon saved it, as bacon always will - Thank ya, Bacon. The Chocolate Square was a cross between brownie and cookie, lots of dark chocolate, and I couldn't eat it all. But the coffee was excellent. It cost just under $14.

So warmed up, with a full tummy, I headed outdoors, to find Thursday had come early. I sped under the raindrops to the sky train station, and made my way back home. There is so much more to explore in New Westminster though - what I saw on Wednesday was but a drop in the bucket - but I'm going to wait until there are no more raindrops in any buckets before I wander there again.