Home > Travel > Vancouver 2018
Saturday, November 10 – Friday, November 16, 2018; Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I had a meeting in Vancouver to go to and Molly has been considering colleges in Canada. We combined trips so she came with me to the meeting and got a chance to see Vancouver and visit a university there (The University of British Columbia). This is the fourth country Molly has traveled to (United States, Germany, France, & Canada, she has also been to airports in England but that doesn't really count). I had never been to British Columbia before either.
We packed on Saturday planning for carry-on only. I had one bag and Molly had two. We were double checking everything critical, passports, bank card, etc., and realized we almost forgot to pack our Canadian SIM cards (that Vanessa had ordered for us to use on this trip). Vanessa dropped us off at the airport after dark. During the check-in the woman working for Canada Air was very impatient. She asked us to fill out a card with emergency contact information and then took it back before we had finished filling them out. I pointed this out to her and she said that it was fine as it was and called for the next person before we had even finished collecting our documents (we were there very early so everyone should not have been pressed for time). In the line leading up to security a guard had his turn aggressively yelling at the people in the line. He was leaning over the barrier yelling at both an older woman and at everyone in general; "It has been ten years since liquids have not been allowed! You should know this by now …! Ten years!", etc. I tried to screen him out and just look straight ahead as we had to walk by right in-front of his yelling. Fortunately he was on my deaf side. It was an overnight flight (and a modern flight: no meals, no room, no shows (unless you download yet-another-app on your phone and give them access to your location, contacts, files, wifi connection, calendar, etc.); they were forcing people to check carry-ons because there was not enough room to store them after the tiny chairs were packed in to get more people on the flight).
When we arrived we had to go through customs. There were stairs going down to the customs stanchion maze with escalators going down on each side. The escalators were crowded so we walked down the staris alone. It reminded me of a scene from the TV show Due South where the Canadian is arriving in the US, but in reverse, US citizens arriving in Canada.
There were some women standing in front of different maze entrances announcing something, but I couldn't hear them well enough to understand what they were saying. I tried following the signs that were posted, which was a mistake (this is not unique to Canada; I once told the people that the signs should be fixed in customs at a US airport and they just yelled at me that the signs were correct and which line I should get in; however, interpreting them literally, they were not). There was one that said US passport holders and we waited in line until we got to the immigration officer booth, they told us to go back and wait in a different (unmarked) line. While we were waiting I told Molly about the first time I traveled to Germany and completely missed customs/immigration so I found someone to stamp my passport. They have an electronic screen that you answer questions on and then it prints a ticket. We waited in another line and a woman looked at our ticket then told us to bypass the officer's booths and opened the stanchion ribbon for us. So we did what she said (I hope she worked there and had some authority to do this) and went around. Molly was surprised that no one stamped our passports.
At the airport, after we made it through customs, we stopped in the front airport lobby to get a quick breakfast (I had a meeting to go to, but we had not had anything to eat since the day before, and it helps to mentally reset and get the air travel part out of my mind) and changed the SIM cards in our phones so they would work in Canada. (There was an irritation about the SIM card. These were RoamMobility cards. Their website front page says "Get instant talk, text, and data any time you travel to Canada–with no roaming charges, contracts, or commitments. Just snap our prepaid SIM card into your phone for access to a high-speed 4G LTE network and unlimited talk and text for 7, 14, or 21 days" https://roammobility.ca/. In practice this was not true. You had to go online and activate the card. How do you go online without a working SIM card? Perhaps they expected us to activate it back in the US before we left, but that would start the countdown on our time that we could use the card a day before we could actually use it. Once we figured out a way to get online, via an Amazon kindle, I had to register my name, address, credit card info., etc. to activate a card that we had already paid for.) As soon as we stepped outside we noticed the cool air, which felt really good, and our breaths appearing in the air in front of us, which I had not seen in a while; I love cooler weather. We took the train (Sky Train, Canada Line) from the airport to town. I noticed a couple of people at the station and on the car with circular red flower pins—and then it clicked together in my mind—this was Armistice Day (in the US since 1954 this has been combined with Veterans' Day and the term Armistice Day has fallen out of use) and people were wearing plastic poppy flowers.
The poppy flower has been a symbol of the people that died in World War I, known at the time as The Great War, and made famous by a poem.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
—In Flanders Fields, John McCrae, 1915
In fact, it was the 100 year anniversary of Armistice Day, and 11:00 (made infamous by the continued fighting up until 11:00AM, Nov. 11, 1918 despite knowledge of the armistice, see for example here and here) was approaching.
When we crossed the Fraser River we could see floating log booms. It reminded me of the film, Never Give A Inch (1971), which I have only seen once many years ago; odd that that obscure memory came to mind. I didn't get a good shot of them but below is a screenshot from Google Earth.
We got off at the Yaletown-Roundhouse Station and our hotel, Opus, was right across the intersection. It was too early to check in, but they let us drop off our bags until the room was ready. (By the way, the staff at the Opus Hotel were extremely friendly, helpful, and professional during our entire stay. I highly recommend this hotel.)
Another one of the first things we noticed, after living in Hawaiʻi for several years, was the leaves changing colors.
Molly also spotted a gargoyle right away.
We also noticed how large the urban birds are compared to what we are used to in Hawaiʻi. The pigeons were larger, the crows were large, and the sea gulls (which we do not have in Hawaiʻi) were huge. I tried getting a picture of a crow near a Seven-11 where we stopped to ask directions (to the meeting I had), but I didn't get a very clear shot.
We noticed groups of people wearing the poppy pins that seemed to be headed somewhere, then we came across some blocked roads.
We walked by police with some big guns (I didn't take a picture of them). Then there was a growing crowd. I told Molly to be sure not to talk when the clock hit 11:00 in case there was a moment of silence. Sure enough there was a cannon that fired in the distance, flocks of pigeons flew off of the buildings' roofs (rooves?), apparently startled by the cannon, and (most) people were silent for a minute (except for two clueless people behind us that kept talking very loudly to each other).
Then several types of airplanes flew over and the cannons fired some more.
There were annoucements being made and people clapping just down the road a bit, so we went deeper into the crowd.
We came upon a lot of people in the military standing in formation at attention at Victory Square as someone narrated the ceremony over an outside speaker system.
Then the soldiers started marching back the way we had came.
There was a bagpipe and drum marching band wearing kilts.
More planes flew overhead.
And more military marching.
More kilts, bagpipes, and drums.
And then a group of Canadian Mounties marched by; you can't get more Canadian than this.
At this point a person next to me said to me "Isn't it great to be Canadian"—here we were, non-citizens in another country, in a crowd, with a patriotic military parade going by, inducing people into emotional statements—I smiled, nodded (was tempted to say "I'm sure you are", which is half truth and half projecting misunderstanding, but I didn't) and found something that grabbed my attention away in a plausible manner.
We headed back toward the convention center but were cut off by the parade. It looped around the path we took in so we had to wait for an opening. We went by one of the main train stations and there was a statue out front where people were leaving the plastic poppy pins and some red roses.
Getting closer to the convention center we saw a fountain that made a dandelion seed pattern.
We finally made it to the convention center. I registered for the meeting. I had long missed one meeting earlier that morning (which I anticipated and told the other people there that I probably couldn't make it) but I had other meetings including one the next day. When I registered I got a poppy pin for Molly and she put it on her hat. By the way, at least twice people asked me for directions and I had to tell them this was my first day in Vancouver.
We stopped for lunch at Chronic Tacos.
Molly got her SD card and we got back to the hotel. Only, there was a problem. My bank card was declined (for room incidentals to finish checking in) and I couldn't use it. Long story short, I found out later it was flagged as possibly being used for fraud, frozen, and I would have to go to the bank in person (in Hawaiʻi!) to get it unlocked (and yes we did check with the bank before hand about traveling outside of the country and using the card; it was not frozen for using it in Canada but for a completely different charge days ago, which was not fraud; something similar happened to me in Mali, but that is a different story). Molly had her own bank card so I was able to call Vanessa, transfer funds from our bank to Molly's account, and use her card to finish checking into the hotel. My bank card, as I found out over the next day or so (I didn't know all the details yet about the bank freezing it), was unusable for the rest of the trip. Again, the hotel staff was very friendly and understanding during this. Finally we got to our room, exhausted, we had not slept for well over 24 hours.
The room was wonderful. Our apartment in Hawaiʻi does not have any kind of air conditioning or temperature control; it is open to the outside (screen windows) which is an issue for allergies; recently we have not had hot water or sometimes even running water for periods of time; compared to this the room was amazing. The bathroom had heated tiles for the floor! There was hot and cold water with decent water pressure. We could control the temperature and open or close the window to the outside. The shower had a wide "rain" type shower head that I didn't have to stoop to get under (like the shower in our apartment). Molly commented on how nice the beds were a split second before she fell asleep.
We woke up after sundown and walked to a nearby grocery store, Choices Markets, to get some food and snacks. They had really good dried figs.
I was up early and walked to the convention center. I was spending all day today there for talks and meetings. There were cormorants drying themselves behind the center.
There were also a lot of gulls around the center.
I met with with several people that work on gene drive technologies for lunch at Scoozis. Molly went out on her own and rented a bike (they have public bike and helmet rental stations around the city, and biked to Sunset Beach. At the end of the day I tried taking the subway back and got on the wrong train (I was tired and misinterpreted a sign or something). It pulled out of the station into open air above ground, stopped, headed back into the station but on another track, stopped, and there I was right next to where I started. I got off and found the right train and took that back to Yaletown.
Molly was back at the hotel when I got back. She was going over maps and pamphlets that she had picked up. She also bought some more dried figs at the grocery store (she had finished off the last of the ones I bought the day before). We walked to Two Parrots, which was just down the road, to get supper. There was a hokey game playing on the screens there.
It was the Vancouver Canucks vs. the New York Rangers. Once while we were there the Canadian team scored. Everyone cheered, they rang a bell behind the bar, and offered everyone a discount on beer.
Back at the hotel Molly watched an episode of the Frankie Drake Mysteries.The next day the main goal was to head out to UBC campus. We got breakfast at JJ Bean.
I brought some US cash with me as a backup, which in retrospect I was glad I did. I asked the hotel staff where I could get it changed into Canadian. The problem is apparently most banks require you to have a bank account now in order to change cash. They recommended Javan, which was within walking distance up the street.
Up until now we were paying for one-time tickets for public transportation. Today we got a rechargeable "compass card" that we could use for multiple trips. Then we took the subway/bus system to the UBC campus.
When we got there we first went to the bookstore. Here are some pictures I took of books there to help remind me to look up information about them later.
We went on a guided tour of the museum. The point was repeatedly made that the stories the images carved on the poles represented are considered property of the families that made them and should not be retold without permission. (Which is quite different from many other cultures where you want many of your family/ancestors stories to be known as widely as possible.) The man luring the bear from a cave with a rattle, and a knife in his other hand, was an ancestor bear hunter; this was an exception that could be told, but it was indicated that there was more to the story that could not. There were also some items that were not on display because they are considered private to a family.
The baskets interested me because they were square bottomed and round topped. They reminded me of a white oak splint woven basket my family had when I was a child that was also square bottomed and round topped.
After the museum we took the bus back to a train station then the subway back to the hotel. We got supper at the "Flying Pig" and Molly said is was some of the best seafood, and best dessert (crème brûlée), she has had.
The air was much drier then we were used to in Hawaiʻi. This night Molly couldn't stop coughing so I ran some hot water in the bathroom and soaked some towels then spread them out on the heated floor to humidify the room. It worked. She stopped coughing and fell asleep.
The next morning I headed back to the meeting at the convention center. It was the last day of the meeting and things were winding down. Molly and I split up and planned to meet again near the convention center. She was looking for souvenir shops to buy some small gifts from Vancouver for family, friends, and for some of her teachers at school. First, however, we looked at the roundhouse near the hotel from which the Yaletown-Roundhouse station got its name.
Thursday was our last day in Vancouver. Our flight back was that night. We checked out of our hotel but left our bags there to come back for them later.
We walked down to the dock and took a ferry to Granville Island.
We walked around Granville Island, which is known for its arts and craft stores.
[Lots of photos to add here later.]On the ferry back Molly spotted two harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). I scrambled to try to get a picture of them but the glass was wet and they dove right away. This is the best I could get.
Then we took the subway back to the airport.
At the airport we checked in, went through security (which in general are poorly planned out, you spend a lot of time waiting in line with nothing to do, then have to hurry and unpack things into trays on the conveyor belt, and mistakes get made with something left in a pocket; it would make far more sense to extend the conveyor belt and trays so you could unpack into them while waiting in line), and into another stanchion maze. This one had electronic kiosks to swipe passports, answer questions, and then it took your picture and printed a card. We had figs for a snack on the plane back so I checked off that I had fruit. We went to a raised desk with a woman behind it and handed her the printed cards. She asked for our passports and boarding cards so Molly and I put them up on the desk in front of her. She repeated "boarding card" to me with a flat affect, holding out her hand toward me slightly. Puzzled I picked it up off of the desk right in front of her and moved it a few inches into her hand. This seemed to be acceptable to her. She asked if I had fruit and I said yes I had figs. I asked if she would like to see them. She said yes so I unpacked my bag and took one of the two identical packages of figs out and showed them to her. She said, "that's not fruit" and asked if we had any other fruit. I said, "trust me I'm a biologist (I had seen that slogan somewhere and it came to mind); it is fruit"—the fig in particular is a syconium, which is both an infructescence and accessory fruit—and also answered, "yes, I have another package just like this in my bag". She asked if we had any fresh fruit. I answered, "if these figs are not fresh then no we do not". She asked if we had any apples or bananas, which was oddly specific, and I said no. Then she looked toward Molly, held her hand out slightly, and asked for her boarding card. Molly said, "it's there" pointing at the desk in front of her. She repeated, "boarding card". Molly was confused and I said "she wants you to place it in her hand", so Molly did that. She looked at the documents and then said very faintly under her breath "you can go now" (I think). I wasn't quite sure what she said and asked "so we're all good"? She stared past me and refused to acknowledge me, so we gathered our things and cautiously walked past her; it appeared that we were free to go. Molly is very respectful of people and in general never says anything bad about anyone. As we started to walk away past her Molly said that she reminded her of the slug (Roz) from Monster's, Inc., within hearing distance. It was so perfect and unexpected that I laughed out loud as we walked away.
[some airport pictures here]
After we boarded the plane the pilot made an announcement that they couldn't get the engines to start. We waited on the plane for an hour until they fixed it. I was sitting next to the aisle in a seat that was too narrow to begin with. They kept hitting my elbow, one time really hard, with the metal cart they push up and down the aisle. Also, the call button was on the arm rest, right under my elbow, she kept coming and saying I called her and I would say I didn't, but when I brought up them hitting my elbow with the cart she would leave before I finished. Then they woke everyone up mid-way to try to sell things.
Vanessa picked us up at the airport. We arrived home after midnight. Vanessa and I were up until just after 3 AM, in part because of an apartment inspection scheduled for the next day. I went to work the next morning with a class that started at 9 AM. When I got home from work Molly and I gave gifts from Canada to Vanessa and the kids.
Floyd A. Reed, November 14, 2018 – December 8, 2018