A quick trip to Vancouver

With the realization that we would be arriving in Washington for Labor Day we chose to stay planted as close to the Canadian Border as possible so we could hop into Vancouver for a day on the holiday weekend. It was a good plan; dodge the weekender crowds at campgrounds and see some place new (for me anyway) at the same time. Our first stop was to visit Granville Island where we could explore the famous Public Market.

The Granville Island Public Market features a farmers’ market, day vendors, and artists offering local Vancouver goods. There are fifty permanent retailers and over one-hundred day vendors in stalls throughout the market selling a variety of artisan cottage-industry foods and handmade crafts on a rotating schedule – Wikipedia

Ah, but do not let the glamour of it fool you. Granville Island is actually just a single triangular city block, under a bridge, with no parking, and thousands of people roaming about… including Kerri and me. Walking around was the tedium of never having a square foot of space to call your own. Shoulder to shoulder within a multi-ethnic soup of tourists and locals all fighting for space to get to their own Point-B on the island.

Even though the area was a shock to the senses after months of the mostly solitude and natural panoramas of Alaska, we endured, and still enjoyed, for the two hours we had on the parking meter a few blocks away. Kerri even got her Poutine fix, thankfully. It was all she could talk about going through Canada again. Poutine, poutine, poutine… that itch just had to be scratched in this final visit to Canada.

Our next stop in town was Stanley Park, a huge sprawling park on it’s own island right in the mouth of Vancouver Harbor and is a National Historic Site of Canada. We drove the perimeter, stopping once for a short hike in the forest to see a light house (we never found it) and to grab an ice cream cone. Another stop, and stroll, near the two main beaches completed our trip to the park. Obviously, we failed to explore the park properly. It is only now, as I write this, that I see just how much we missed. Someday I’d like to return and give it a full day to explore. It really is an amazing park, akin to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

And that is it for me and Canada, at least for now.  I must admit, with much reluctance, I like Canada. I really did not think I would and came into it with a major bias to the negative side, but Canada really did win me over. Even the big city of Vancouver was so much more than I anticipated, and without some of the less desirable aspects that I know from cities more well known to me like SF or Denver. Canada truly is a pleasant place, not only the scenery and wildlife, but the people too. Everyone is so nice and helpful it is sickening at times.

My only real beef against Canada is the extreme nanny-state mentality that exists. It seems the people of Canada must be told what to do at every moment of their life, and only the government is wise enough to tell them. From road signs stating the obvious (“road is wet when it rains“, and “take off sunglasses when entering tunnel“) to cigarettes having to hide behind curtains in convenience stores. They eliminated the 1-cent piece a few years ago as counting in ones was just too much to ask of the population. They color coded all their paper currency since having to read the numbers on the bill was also too much to ask. Sure, these decisions make sense – and that describes Canada well; sensible – but add it all together and you have one huge amount of hand-holding at all times in this country. Canadian people are really never given a chance to think for themselves. They are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it from birth to death.

It makes for a very friendly and organized population of course, but not one I would want to have lived my life. Then again, a friendly and somewhat unarmed population* sure make for great neighbors

* Canada is actually the 12th highest country in gun ownership, per capita, in the world. Go figure that for such a peaceful country, and peaceful they are, they sure like their guns. Maybe us Americans are rubbing off on them, eh.