Vancouver & Victoria, BC
a quick trip
We made a quick trip to Vancouver, BC and then over to Victoria in mid
August, 2002. On the way we stopped by the historical museum 
in Bellingham. The primary focus of the trip was to be the
final weekend of the Celebration of Light fireworks competition on English
Bay. This turned out to be a horrible and nearly disasterous experience.
Way too many people and not enough space. The news reports of
the next day indicated in excess of 350,000 people jammed a two mile section
of beach with 40 or more arrests. The crush of the crowd following
the event was just a little more than I was prepared for. It was an
experience I'll not repeat. We did manage to squeeze in a trip in a
water taxi 
with a nice view of the city. A quick trip to the Stanley Park
Aquarium allowed us to be among the first visitors to see the new baby beluga
whale 
. As of this writing, the baby still did not have a name. Check
the aquarium web site for more details. Vancouver, famous for its electric
busses, also has, as a result of those electric busses, one of the most
cluttered streetside images 
I can think of. I think we need to come up with a plan that
embraces both ecology and aesthetics.
Sunday morning we went over to Victoria on the ferry after waiting in
line 
for what seemed like forever. (Actually, we had reservations and
only waited a half hour.) You need those funny red and blue glasses
to get the full impact of this 3d image. Victoria is most famous for
its inner harbor bordered by Parliament and the Empress Hotel. We'll
get to that soon enough. At sunset from our 16th floor hotel balcony
I took a picture of a highrise apartment building 
and a couple of church 
steeples that I thought were rather 
picturesque. These were at quite some distance and I took them
with a 500mm telephoto lens. Evening along the waterfront is spectacular
as the water reflects the lights of the city. Here, the Empress
Hotel on the left frames the mast of a private yacht 
moored for the night. Because of its orientation, the only
opportunity to take a picture of the Parliament Buildings illuminated from
the front is to get up rather early in the morning. It's worth the
effort! 
There were almost no people anywhere to get in the way of my
picture taking, either! 
. We also visited Buchart Gardens, the Butterfly Gardens, and
the Centre of the Universe.
We left Victoria early in the morning and stopped by Hurricane Ridge National
Park on our way home. 
The really spectacular wildflower display is much earlier in
the season, but there were a few flowers still out.
with a nice view of the city. A quick trip to the Stanley Park
Aquarium allowed us to be among the first visitors to see the new baby beluga
whale 
I can think of. I think we need to come up with a plan that
embraces both ecology and aesthetics.
for what seemed like forever. (Actually, we had reservations and
only waited a half hour.) You need those funny red and blue glasses
to get the full impact of this 3d image. Victoria is most famous for
its inner harbor bordered by Parliament and the Empress Hotel. We'll
get to that soon enough. At sunset from our 16th floor hotel balcony
I took a picture of a highrise apartment building 
and a couple of church 
steeples that I thought were rather 
picturesque. These were at quite some distance and I took them
with a 500mm telephoto lens. Evening along the waterfront is spectacular
as the water reflects the lights of the city. Here, the Empress
Hotel on the left frames the mast of a private yacht 
moored for the night. Because of its orientation, the only
opportunity to take a picture of the Parliament Buildings illuminated from
the front is to get up rather early in the morning. It's worth the
effort! 
There were almost no people anywhere to get in the way of my
picture taking, either! 
. We also visited Buchart Gardens, the Butterfly Gardens, and
the Centre of the Universe. 
The really spectacular wildflower display is much earlier in
the season, but there were a few flowers still out.