Vancouver’s 93rd Annual Polar Bear Swim
I can’t believe I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for 14 winters, and today was the first time I witnessed the annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim. My reaction? They’re all nuts.
Vancouver’s Polar Bear Swim has been going on since 1920, and is one of the largest in the world. There are more than 2000 registered swimmers, but estimates of how many actually go into the water are as high as 10,000.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. (Note the guys in beaver hats enjoying their Timmy’s coffee and Timbits.)
Dishing: Monk McQueens
Last night was one night I regretted showing up late to the party. Monk McQueens at Stamps Landing on the south side of False Creek has been a Vancouver landmark ever since it opened during Expo 86. And yet, I’d never been. The announcement that it was shutting its doors for the last time on December 31 of this year was what finally motivated me to experience this famous fresh seafood and oyster bar for myself.
I made an occasion of it by reserving a table for the same night a friend from Boston was going to be in town. And so, five of us gathered last night to enjoy a leisurely dinner and a bit of a catch-up. Our table in one of the corner windows gave us a terrific view of False Creek.
The food was delicious. My Bostonian friend and I shared a half dozen oysters on the half shell. For our mains, our party of five sampled almost every type of seafood on the menu: halibut, sea bass, sablefish, lobster, and scallops. We washed it all down with a very nice bottle of wine, and finished with coffee, brown sugar vanilla bean cheesecake, and Calvados. I can’t think of a nicer way to spend four hours with good friends on one of the last nights of the year.
Mahony & Sons Public House is moving in after Monk’s vacates the premises and will open sometime next summer. As much as I enjoy a good public house, it won’t be the same. Last night was proof that just because an establishment has been around since the Dark Ages (aka the 1980s) doesn’t mean it should be taken for granted. Pity I did.
Merry Christmas!
St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver
Through My Lens: Snow on the Mountains
Every once in a while, this time of year, the rain stops for a day, and you get a peek at what all that precipitation has done to the local mountains. I took this photo two days ago.
Through My Lens: December
I’m always glad to see the back side of November. I know, I know ― it’s a miserable month everywhere in Canada, not just here, but for some reason, out of all the places in Canada (and elsewhere) I’ve wintered, I find Vancouver’s Novembers the hardest to get through. Which is pretty ironic given the Lower Mainland’s nickname: “The Tropics of Canada.”
As soon as I flip the calendar over on the morning of December 1st (metaphorically speaking, of course, since I don’t actually have a wall calendar anymore), I feel so much better. December is when I shake off my November blues, and realize that the city has put on its glad rags when I wasn’t looking. Even the Scroogiest of Scrooges cannot help but feel a little festive.
Here’s an example: Robson Square. I’ve loved its light displays since my first ever office job in downtown Vancouver as a fresh university grad, when I would wander through the square after dark on my way to catch the bus home. The ice rink ― shut down for many years ― was refurbished for the 2010 Olympics, and has been open every winter since.
Through My Lens: Vancouver in Fall
Before the calendar flips over to December, and I have to finally, reluctantly, grudgingly admit that it really is winter, here’s one last photo showing Vancouver’s fall colours at their best. I took this photo from Burrard Bridge in mid-October 2011.
Through My Lens: Biomed Building
Since September, I’ve been spending most of my days at the University of British Columbia (UBC). It’s a beautiful campus located on the Point Grey peninsula of the west side of Vancouver. This is a photo I took in early October of the Biomedical Research Centre I walk by each day on my way from the bus loop to my office. I liked the contrast between the blue sky and the red ivy.
The Sylvia Hotel
The Sylvia Hotel is a small beachside hotel in Vancouver’s English Bay with a long and storied history. These photos were taken when the hotel is at its most colourful —in the fall, after the ivy has turned red.
The hotel has some other colour as well: Errol Flynn was a frequent guest and there is an urban legend that he died here. Team Russia, including (it was rumoured) the Russian hockey team, stayed at the Sylvia during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
The Sylvia Hotel has overlooked English Bay since 1912. Originally an apartment building, it was converted to an apartment hotel during the 1930s and to a full-service hotel after World War II. Its name is taken from the daughter of the building’s original owner. Until 1958, the Sylvia was the tallest building in Vancouver’s West End — hard to imagine today as the eight-storey building is dwarfed by the condo towers that surround it.
Two of my home exchangers came to Vancouver for family weddings and found the Sylvia most convenient for other members of their families to stay. It’s a lovely place to go for breakfast — I recommend the Beachside Benny — and the hotel is also the setting of two children’s books about a resident cat named Mister Got to Go.
Through My Lens: Canada Place
A friend was in town this week on business, so I met up with him one evening after work. We went for drinks and something to eat and a long catch-up at a bar near his hotel that overlooks Canada Place.
Afterwards, we took some photos. Here’s mine.
VIFF
Travelling to another country doesn’t always require that you get on a plane. One of the best alternatives to travelling (for me) is hanging out at an international film festival.
Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is held every October and is one of the largest film festivals in North America. This year, I had a choice of 380 films from 75 countries. Which meant that this month, for the price of a movie ticket, I saw Serbia, Bosnia, South Africa, France, and the Czech Republic.
How cool is that?
There and Back Again 