Canada Day!

Friday, July 11th

We arrived in Vancouver on June 30th. I met my landlord, got the keys and spent the afternoon settling-in. Sheila Marie had been in greater-Los Angeles all week at the American Library Association Conference, so she flew up to Seattle and drove across the border to Vancouver for the week. I made us dinner, we opened a bottle of wine and ate our first home-cooked dinner in a long time on the balcony.

Tuesday, July 1st was Canada Day. Much like our Independence Day, Canada Day is a national holiday in Canada. It celebrates the creation, in 1867, of Canada by the passage of the British North America Act. Sheila Marie and I set out to join the celebration. We took an Aquabus over to Granville Island. The Aquabus is a tiny ferry boat that seats 12 people - it's not much bigger than a hotel bathroom!

The Aquabus at the dock on Granville Island

Granville Island is a little island in False Creek that was once an industrial center that has been redeveloped as a major public space. It's home to the Granville Public Market (a mixture of take-out stands, produce and fresh food vendors - similar to Pikes Market in Seattle), several theatres, restaurants, and artist's galleries. The Island was also home to a big Canada Day Celebration - it was crawling with people dressed in Canadian National Hockey Team jerseys and with maple leaves painted on their cheeks. There were all kinds of musicians all over the island and lots of vendors selling their wares from tents. There was a small parade (that featured giant stilt walking hockey players and dragon dancers) and a Canadian National Anthem sing-a-long. Sheila Marie and I waved our paper Canadian flags and got into the spirit - we even sampled and bought some Canadian wine!

Granville Island welcomed us to their Canada Day celebrations

A giant, stilt-walking hockey player

Dragon dancers

Aboard the Aquabus for our return voyage

We rode the Aquabus back home and got changed for an evening under Cirque du Soleil's grande chapeau. We went to see Corteo. The show is inspired by a painting in Canada's National Gallery called "The Grand Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown". The unifying idea was that the narrator envisioned his own funeral parade. It was full of absolutely beautiful imagery and astonishing circus feats. Some of the images literally left my mouth hanging open.

This little person was suspended from a bunch of balloons. She floated above the stage and then out over the audience - we passed her from person to person. It took my breath away.

We tried to catch the Canada Day fireworks, but they were happening on the other side of the peninsula and we didn't get there in time. We headed home to drink some British Colombian rose' on the balcony instead. A nice ending to a very busy first full day in Canada!

JV