Day 4: UBC

We slept late this morning...nine o'clock. After eating breakfast at a nearby restaurant we caught an express bus to the University of British Columbia which is way over at the west end of Vancouver on a beautiful Grey Point.

The weather was perfect again (70s, partly cloudy) although I heard some Vancouver residents complaining about the heat.

I don't think the campus is pretty. It looks like they bulldozed a couple square miles near the point and filled it with buildings. Most of the current buildings are those ugly 60s and 70s concrete buildings you see on campuses but those buildings are surrounding by newer housing developments. We think those are private developments, areas where UBC sold their land for a profit.

The Anthropology Museum is near the point at the edge of the campus where the trees are mostly still intact. The museum is small but holds a stunning collection of items carved by members of BC coastal tribes. These tribes all did large scale carvings for construction (15 ft. high house posts that held up the roof beams or 20-30 ft. totems that were part of the frame of their houses), transportation, and entertaining (e.g., massive decorated "dishes" that are beautiful troughs). There's also two traditional Haida buildings behind the museum that were built by a famous Haida artist and craftsman. The museum also has books with pictures of the old coastal villages in the early 1900s with the old buildings and totems intact. I have some nice pictures of the carvings that I'll post soon.

We then walked down the street to the Nitobe Japanese Garden which they call one of the best Japanese gardens in the US. It was a very nice Japanese Garden although it didn't have a "dry" pool of stones like many other Japanese gardens. I like the Japanese Garden in Portland better.

When we left the garden we decided to go down to the beaches on Grey Point. We started walking not knowing how far down it really was. It was, in fact a journey of almost 400 wooden steps down to the sparsely populated clothing-optional beach.

The view is amazing from the beach. You can see Vancouver to the east, and the Olympic peninsula, the ocean, and Vancouver Island in the west. The beach was nice but we didn't stay long (or take our clothes off).

After we got back up the steps we split up. I walked to the Book Store to buy a hat--bald guys must have them and I forgot to bring one. I bought a cheap UBC hat then went over to the Student Union to wait for Sally.

Sally took the Campus bus around to the Botanical Garden where she hoped to learn about the plants that grow in this climate. When she made it back to the Student Union she told me that the gardens were pretty but nothing was marked and no one was around so it wasn't too satisfying.

We left campus about six, taking a crosstown bus to the West Broadway commercial area. We found a really nice stretch of street lined with small grocery and produce stores, independent bookstores, bakeries, coffee shops and small restaurants.

We took a short loop through the residential neighborhood while we walked. Many of the houses had a similar 2 story design, sort of a Northwest version of the 1920s bungalow. Unlike a lot of downtown, this looked like a place someone like me could afford a nice house in a nice area. Sally said no, it’ll still be expensive but I’ll have to check the listings to see if that’s true.

We chose a small, plain Malaysian place for dinner. I had a Tofu/Veggie Spicy Laksa Noodle Soup which was the best bowl of soup I've ever had but Sally didn't like hers that much (the opposite of Chinatown). Now I have to learn how to make spicy Laksa noodle soup.

We caught another bus across to Granville and then a bus down Granville to downtown. Home again.

People have been very nice here. Vancouver bus drivers have been extremely helpful--answering our questions, reminding us about stops, and recommending the best routes to take to wherever we were going. We’ve also met some very helpful residents who were happy to talk about topics like the buses, the Olympics, and the big storm that closed Stanley Park for a long time.

Tomorrow is return to the US day. I have to say that most of the time I have felt like I'm in the US. Okay, when I'm digging in my pockets for "loonies" (one dollar coins) I remember and when I read the paper I remember. I guess four days isn't enough to find out what makes this city distinctly Canadian. Maybe I can come back and find out.