Cole and Audrey: July 2009

It goes to show that I am a super blogger slacker that I am just now getting to a post about Cole's 5th birthday and Grandpa's visit from Hawaii. Since then many a thing has happened including a visit from Tutu from Hawaii, summer camps, swim lessons, owl pellets. So much I've probably forgotten half of it by now. Please know that it is not that I don't value all these events but that I often have to choose between sleep and blogging and lately I've been choosing sleep. As I'm finishing this up it is almost midnight.

Zecha Family, May 9th 2004.

Cole turned 5 on May 10th, the same day as Mother's Day this year. The year he was born Mother's Day was on May 9th. We've recently met a mother who says she didn't know she was pregnant until week 36. Can this be possible?! You can tell I'm pregnant in this picture right? I could tell I was pregnant too.

We left Port Browning the next morning and after a stop for fuel, we headed out through the Gulf Islands for the Straits of Georgia. We got to enjoy more of the cool rocky shoreline so common around here. This picture illustrates how little soil there is for the trees to grow in and hang onto. I'm surprised that there aren't more instances of trees blowing over in a storm around here.
The same situation is visible on my drive to I-5 via Alger. The mountains there are mostly rock, very steep and covered in most areas with only a thin layer of soil and duff. In the winter the hill near Lookout Mountain next to Lake Whatcom Blvd. often shows the rocky surface that lays below due to the soil being washed out and the trees having lost their leaves. It's easy to see how the glaciers had minimal effect on this particular hill. It appears to be one huge rock!

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The picture below shows an interesting view. I suspect this hole was made when the rock embedded in the sandstone fell away due to the supporting structure gradually eroding away. This type of formation is seen in a smaller but more plentiful scale in the rocks at Clayton Beach on Chuckanut Drive.

We got to see a lot of marine mammals on the way out as well. This included several sea otters and a huge group of seals (maybe 20-25). I got a picture of the seals, but they just show up as a bunch of dark spots in the water, since only their heads were out of the water. I told Cole about it and it got his attention.....

But he wasn't to be disturbed from breakfast in order to go out and see them. Of course, he could see them well through the cabin windows.

After threading our way through some tight spots, we made it into open water. It was calm and flat at first, but the breeze picked up as the day progressed, finally topping out at 20+ knots as we approached Vancouver. This made for a lumpy ride. Poor Matthew was asleep on the settee with Cole when a large wave pitched him from his bunk. He didn't seem to fazed by it, though. I helped him back into his bunk and he just went right back to sleep. It must come from being the son of a former crab fisherman.

I took this picture in hopes of getting a good visual of the size of the bow wave that this ship put out, but I don't think I really captured it. Alan pointed out that the BC pilots don't often feel inclined to alter their course for recreational traffic, so he always made a point of staying out of their way. A good philosophy to follow, I think.

As I mentioned before, I really enjoy the panaorama of a city from the water. The way the clouds built up over the mountains reminded me of Hawaii or some other tropical setting. I believe that the big knob on the left in this picture is Mount Seymour. There's a provincial park on the east side of these mountains, startlingly accessible from the urban core. The proximity of these mountains to the water are part of what makes Vancouver such a breathtakingly beautiful city. Idoubt that a similar situation exists anywhere in the lower 48.

The other part of what makes Vancouver so cool is the dramatic skyline of it's downtown. Not so apparent in the distant perspective shown here, but there's a huge number of very modern skyscrapers. In this respect, it reminds me of Hong Kong or Singapore, although on a smaller scale. You can see the guy in this boat leaving the safety of the harbor with a reefed main and a small jib, a good indication of what was going on out in the Straits. Not a scene you get too often in Puget Sound.

There were a half dozen bulk carriers outside Lion's Gate, I assume waiting for berths. I don't know what they were carrying when they left, but there is a facility in the harbor with huge mountains of a yellow powder that I took to be sulfur. I fiddled around with the camera to try and get a perspective that highlighted the size of this 1000 foot ship, but I don't think I was all that successful.

Yet another cool thing about Vancouver is the island in the middle of the entrance of the harbor. This is Stanley Park, connected to the north part of the city by the Lion's Gate Bridge.

After rounding the inshore side of Stanley Park, you get a better shot of the skyline;

As well as a good view of the very cool convention center;

I sometimes feel that architectural styles can be too contemporary if placed in the wrong setting, but this building clearly belongs here, both benefiting from the surroundings and contributing to them in a very complimentary manner.

Of course an uptown marina in a city like Vancouver has to have lots of bling.

These two ladies (or at least one of them), crewing on the yacht Strangelove, shown above, wore so much perfume, that they were overpowering us 100 feet away on Alan's boat.

More bling.

Bling from Italy. Not shown in this picture is how muscle-bound all the crew on this boat were. Either the Italian owner likes buff crew, or there was a security aspect to their duties, or both.

Audrey was very disappointed when she found out that we weren't bringing her with us on the boat, but she was sooooo excited to see us the next day when she and Mom caught up with us in Canada. She especially liked hangin' with Matthew, calling him "Masu". She was quite proud of her summer dress, and rightly so I might add. I know she's my daughter and I freely admit to a bias, but I think she just couldn't get any cuter.

There's a very nice boardwalk along the waterfront in the Coal Harbor area that serves to connect the city with pedestrian friendly waterfront access. While I'm a big proponent of a working waterfront, I think that the planners in Vancouver have done an excellent job of accomodating the various interests in the way the waterfront in Coal Harbor is designed. Great access and recreation, some commercial, some industrial, transit hubs, parking (but not in ugly sprawling lots) and a very pleasant transition from the uplands to the water. I highly reccomend a weekend trip there, especially on a sunny summer day.