Steve's Favorite Spot in Vancouver

It is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese garden.  It is a recreation of the garden of a scholar-official during the Ming dynasty.  I found it beautiful and serene.

The structures in the garden include a reception hall where the scholar-official would formally receive visitors, the scholar-official's study, and pavilions.  They were built in China, then dismantled and shipped to Canada.  A major design element are these limestone rocks known as "taihu stone."  They are only found at the foot of Dongting Mountain, and are almost never exported from China.

The garden is separated into two parts, representing yin and yang energy.  The decorations on the yin side are composed of curves; on the yang side  they use straight lines.  Note the stonework on the floor and the latticed windows in these two pictures:

This is the reception hall, where the scholar-official would formally receive visitors:

The hall contains this incredibly detailed silk panel, which is not painted, but needlepoint!

This is the courtyard outside the scholar-official's study:

Feeding the koi in the pond:

By train to Vancouver

The train to Vancouver left Jasper around 10 PM, something like three hours late.  The waiting was stressful, and Steve was concerned about making sure we had seats together (they do not do reservations in economy class).  It turned out to be a non-issue, because the train was not very full.  In fact, it was empty enough that we each got a pair of seats to ourselves, which made it easier to find a comfortable position to sleep in.

When we woke up, we were traveling along the Thompson River, through a scrubby, semi-arid landscape.

 

The landscape became more lush as we joined the Fraser River for the rest of the way to Vancouver.

And we arrived in Vancouver almost an hour early!  Some combination of intrepid train-driving and lots of padding in the schedule, I expect.

Jasper continued

Here are some of Suzanne's photos from our bike ride up to Lac Beauvert and the Jasper Park Lodge:

These are some giant rose hips on a tiny little rose bush.

This is how clear Lac Beauvert is!!

We signed up for a bus tour to nearby Maligne Lake (pronounced mah-leen).  We had the option of either taking a cruise on the lake or a guided hike.  Suzanne opted for the cruise, and Steve for the hike.  Our guide was a young woman named Kelli, who was great - both energetic and informative.

We stopped first at Maligne Canyon, which is a gorge carrying the outflow from the lake.  The stone here is primarily limestone, which is much harder than shale, so the gorge is much steeper than the ones back home:

The drive went quickly, except when we hit a traffic jam....

Those are bighorn sheep, a group of females and young.

When we got to the lake, Suzanne got on the boat with everyone else in the group.  Here are some images from that cruise.

Here you can see just a bit of glacier remaining between the two peaks - you have to look closely!

The destination of the cruise is Spirit Island.  It is sacred ground of the indigenous people of the area and we were asked not to step onto the island.

 Steve went for a walk to Moose Lake.  He was the only one who didn't go on the boat, so he got a personal guide.

Yes, the lake is frequented by moose; they like to eat the moss on the lake bottom. A number of people were hanging out there hoping to see one, but none showed up.  We did, however, see a black bear with 2 cubs on the drive back to town.  They were eating the buffalo berries, which are their primary food.

Then, it's off to Vancouver!

Jasper - the smoky mountains?

We arrived in Jasper on Friday evening, after taking the train from Edmonton.  The train was late (as often happens), but quite comfortable.  One pleasant surprise was the food on the train - it was cooked right there, and reasonably priced.

Here's a view from the back window of the dome car, as we got close to Jasper:

As you can see, it's hazy.  And yes, that's smoke.  Jasper is surrounded by mountains, but you wouldn't know it - yesterday (Saturday) the smoke hid them almost completely.  This morning (Sunday) you can at least see their outlines.

Suzanne has had a lot of trouble with a sore heel, which has made a real dent in our ability to go hiking.  So we rented a couple of bicycles - much better! We rode around town, then I tried riding up one of the trails.  It was quite steep and rocky, and I am not an experienced mountain biker, so I wound up walking the bike much of the way.

Jasper is a very compact town; there is no sprawl, no malls.  That's because the federal government owns all the land, leasing it to residents and businesses, and they do not allow any expansion into the surrounding habitat.  And if you want to live here, you have to have a job or other reason for being here; you can't just buy a vacation home.

During the day Sunday, the smoke gradually dissipated.  Look - there really ARE mountains out there!

We rode our bikes a little way out of town to a lovely spring-fed lake called Lac Beauvert.  It's one of those "clear blue mountain lakes," tho the color varies from blue to turqoise to green depending on the depth of the water and the viewing angle.

We rented a kayak from a spiffy lodge there and paddled around the lake.

We saw a bald eagle; it sat in a tree for some time and then took off:

Then Suzanne did some more riding while Steve climbed up a hundred steps and up a steep slope to a point overlooking the Athabasca River:

Edmonton - Day 3

Thursday we rented a car to go to two places about 50 km east of town: the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village and Elk Island National Park.

It seems that this part of Alberta has the heaviest concentration of Ukrainians this side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  One sign of this is that lots of restaurants - including a fish-and-chips place we ate at - have pierogies on their menu.  A Ukrainian who migrated in the late 1800s went back home and sold lots of his countryfolk on the virtues of settling in East Central Alberta, and Ukrainian towns sprouted up all along the rail lines.

The Village is a collection of original buildings that were moved to the site and  meticulously restored, complete with furnishings and all the stuff that would have been there back then.  People in period costumes are in the buildings, playing the role of an actual person who lived or worked in that place.  Here is the interior of an early Orthodox church.  The settlers had to make a lot of compromises, but did their best to maintain a traditional feel. While a full-scale Orthodox church would have a wall covered with gilded icons in the front, the settlers made do with a mail-order church decoration kit.

This humble church was beautiful and is sometimes used for liturgies.  Thus our tour guide asked the woman you see in the background to come out of the further part of the church because it was considered holy and only the priest (who comes in from Edmonton a few times a year) was allowed.

The photo below is of a more elaborate one as the community became more prosperous.  I find these domes so beautiful!

To the left of the church you see the grain elevator which sits adjacent to the rail lines.  It was explained that this ensured that if there was a fire (grain is highly likely to spark a fire) the rest of the town would be far enough away to be safe.

After the village, we went to the Elk Island Park, which is supposed to have lots of bison, elk, moose, and other wildlife.  Suzanne saw one bison from the highway before we even got to the park, but once in the park they seemed scarce - even on a road called the "Bison Loop."  We went to a good-sized lake and walked around there; saw a lot of interesting birds, including a white bird that nose-dived straight down into the water from 25 feet up, in order to catch fish.  We couldn't get a good picture of that, but here's a red-necked grebe:

We decided to try the Bison Loop again, and Steve did see a few in the distance from there.  But on the way, this guy was hanging out in one of the roadside picnic spots!

Edmonton - Day 2

Woke up in the morning and it seemed rather dark.  Looked out the window and the sky had a yellow haze.  It was smoke, from the fires in northern B.C.  There was more than a hint of the smell in the air, and all kinds of health warnings in effect.

We decided that spending most of the day indoors was a good idea.  We just lazed around our rooms for a while, then headed out to the Muttart Conservatory.  They have very distinctive pyramid-shaped greenhouses, one each for arid plants, tropical plants, temperate plants, and special exhibits.  Here's an aptly named "shrimp plant" from the tropical room:

After that, we walked to downtown over the "Low Level Bridge."  It seems that one bank of the river is much higher than the other, so the "High Level Bridge" mentioned in the last post is at the level of the higher bank, while the Low Level Bridge is at the height of the lower bank.  To get up the hill from the low level bridge we took a funicular that operated much like an elevator.  Here's a view of the bridge from the top of the funicular.  Note the haze; the smoke had lessened by this time but was very much still there:

We hunted down a gluten free Fish n Chips place, aptly named Brit's.  Here's a photo of the sign and the artistic decoration below it outside - it might not be too easy to make out, but I'll label it after the photo.

I think it's made up of "found" items.  Got it?  It's a big metal fish with a wooden tail!  Steve got his deep fried fix with haddock and onion rings!!  Yum.

We then walked to a nearby Dairy Queen where Steve paid on his "debt" by buying me a banana split.  Also, Yum!  Then we walked a bout 10 blocks back to our apartment.

Edmonton - Day 1

On Monday, we packed up and headed for the airport to catch our plane to Edmonton (via Toronto, which felt a little odd!).  The trip was uneventful, tho when we got to Toronto we had to walk what seemed like miles down little corridors to get to immigration.  The good news is that they have a separate immigration desk for people making connections, so it went quickly.  Also, they don't make you collect your bags and schlep them thru customs like they do in the US of A.

We got in shortly after 11 PM (local time; that's 1 AM body time) and took a taxi to our Airbnb apartment.  At first arrival, it seemed rather disappointing, but there was nothing horribly wrong, so we went to bed.

The air feels different here.  It's drier here, for one.  It smells different, too, with a hint of smoke, from the wildfires in B.C., I expect.

Edmonton is not a compact city.  There's a lot of it, and it goes on and on.  But our place has decent bus connections (once you walk 8 blocks or so).  Today we took it easy, and tried to go to the farmers' market (but it was closed).  Then we rode the historic High Level Bridge streetcar to downtown.

The streetcar's route follows an old railway line that crosses the river far above the water (and anything else).  It used to be that there were 3 tracks on the bridge, the railroad in the middle and the streetcars on either side.  They barely fit, but apparently no streetcar ever fell off.  Now it's just a single streetcar track in the middle.  The motorman let me into his cabin to take this photo,

We wandered around downtown for a bit, then had an excellent lunch at Doan's Vietnamese Restaurant.  Then we took the streetcar back, got some groceries at an organic market, and took the bus back to our place.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Our first stop in Ann Arbor was at the home of a fellow massage therapist.  She also worked at a Whole Foods store.  First night when she had to work, we took a short walk to stretch our legs and came upon a Gluten Free bakery tucked away behind many buildings.  Made a note to check it out the next day.

On Wednesday, August 8 we had lunch with our host in a place very much like Ruloff's in C-town.  She had to go to work again, so we headed for the Farmer's Market and then on to a wonderful Archeological museum on U of M's campus.  We also got some groceries at the People's Food Coop - they gave us a 3% discount as visitors.

Next day we packed up our bags and headed for downtown.  Had lunch at Miss Kim's with Korean fare.  I (Suzanne) had a delicious avocado + chicken rice bowl.  Steve ate something spicy, of course!

Took another Lyft from Miss Kim's to pick up our bags and then head for Touchstone cohousing just 25 minutes away.  We stayed in Touchstone's guestroom, which was simple but quite comfortable.

We were met by Suzy who took us on an extensive, information filled tour of all three neighborhoods.  I'll let Steve fill you in on the details.

Crossing the Border

On Tuesday, we boarded a Greyhound bus in London, Ontario, headed for Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Based on our experience, I (Steve) do not recommend traveling into the US by bus.

First, they had us get off the bus, leaving our stuff, and line up on the pavement.  Then they pulled all the luggage out from under the bus and lined it up next to us.  Then they brought a drug-sniffing dog onto the bus and - ding! - it found some marijuana, on the floor in the seat in front of us I think.  So they ran the dog up and down along the luggage, checked all the carryons still on the bus and soon came out with only ours asking us lots of questions away from the rest of the passengers. Pretty intimidating!  The dog found nothing more, so nothing/no one was implicated.  So finally they let us into the building to check our passports and pepper us with more questions.  All very officious, demeaning, and unpleasant.

It took so long that I was sure we'd miss our connection to Ann Arbor, but the driver did his best and we managed a mad-dash connection.  Whew!

We used Lyft to get from the bus/train station and were glad to be in our next host's home!

London Town

That's London, Ontario, folks.  A city of a couple hundred thousand people that is on - yes - the river Thames.  We stayed with a Servas host named Nathan, who was a very good host.  He also lives in a high-rise, without spectacular views but very comfortable and homelike.  And the people in the building seem to know each other really well - every time we met someone in the hall or on the elevator, Nathan would introduce us and chat with them for a few minutes.  There is even a weekly singalong there (tho not in the summer).  Nathan and his special friend (she's named Suzanne and lives 10 floors up) are both very good musicians and we had fun playing music together, me on my little dulcimer and they on guitars.

London has no special charm but feels nice.  It's a lot calmer than Toronto (no surprise there).  People smile at each other when they pass on the streets.

Nathan took us to the nearby Museum of Ontario Archeology. It's on the site of a settlement that at its peak probably had more than 1000 people.  The people had longhouses like the Haudenosaunee, but were not part of the confederacy.  They are called the "Neutrals" because they were neutral  during the war between the Haudenosaunee and the Wendot (Huron) nations.  What they called themselves is unknown.  They died out in the 1600s, probably from famine and wars with neighboring groups, before the Europeans arrived in force.

Besides a hall full of artifacts, well presented and explained, they have reconstructed part of the settlement, including one longhouse (originally there were at least 10).  The longhouse is starting to lean badly, but they do not plan to repair it; instead, they are going to let it fall down so they can see what happens in the process.  They are going to build another if/when they can get the funding.

They also have a virtual reality setup where you can walk through the settlement by donning a pair of goggles.  It was an interesting experience - you even get to shoot a virtual bow and arrow!

Not the Ithaca Festival Parade

It's Saturday, and it's the day for the Caribbean Festival parade. This is in celebration of Emancipation Day, marking when the slaves were freed in the British Empire. The article I (Steve) read said that it started at 8:30, but I think that was in error, because I got there at 9 and still had to wait a couple hours.  But it was in a nice lakeside park, so no real pain there.

The main body of the parade consisted of flatbed trucks carrying extremely loud "mas" (as in masquerade) bands accompanied by throngs of people dressed with elaborate decoration, especially headdresses.  Each group wears the same colors:

Then there are the truly gigantic outfits, big enough to be small floats, on wheels but being pulled and steered by one person in a harness:

The mas bands were followed by some steel drum bands, also on flatbeds:

Sunday, it's off on the train to London (Ontario, not England!)

Arrived in Toronto

Here we are in Toronto, after taking the bus from Ithaca.  The bus ride was, well,  a long-distance bus ride. Steve was having a hard time over something that had been left behind, but Suzanne figured out how to handle it.  One creepy note was that in Rochester, two border patrol agents got on the bus and asked to see everyone's IDs.  They didn't take anyone away, but do a little googling and you'll see plenty of stories.

Our own border crossing into Canada was merely tedious.  There were 3 people who had gotten on the bus by mistake, and a lot of time was spent figuring out how best to get them back to the States.  Then we all had to get off the bus, get all our luggage, and go into a building where we waited in line to get checked.
Then back on the bus and we trundle on.

We are staying with Daphne and Charles, a couple we found via the Servas organization.  Their place is amazing - it's a dozen floors up in a high-rise in the middle of downtown Toronto.  Here's a view from their window shortly after sunset last night:

The interior is pretty unbelievable as well.  This is definitely sophisticated urban living!

On Thursday, we took a walk through the Chinatown and Kensington Market neighborhoods.  Kensington Market is quite the eclectic place, with zillions of small eateries (including Thai-Hungarian fusion!) and some interesting street decorations like these:

By the time we got back to the house, Suzanne was having a lot of trouble with her sore heel.  When she told Charles about it, he suggested trying "rocker sole" shoes.  He knew of a place that sold them, so the 4 of us went off on the subway to the Eglinton neighborhood to the north.  Suzanne, aided by a very helpful staff member, tried on many shoes and settled on one pair that she said reduced her heel pain a lot. (And while all this was going on, Daphne tried on a lot of pairs and bought three!)