Victoria to Vancouver: it takes a village

Vancouver is going to be fun, as my Chicago friends insisted. I'm glad they persuaded me to add this large city to my itinerary. I'm glad my Victoria friends, whose idea of fun matches mine in important ways, told me what to do here. I'm even glad Bob at the Port Angeles-Victoria Visitors Bureau found me this inexpensive Days Inn, even though it's a bit rough. My thanks to all of you.

After regretful farewells to my Victoria hosts I headed north on Highway 17 to Swartz Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula we biked yesterday - I spotted our turnaround point shortly before the ferry entrance. I was there at 9:40 for the 11:00 ferry to Tsawwassen, Vancouver's ferry landing, and then the ferry was 20 minutes late. Another large ship, this one with two vehicle decks that seemed to be pretty well loaded, and all kinds of shopping inside that I skipped. The distance was shorter than the crossing to Victoria but the time much longer because we had to slow down repeatedly for narrow passages like this one through the Active Pass (named for its swirling currents and winds) between two of BC's Gulf Islands, Galiano and Mayne. This is just a sample; I took about half of today's 124 photos on the ferry ride.

My Days Inn turns out to be about 8 km (5 miles) from downtown Vancouver, on a gritty commercial street called Kingsway that reminds me of DC's H St. NE corridor. Here the businesses for dozens of blocks are predominantly Vietnamese, with Chinese coming in second. My room is clean but cramped, and the back window looks out on a McDonald's parking lot.

Lunch was a duck, bamboo shoot, and noodle soup served with a huge, delicious salad of lettuce, mint leaves, and cilantro and a side of pickled sliced vegetables at Truong Thanh across the street (no website). Everything was very fresh, good, and cheap. I think I was the only non-Vietnamese customer.

Then I headed for Dawn and Konia's first recommendation: the seawall around Stanley Park, a six-mile circuit near the heart of downtown. This accounted for the other half of the photos: skylines, totem poles, seaplanes constantly taking off and landing, wildfowl, rugged coastlines, ships, the beautiful towering Lions Gate Bridge, etc. I'm giving you just three:

The mountains behind a residential suburb of Vancouver (my map's in the car and it's pouring out, so I can't identify either). This is for Jim.

A seaplane (not a model!) just leaving the water, because that's how Rachel used to get to Cortez Island north of here for adult summer camp. The boat on the left had just stopped to let the seaplane pass. The tent-like building in the background is the Vancouver Convention and Cruise Ship Centre.

A standing rock just off the north shore of Stanley, covered with grass on the west side you see and with stunted trees on top.

Dinner tonight was another success, recommended by the Asian-Canadian desk clerk at the motel: Green Lettuce just down the street, spicy Indian Chinese food. I never knew there was such a thing but I think I'll be back tomorrow night.

Tomorrow morning early I'm tackling Dawn and Konia's other recommendation. Stay tuned.