Back
Back in Austin. It's so fucking hot here. Like 97 degrees, I think, plus humidity. Can I go back?
Rest of the trip, as I can remember it:
Wednesday: Granville Island in the morning, where prophetkristy, calanthe_b, and I walked around and checked out the public market and various cute little shops. I think we all came away with books at the children's book store. Lunch in the public market. I split off that afternoon to try out the bike/blade path around Stanley Park. The blades I rented were crappy and I had to just stand around on them for a little while to make sure I was not going to fall over. But they worked okay enough that I got used to them once I got started. It was 9 km around the island, which is roughly 5 1/2 miles, and also the longest I have ever gone on a pair of blades. It took me roughly an hour and 20 minutes and my legs were jello afterwords, but it was fun.
This is the thing I love about Vancouver: it's a very blade friendly city. There are lots of flat paved pathways (most notably along the seawall, which runs around the entire city basically), and you can even blade in the bike lane, or at least I saw a few people doing it. Blading on the road at all is illegal in Austin, and the only place I see bladers ever is the Veloway. Vancouver they're all over the place. :)
I was going to have my frozen dinner this night, but since getting to Stanley Park and getting around it took longer than expected, I just made it back in time to leave for Bard, and had to grab something there. Of course, that day they happened to be out of sandwiches and I had to run to the local burger fast food place. Such is life.
As for Henry V: AJ aside, I still don't care for Shakespeare. I swear I need a translator for half the dialouge. But AJ was excellent in it, as were most of the other actors. I'm still undecided as to how I feel about the battle scenes via interpretive dance, but it did convey the point. Despite not being able to understand French, I did enjoy the final scene between Catherine ("Kate") and Henry, and the humor which provided a nice balance to the multiple executions we got in this play. I do also approve of the somewhat see-through costumes which were supposed to represent chainmail. Perhaps I cannot appreciate Shakespeare in all his theatrical glory, but I can appreciate eye candy. ;) We didn't see the costume in my icon, by the way, though it may have been in Falstaff?
AJ, despite being busy with yet another rehearsal after the play (I don't envy him at all, as it was almost 11 already and especially considering how much they were all sweating by the end), came out and said hello to us, which was certainly very nice of him.
Thursday: Victoria, which is on Vancouver Island. Silly me did not think to bring a book for the long fairy ride, and I ended up with a book written by an ex-Mountie. It's a good beach read, not exactly a novel. We walked around the harbor docks for a little while, where local artisans have various crafts for sale. prophetkrsity met with a friend for a while, whereupon calanthe_b and I checked out a local bookstore and part of the Royal British Columbia Museum. Their section on native peoples was much more extensive than the "English history" section, though I found the layout of that part- a recreation of Victoria circa 1900, to be a neat idea. I wish the native peoples section had labeled their artifacts with dates so I could tell whether I was looking at something original or a fairly recent recreation of an old artform. Not the best museum I have ever been to, but interesting nonetheless.
Late afternoon we hit the Buchart Gardens, which has lots of pretty flowers. It's built (or planted, I suppose I might say) on an old rock quarry. This is what people with lots of money and lots of spare time do, I suppose. It was a late night when we got back, thanks to the ferry trip.
Friday: Whale watching! It's something I've always wanted to do, and now have finally gotten around to. It was totally worth the wait. I'm also super sunburnt, but alas. There were cute seals and bald eagles and sea lions vying for buoy space to be seen, but also- whales. The first one we spotted was a male who showed off a bit for us by breaching a number of times. I have awesome pictures of this, and I will probably share them later if I'm reminded. He got really close to the boat (50 feet, I'd guess) so you could definitely see how big they get. We spent a lot of time hanging around this whale, since he gave us great photo ops. Then we headed for shore to track down some other whales that were spotted by another boat. I spotted a female off in the distance on the way, but I think only a few other people saw it and it was too far off to follow anyway. We eventually came upon 3 whales, mom and two younger ones, and the younger ones also decided to show off (perhaps it was a competition between siblings. "I bet I can do this better!"). We got a couple tale slaps, and then did what our guide described as "cartwheels"- their tails came out of the water so you see all the way from the saddle patch to the fluke, and fell forward like that. (For reference, sort of like this: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/17929918_60239ed143.jpg except I saw it head on and not from the side) They also did some breaching, one after the other. Then we headed back for Vancouver.
Overall, I had a fantastic time, it was far too short a trip, and I'd love to visit Vancouver again. Once more unto the breach!
Rest of the trip, as I can remember it:
Wednesday: Granville Island in the morning, where prophetkristy, calanthe_b, and I walked around and checked out the public market and various cute little shops. I think we all came away with books at the children's book store. Lunch in the public market. I split off that afternoon to try out the bike/blade path around Stanley Park. The blades I rented were crappy and I had to just stand around on them for a little while to make sure I was not going to fall over. But they worked okay enough that I got used to them once I got started. It was 9 km around the island, which is roughly 5 1/2 miles, and also the longest I have ever gone on a pair of blades. It took me roughly an hour and 20 minutes and my legs were jello afterwords, but it was fun.
This is the thing I love about Vancouver: it's a very blade friendly city. There are lots of flat paved pathways (most notably along the seawall, which runs around the entire city basically), and you can even blade in the bike lane, or at least I saw a few people doing it. Blading on the road at all is illegal in Austin, and the only place I see bladers ever is the Veloway. Vancouver they're all over the place. :)
I was going to have my frozen dinner this night, but since getting to Stanley Park and getting around it took longer than expected, I just made it back in time to leave for Bard, and had to grab something there. Of course, that day they happened to be out of sandwiches and I had to run to the local burger fast food place. Such is life.
As for Henry V: AJ aside, I still don't care for Shakespeare. I swear I need a translator for half the dialouge. But AJ was excellent in it, as were most of the other actors. I'm still undecided as to how I feel about the battle scenes via interpretive dance, but it did convey the point. Despite not being able to understand French, I did enjoy the final scene between Catherine ("Kate") and Henry, and the humor which provided a nice balance to the multiple executions we got in this play. I do also approve of the somewhat see-through costumes which were supposed to represent chainmail. Perhaps I cannot appreciate Shakespeare in all his theatrical glory, but I can appreciate eye candy. ;) We didn't see the costume in my icon, by the way, though it may have been in Falstaff?
AJ, despite being busy with yet another rehearsal after the play (I don't envy him at all, as it was almost 11 already and especially considering how much they were all sweating by the end), came out and said hello to us, which was certainly very nice of him.
Thursday: Victoria, which is on Vancouver Island. Silly me did not think to bring a book for the long fairy ride, and I ended up with a book written by an ex-Mountie. It's a good beach read, not exactly a novel. We walked around the harbor docks for a little while, where local artisans have various crafts for sale. prophetkrsity met with a friend for a while, whereupon calanthe_b and I checked out a local bookstore and part of the Royal British Columbia Museum. Their section on native peoples was much more extensive than the "English history" section, though I found the layout of that part- a recreation of Victoria circa 1900, to be a neat idea. I wish the native peoples section had labeled their artifacts with dates so I could tell whether I was looking at something original or a fairly recent recreation of an old artform. Not the best museum I have ever been to, but interesting nonetheless.
Late afternoon we hit the Buchart Gardens, which has lots of pretty flowers. It's built (or planted, I suppose I might say) on an old rock quarry. This is what people with lots of money and lots of spare time do, I suppose. It was a late night when we got back, thanks to the ferry trip.
Friday: Whale watching! It's something I've always wanted to do, and now have finally gotten around to. It was totally worth the wait. I'm also super sunburnt, but alas. There were cute seals and bald eagles and sea lions vying for buoy space to be seen, but also- whales. The first one we spotted was a male who showed off a bit for us by breaching a number of times. I have awesome pictures of this, and I will probably share them later if I'm reminded. He got really close to the boat (50 feet, I'd guess) so you could definitely see how big they get. We spent a lot of time hanging around this whale, since he gave us great photo ops. Then we headed for shore to track down some other whales that were spotted by another boat. I spotted a female off in the distance on the way, but I think only a few other people saw it and it was too far off to follow anyway. We eventually came upon 3 whales, mom and two younger ones, and the younger ones also decided to show off (perhaps it was a competition between siblings. "I bet I can do this better!"). We got a couple tale slaps, and then did what our guide described as "cartwheels"- their tails came out of the water so you see all the way from the saddle patch to the fluke, and fell forward like that. (For reference, sort of like this: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/17929918_60239ed143.jpg except I saw it head on and not from the side) They also did some breaching, one after the other. Then we headed back for Vancouver.
Overall, I had a fantastic time, it was far too short a trip, and I'd love to visit Vancouver again. Once more unto the breach!