Inukshuk at English Bay
One of the most surprising discoveries from my research about the legacy landmarks of Expo 86 was when I learned about the origins of the inukshuk at English Bay. Turns out this iconic sculpture is the same one that stood in front of the Northwest Territories Pavilion at Expo. The territorial government commissioned Alvin Kanak of Rankin Inlet to create the sculpture made of grey granite. After Expo, it was given to the City of Vancouver, and it has stood in English Bay since 1987.
Pileated Woodpecker
Here’s someone I met on one of my walks through Stanley Park this month.
This is a Pileated Woodpecker, the largest (about the size of a crow) of the four species of woodpeckers found in the park. This particular woodpecker loves forests and the best way to find him is to look up.
Way up.
Check out that grip.
Through My Lens: Coal Harbour Sunset
Same sky, different direction. I took this photo a few minutes before the one in yesterday’s post, but I’m looking west instead of east.
Through My Lens: Moon Over Coal Harbour
All right. Enough already with the whinging about the waning of summer. Let’s get outside.
I took this photo on a long walk one evening last week. Those are the condos of Coal Harbour and the Coal Harbour Marina.
Through My Lens: Sunset Beach Paddlers
It’s the middle of August already. There are only a few weeks left of what has been a fabulous summer in Vancouver.
Sigh.
What else is there to say?
Through My Lens: Granville Lights
I have no particular reason for posting this photo, except that I think it’s kind of cool. Granville Street is the heart of Vancouver’s entertainment district and it can get a little zany at night ― especially on weekends.
Those white vertical lights you see in the photo were installed to dress up the street for the 2010 Winter Olympics, as a nod to its neon past. At one time, Granville Street was said to have the highest concentration of neon in the world.
SkyTrain
Some say the most significant legacy of Expo 86 is our SkyTrain. It certainly is a fitting legacy for a world’s fair whose full name was World Exposition on Transportation and Communication.
During Expo, the SkyTrain took fairgoers from the Canada Pavilion at Canada Place to the main fairgrounds beside where Science World is located today.
The SkyTrain ― which now runs all the way to Surrey ― is a narrow elevated train. Too narrow, in my mind, as it’s too much of a crush at rush hour. And it’s so narrow that, when you compare it to subway trains like those in Toronto or New York, it feels like you’re riding a toy train.
The SkyTrain is all modern, though. It was the world’s first completely automated (read: driverless) rapid transit system. Daily ridership is around 400,000 passengers.
Science World
Another legacy site of Expo 86 is Science World. During Expo, it was called Expo Centre. Like most of the pavilions, it was intended to be dismantled at the end of the fair, but intense public opposition to that plan saved it, and it was turned into a science and technology centre instead.
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, it was transformed into Sochi World ― locally referred to as the Russia House ― to promote the 2014 Winter Olympics and to function as the hospitality area for the Russian national team.
Strawbabies
When I was in high school, the end of June meant the end of the school year and the start of strawberry season. My mother would throw the ice cream pails into the trunk of the car and off we went ― her and my siblings and I ― to one of the U-pick farms on nearby Westham Island. A few hours of picking (and snacking) later, we’d head home with our haul of luscious red berries. Mom would get to work making jam, while we would help her out by eating a handful of berries every time we wandered through the kitchen. My (then) baby brother called them strawbabies, and the name stuck.
BC berries are so tasty that I became a strawberry snob. To this day, I refuse to eat the pale and tasteless California strawberries that are sold in BC the rest of the year.
One final note: If there was ever any doubt that our climate is changing, the shifting of strawberry season by a whole month is enough evidence for me. Strawberry season now starts every year around the end of May and is already over by the last week of June.
Through My Lens: Fraser River at Deas Island Park
Here’s another view of the Fraser River. This photo was taken from Deas Island Park in Delta, near the mouth of the Fraser River. I’m looking west. Somewhere beneath all that water is the George Massey Tunnel, which is how Highway 99 (the highway that goes from Vancouver to the US border) crosses the Fraser River. The tunnel is going to be replaced by a 10-lane bridge sometime in the near future.
Which means this view of the Fraser River will be completely transformed.
There and Back Again 