Am forgetting photos from Vancouver/Victoria/Whistler trip! Few shots of trip:

There is a restaurant in Vancouver called Guu that will sell you, for a reasonable fee, a ‘drink.’ “So let’s get thish straight for the nexsht round, OK? Ishe ballsh are fine, jelly NO.”

At the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen classical gardens, we all exclaimed over the beauty of their bonsai, only to be told that no, the Japanese got that from the Chinese, so here in a Chinese garden we were to use the proper name: penjing. Everything in the garden was flown in from China when the gardens were built, but due to stupid, stupid customs delays, half of the ancient and priceless penjing trees intended for the garden didn’t make it here alive.

When we headed to the Maritime Museum, we got distracted by the Pink Salmon Festival (I know: what? This is what comes from living in ye olde landlocked province). There were many salmony things. Ironically, they were also serving salmon burgers at the refreshment tent. “Save the salmon! Nom nom nom.”

I spent almost a full day at the Van Dusen Gardens – and I still didn’t manage to see everything. They are huuuuuuuuge, and everything, every little corner and gate and sign, everything rightly demands your full attention. They also had an exhibit of Zimbabwean sculptors there (Zimsculpt) so there were statues all over the garden.

The Heritage Rose Garden

I believe this was called ‘Spirit of the Forest.’

Everybody who’s secretly obsessed with lichen, put your hand up.

I spent probably half my Victoria trip, all told, at the Royal BC Museum (what with actually seeing the exhibits, ineffectually stalking my best friend’s mom, and watching ‘Star Trek’ on the Imax). They actually encourage non-flash photography in the regular exhibits now! My fussy and elderly camera had kind of a tough time, but it was fun to go around trying to get shots of stuff behind the glass.

A Haida mask in the First Nations Gallery.

Fan Tan Alley in Victoria – I was doing a self-guided walking tour called ‘Secrets of the City,’ and I can’t find the map now. I think this is either the narrowest street in BC or the narrowest in Canada, I can’t remember. It is really, hilariously narrow at the entrance. It opens out in the middle, but right when you go in…

Blue stuff and a floaty-thing on my way back from Victoria. (Look, did I mention that my province doesn’t have an ocean?)

Zooming down as far as my camera would go on the Peak-to-Peak Gondola between Whistler and Blackcomb trying to see what they were doing at one of the Olympic facility building sites! (This is also the trip, by the way, that made me realize that I’m now officially more at-home at a construction site than in Holt Renfrew.)

I also visited the North Vancouver Outdoor School, which is awesome – not just a great concept, but a neat place in its own right, with a hobby farm with goats and bees and a stream full of salmon and all these awesome old Emily-Carr-trees.

Shannon Falls (BC’s third highest waterfall).

The PNE = K-Days. But with ‘whale tails’ instead of ‘beaver tails.’

And electric cars!

And of course since I took almost 500 photos there’s a lot I’m skipping here, as well as the fact that I did a lot of stuff you can’t photograph (art galleries, Bard on the Beach, etc), but anyway, ’twas a wicked trip and a solid salute to turning 28. Thanks once again to my wunnerful hosts who made sure I had a place to sleep, fed me when all I wanted to consume was Vitamin Water, and attempted to keep me from getting hopelessly lost on Vancouver transit! ;-)