Wife - North of the Border

Saturday, July 12th

The rest of Sheila Marie's visit to Vancouver was just as much fun as that first day.

Wednesday, we took in a baseball game: the Vancouver Canadians versus the Everett Aquasox. Both teams play in the Northwest League. The Canadians are the single-A affiliate of the Oakland A's and the Aquasox are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners. What, you ask, are Aquasox?

Apparently, they're tree frogs!

You might remember that when Sheila Marie visited Seattle, we stopped in Everett, Washington and took a whole bunch of photos. (If not, you can read all about it here.) Being that the Aquasox hail from our name-shared town, you might think we would cheer for Everett; you would be wrong. We did as instructed by baseball's anthem and "root-root-root-root"-ed for the home team. We were fortunate to have done so - the Canadians schooled the Sox 7-4 on a perfect summer afternoon at Nat Bailey Stadium. (Named for Canadian restaurateur Nat Bailey - inventor of the car hop tray - the Stadium opened in 1951 and is a classic with it's curved wooden benches.)

While Milwaukee had it's racing sausages, Vancouver featured racing sushi!

JV and the Canadian's mascot: Bob Brown Bear

Tuesday night we met up with David and headed back out to Granville Island for dinner. We shared a great seafood meal at Sandbar. The restaurant is underneath the Granville Avenue Bridge with a view up False Creek and into English Bay.

David & SME

On Thursday, I finally had to go to work. (With the long drive up from Texas, the trucks didn't arrive until Wednesday.) Karl was kind enough to allow spouses to attend our traditional load-in lunch (Geoff Reynolds was also in town) so Sheila and I did get to see each other. The theatre here in Vancouver is a weird one, it opened in 1995 as the Ford Centre under Livent's stewardship. Since then, Livent has gone bankrupt (and it's two founders are currently on trial for misappropriating half a billion dollars) and the building was sold and changed its name to The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts. It's a modern building, but feels a little bit run-down. (A large banner on the side of the building advertises shows from the 2003-4 season...) The Centre is also a non-union house. Some of the local stagehands are quite knowledgeable and professional, some are not. Fortunately, the hands on our run crew are great. The load-in was eventful, but everything was in good shape by showtime.

The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts

By Friday, load-in was a distant memory as I had another uninterrupted afternoon to explore Vancouver with Sheila Marie. We headed out to the east end of the peninsula that makes up downtown Vancouver to explore Stanley Park. The park sits on 1,000 acres at the narrows that separate English Bay from the Burrard Inlet. It was dedicated in 1888 by Lord Stanley, the 16th Earl of Derby (yup, the same guy for whom the Stanley Cup is named) who was the Governor General of Canada - the representative of the British monarch. Much of the park is still covered in old growth forest of towering tress - many of which stood for a hundred years or more before the park was created.

Several totem poles stand in Stanley Park as a tribute to the indigenous people of the region. They are spectacular. The poles are accompanied by signage explaining their meaning and symbolism. It was really cool to look at each pole and have its story explained. They stand on the site of ancient habitation (a shell midden covering several acres was discovered there). The first poles were bought by the park in the 1920's and the collection grew through the city's Golden Jubilee Celebration in 1936. In the 1960's the original poles (some carved in the 1880's) were given to museums and replicas as well as new poles were commissioned.

JV & SME visit the Stanley Park Totem Poles

At the center of this photo, a man rides an orca!

We toured the outer perimeter of the park, including a stop at Brockton Point Lighthouse. We also stopped for lunch and a peak at the Vancouver Aquarium (the line was intense, so we took a pass). It is a beautiful city park, on par with Central Park. I'll have to make several more visits to see more of its amazing contents.

SME at the Brockton Point Lighthouse with the Lions Gate Bridge across the narrows in the distance

Sheila Marie made me a wonderful lasagna dinner between shows on Saturday (I'm still enjoying the last of that tray of lasagna) before she had to head back to the States. Her flight back to New York left early on Sunday morning from Seattle and too soon we were on opposite sides of the continent. It was really wonderful to have nearly a whole week together and to have so many days off together. It felt like a vacation to be arm in arm with her. Having spent the first week together, I miss her even more now that she's gone.

JV