Granville Island

This post is out of order, but what-ev-ver. On Friday I went to Granville Island, which is basically a neighbourhood mini-island under a bridge in downtown Van. Boys would hate it there, except for the brewery. Girls would love it. I know because I'm a girl. I wish I'd had other girls there to enjoy it with, but I went alone. Basically, it's kind of St. Andrew's-esque: pretty tourist-trappy but colourful and fun and near water. There's a fantastic market there. If I didn't know I was leaving in a couple of days, I would have gone bananas purchasing craploads of fresh fruit, veggies, homemade pasta and baked goods. There were buskers everywhere, lots of arsty-craftsy stuff and a whole market devoted entirely to kids stuff. That place was ridick. Very screamy and sticky and cotton-candy-y. I only took three pictures on Granville Island, but I think they're pretty good ones. Check it, y'all!




Busker-Man playing some bluesy slide-guitar stuff in the Market









Ginormous plushies of the 2010 Olympic mascots. The black and white one is Miga (the whale-bear), the fox-looking guy with the green hat and wings is Sumi (the spirit bird or some such thing) and the big furry guy in the middle is Quatchi (yep, Sasquatch. As in, he's feeling a little Sas-Quatchi). The little beaver guy with the hat is Muk Muk, but as far as I can tell, he's only a quasi-mascot. You wouldn't believe how reasonable the prices for these guys are. Quatchi only costs your left leg and your first born child.

Yes. Yes I have.

Exciting Adventure Day

Today I travelled all the way from New West to Galiano Island and back without getting lost even once. Considering the genetically bad sense of direction in my family, I think that's pretty darn good. The most exciting thing about today was that I got to meet my West-Coast Grandma (my dad's mom), whom I have never met before. She's awesome! She's totally got some wicked bad-itude. And she and I have extremely similar interests. Like, creepily similar, considering I've never met her or even talked to her before. Jane Austen, military history, the blues and a dislike for jazz are just a few of the things we have in common. Once I got to Galiano, I figured I could get some sort of shuttle or taxi to her house. However, it turns out that such things are scarce on an island with a population of less than 1000. I asked a lady who was getting into her car if she could drive me towards Montague Harbour, a place where I knew I could rent a moped. She was more than happy to take me as far as she was going. Or, she would have been, if I hadn't told her why I was there. When I said I was going to meet my Grandma for the first time, she asked me what her name was. When I told her, she said, "Oh my goodness, I know Jane, she lives right around here, I'll take you to her place!" And that is exactly what she did. All I know about this lady is that her name is Deb, so I'd like to shout-out a Thank You to Galiano Deb for helping me find my grandma. It turns out that Grandma is a wicked cook too - we had ridiculous good ratatouille with shirmp pastries. I had to catch a ferry back to Tsawwassen (good luck pronouncing that - here's a hint: One S, one A and one W are all silent!) around 9:30. Grandma can't drive, so she asked her friend Jean to take me down to the ferry. Jean did so with great cheer. She seems like a very friendly lady. So I'd like to give another shout-out to Galiano Jean - thanks Jean! I've gotta say, the people who live on that island seem like a good sort. I wish that I had had more time to explore Galiano, but I've got places to do, people to go and things to see. But I guess the long and short of this story is that I finally met my grandma today and she seems pretty remarkable. Holla, West-Coast Grandma!

Heck, while I'm at it, Holla East-Coast Grandma too!



A ferry that I wasn't on

Part of the deck of the ferry that I was on with another ferry I wasn't on in the background




Me an' West-Coast Grandma!!!! (This picture makes me look like I've grown a lot in every direction. Please cut me some slack by disregarding what your eyes tell you here. Grandma's really cute, though!)

In Other News...

So that Japa Dog? It was delicious at the time. But it turns out I wasn't quite man enough to handle it. In fact, it almost killed me.

Almost.

But now I'm back.



And I'm angry.

Photos

Well, I suppose I'll be heading back to SJNB soon. But there's always time for another post. Here are some photos of myself and some of my friends having fun around Vancouver:


ANTHONY BOURDAIN ATE AT JAPADOG! I ATE AT JAPADOG! I ATE AT THE SAME PLACE AS TONY BOURDAIN! WINNER! (Oh, and Steven Segal too.)

About 1/2 of my personal narrative class at 57 Below on our last night of class

Albert and Rebecca karaokeing

Helen and Albert rock the mike like vandals

MY JAPADOG!!!

JULIA'S JAPADOG!!!

Julia, Mickie and 3/4 of Nikki - Fiction Girls!

OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN CLOCK! THEY'RE SO SOON! I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!

Josh and Alea (and unborn fetus) in front of whatever stadium it is where the Canucks play

I've Lost Track of the Days and Am too Lazy to Count - Joel Plaskett Concert!!!!

Joel Plaskett. Surrey Fusion Fest. July 18. I got video of "Work Out Fine" and "Sailor's Eyes" but the quality sucks so I probably won't post them. It's a shame because the actual performance was so phenomenal. And funny. This guy knows how to put on a show. I could go on forever about this show, but it's late and I'd just be saying stuff that everyone already knows. So I'll just leave it at this: Joel Plaskett - Yes.

Here are some of the photos that actually turned out. Kind of.:

Day 46 - The Never-Ending Stamp Story (Part III)

Part 3 of 3

The saga finally ends!

Day 46 - The Never-Ending Stamp Story (Part II)

Part 2 of 3