Vancouver: Photographs and Memories

Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver is someplace I really wanted Mark to see. It is a place I have been to dozens of times, both while we lived there and since. In fact, it was one of the first sites I saw the first time I visited Vancouver in late December 1985. It is a place that offers - in my view - one of the most beautiful views on the planet: of mountains plunging down into the ocean. The day we were there, it was even more beautiful because of a recent snowfall and the cold high pressure system that made the air crystal clear.

Since before my first visit almost 30 years ago, a restaurant - Trolls - has operated across the street from the small park that leads down to the water. As our children started arriving and became older, it became a tradition to occasionally go to Trolls to eat fish and chips. Once we moved to Utah, it became imperative that we eat there each time we came up for a visit. Mark, Nathan and I went there for a late lunch that day. As usual, I enjoyed the fish and chips; and as usual, I had the inevitable stomach ache afterwards.

The Bowen Island Ferry

The kids used to love to play in the park across the street. The small playground offered things unavailable in the States, namely teeter-totters and a merry-go-round. These were ubiquitous in the America I grew up in, but have been banned in most playgrounds. I understand the safety concerns, but, still, it is a pity.

From Horseshoe Bay, we drove the short distance to Whytecliff Park, another place that holds many, many memories. It's a magical spot of towering cedars on a point of land. The kids used to love to play on the playground. But even more fascinating and fun was the rocky beach down below where they could get in the water, explore and walk out on rocks to a tiny little island. It is a place that is very special to me, and I wanted Mark to see and experience it. 

My new favorite picture of us, standing at an overlook that offers stunning views up Howe Sound and out onto Georgia Strait.

Nathan and Mark

I'll bring to a close this series of posts about our recent Thanksgiving trip to Vancouver with an Instagram photo our son Nathan compiled from a series of pictures I took, followed by his caption to the photo. It kind of expresses what the trip was all about.

B&B: How to Gain Five Pounds in Five Days

It was so worth it. I hadn't weighed that much since I got my braces on last February.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast while visiting our daughter up in Vancouver because, frankly, there weren't any other real options. Hannah and her family live in Fort Langley, which is a small community in the Fraser Valley, about 20 miles or so east of downtown Vancouver. Our choice was basically between staying about a 10-12 minute drive away from Hannah's place in a modern motel in Langley and staying at a B&B a few blocks from her house. We opted for the latter.

The morning of our departure. Note the skiff of snow on the front lawn.

We didn't regret our decision. Our suite was very quaint and comfortable, with gas stove fireplaces (the only source of heat) in both the bedroom and the sitting room. Beautiful furniture and linens added even more character to the place. And the price was comparable to staying in a box motel, especially factoring in the cost of the marvelous breakfasts we had.

And those breakfasts! At 9:00 sharp, we descended down the wooden staircase to the small dining room (also heated by a gas stove) for our "first course" (as Marilyn, our host, referred to it): a delicious fruit salad with a very generous dollop of rich Greek yogurt, sprinkled with Maple syrup granules. I'm usually not a big fan of fruit salad, but this was absolutely delicious.

Marilyn, our host, is a very gracious, meticulous and funny woman. Every day, she would set the table with a different set of china and/or tablecloth. On our first morning, she informed us that the china we were using was in honor of us being American and of American Thanksgiving: it was a blue and white Currier and Ives sort of china with pictures of US presidents and sights depicted thereon.

Marilyn was full of stories. The coffee she served was called "Screaming Squirrel," a dark roast that had actually, she explained, been a "mistake" by an acquaintance of hers back in Ontario who started a coffee roasting business after her husband was diagnosed with cancer. Somehow or another, she ended up with it and was happy to serve it to us since most of her guests prefer a lighter roast.

Then there were a few stories from her childhood. She had been raised as a small child, she said, in the wilds of northern British Columbia. When the family later moved down to Squamish (about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler) and an aunt took her into Vancouver, she was bowled over. "I had never even seen a sidewalk," she explained, "and when my aunt took us to White Spot (a local chain restaurant), I thought I'd died and gone to some strange heaven."

Marilyn.

When Mark noticed an old bicycle propped up against Marilyn's husband's art studio in the back yard, he asked her about it. Her father had given that to her when she was a girl. It was her first - and only - bicycle as a child. "My father had an unusual approach to teaching me to ride a bike, "she said. "He took me to the top of a hill, put me on the bike, then let go." We thought it best not to ask whether a visit to the hospital followed that initial ride.

Our first breakfast

Marilyn told us how she had raised four sons, now grown, and had taken care of her aging parents in the upstairs suite that was now our room. After the sons had grown and the parents had passed away, she decided to start the B&B. "It was," she explained, "my time to play." And it is a play that she takes seriously. After our first breakfast, she sat down with us to come up with menus for the next four days. She wanted to make sure that she served food that we would like. Here's what we came up with:

Tortiere (a French-Canadian pork pie) and coddled egg (never had one of those before)

Just about the best French toast I've ever had. The bread is a light raisin bread. A thin layer of - get this - marzipan was spread between the pieces and then they were baked in the oven. Then, Marilyn made a light sauce comprised of maple syrup and cream. I scraped the bananas to the side the focused on the rest. 

Not pictured were the pancake and sausage breakfast and the prosciutto/egg soufflé, sausage and muffin breakfast. Marilyn also took pleasure in mothering Nathan a bit. One day, we came back to our rooms, and he discovered that she had left two muffins for him, together with butter and jam.

Is it any wonder we gained five pounds while we were there? But like I said, it was worth it.

Vancouver Christmas Market

I've always wanted to go to a Christmas market, and our recent trip to Vancouver provided me with the opportunity to go to one. It wasn't Germany; I still have that dream. But still, it was nice. We got to freeze our buns off, look at ornaments, soak up the atmosphere, do a little shopping then head to the warmth of our cars.

Cary and Hannah

Hazel

Us

Chilling in Vancouver: Granville Island and UBC

We spent Black Friday in blue Vancouver. Chilled to the bone. The weather was gloriously beautiful, something that rarely happens in Vancouver anytime between October and, um, June. Perfectly clear blue skies. Blue water. Blue, blue, blue. And cold.

We headed into the city, and our first destination was Granville Island. This had always been a favorite destination of my family during return visits to Vancouver since moving to Utah 18 years ago. Could it possibly be that long? When we lived there in the late 80's and 90's, we rarely went there; or at least I didn't. I was busy going to law school and working. It was only once we left that we came back.

Granville Island is a special destination. It is one of those places, such as Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco or Pike Place Market in Seattle, that captures and concentrates the essence of a city. It is a place where memories are made. It is in the heart of the city, yet removed from the bustle of downtown, nestled against False Creek with views past the Burrard Street Bridge to Stanley Park and Burrard Inlet. The water taxis bustling back and forth. The seagulls. The variety of the Market, the quaintness of the various shops, studios and places of business.

Hannah and Hazel accompanied us, and it was fun watching Hazel chase pigeons outside - at least until the cold drove us inside the Granville Island Market.

Nathan took this panorama shot of the city and the Granville Street Bridge with his iPhone. Pretty cool.

Nathan

Hannah

Later, we headed out to the University of British Columbia where I went to law school in the late 80's. The university is situated on a point of land on the far west side of Vancouver and offers beautiful views of Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet and the Georgia Strait. I recall sitting in lectures watching ferries go back and forth from Nanaimo (on Vancouver Island) and Horseshoe Bay. Again, the visibility and clarity resulting from the cold weather offered us breathtaking views.

The building where I went to law school has since been torn down and a new building erected in its place. But at least I was able to show Mark the site and a bit of the campus.

Graduation Picture

Thence over to where we lived in student housing during the years I was in school, where our first two children were born. Of course, everything is a bit different now, but the same structures are there.

Me and Sarah, my oldest, chilling during those years

Baby Adam

Our home

My study alcove during my third year in law school

The way it looks today

It was good for Mark to see all of this. As I looked forward to this trip, I had anticipated some sort of healing in my memory bank of those years. But it was while we were out at UBC that I realized that the trip had more to do with now than then. As Mark was able to see the places where stories I have told him about my past took place, I think he gained new insight into who I am, just as visiting Japan last year afforded me new insights into who Mark is. He better understands choices I had made back then: to marry, to have children, to commit myself to a life in which Mormonism was everything. 

As I've written before, I don't regret those decisions. I can't. I made them; life happened. There were some good times, but a lot of bad times. I wish things could have been different, but they weren't.

Meanwhile, I count my blessings ... for Mark, for my children and where they are at, for the growth I've experienced over the past several years. For where I'm at. Despite challenges, life is good.