furtech | Distraction Roadtrip: Vancouver! (Reply)

Here's a direct link to the Vancouver Flickr set

We were still lucky on the drive from Penticton to Vancouver: beautiful weather with blue skies and dramatic clouds. Most of the drive was over mountains (with HUGE mines-- copper?) and then through glacial valleys.

Along the way we stopped for a dog-and-people potty break at a tragic landmark: the site of the massive Hope Landslide that killed four people and buried the highway under tons of rock and mud. Impressive to imagine how that much material just slid off the side of a mountain in a few seconds.

Rondo found a huge stick (note the gay tail!) and managed to bonk all the other dogs as he trotted by them. After a good walk and some playtime, back in the car and off to Vancouver!

The scenery changed from mountains and glacial valleys to large, flat highways surrounded on one side by mountains whose tops were hidden in the clouds.

We drove around downtown for a while before finding a bookstore: somewhat of a disappointment as it was a generic chain store with little in the way of variety. Fortunately, through the magic of technology (a cellphone call to

martes who googled for us!) we found Vancouver's science fiction bookstore, White Dwarf! Great place-- like a smaller "Other Change of Hobbit" but with a house dog (massive, moribund basset! Snooore-- cute!). Not as many British editions, though-- things have changed apparently in the book distribution industry (more "North American" rights than US or Canadian rights). I did manage to get some coin into their register, though. I belatedly remembered that books are (with the US-Canadian dollar at parity) the *worst* thing for an American to buy in Canada! They haven't re-set the prices on the books so the Canadian "price" puts each book about 40% more expensive than in the US! Still-- support your local specialty book store!

One other destination in Vancouver was a Greek restaurant that we've been to twice in the past, but that was five and eight years ago (respectively). Not sure of the name or even if they were still in business, but Steve's unerring sense of direction brought us to their doors once again! Now we have a name! "Ouzeri" Fantastic grilled meats-- the lamb is to die for! Reasonable prices and a great selection of dips and entrees! Highly recommended to you Vancouverites! (That means you,

frysco and

whiteyfawks!)

After that: dogwalk! The person at White Dwarf told us of a large park nearby and we headed out there. When they say, "large park," in Vancouver, they mean it! This place was like a forest! Reminded me very much of some of the national parkland near Seattle. Trails and huge trees! As we walked along mossy, tree-shrouded trails, I saw signs that gave me another reason why Vancouver is my favorite non-US city (a title that Seattle holds tightly): they are wonderful about dogs! Man, this is a wonderful place! People are polite to each other (hikers, runners and dog-owners alike). There's a cute sign that spells out simple etiquette rules for dogs and their owners-- why can't we have something like this in Los Angeles?!

After that, it was a short stop at a grocery store (sugary sodas and Glosettes and Cheezies!) and down to the border. After our experience with the surely Canadian border guard, we had all kinds of answers prepared for our anticipated grilling-- we got nervous sitting in front of all those innocuous-looking sensors and cameras! When our turn finally came up the nice guard asked us one question ("business or pleasure?") and pretty much sent us through! No problem with all the food, dogs chicken-dog-snax, etc. We felt a little cheated, actually...well, not really. Just happy to be on our way home!