Coal Harbour, Vancouver, BC

Looking East-ish out over Coal Harbour from Stanley Park.

Vancouver is a highly walkable city. There is a public walk along the water around almost the entire downtown peninsula including Stanley Park.

This view is looking West toward Coal Harbour and Stanley Park from Canada Place. Canada Place was closed-blocked off from the public because of the Olympic games.

Moving west along the Burrard Inlet shore of the city toward Coal Harbour.

Eric and the Marina at Coal Harbour.

One of the many water features outside the buildings in Vancouver.

Nice place to live, eh?

Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC

More pictures of my first morning in Vancouver, BC. My coffee in-hand, I strolled up the False Creek/English Bay Beach toward Stanley Park at approximately 7:30ish A.M. There's a public walk all the way around the downtown/Stanley Park/Coal Harbour Peninsula including a couple of beaches and a public pool.

The infamous Seawall was built almost completely around the peninsula completely accessable to the public for walking, jogging, biking, blading, etc.

I had an absolutely amazing first morning. I began my walk along English Bay at, I believe, Thurlow St., and continued my journey to complete about a quarter of the Seawall along Stanley Park.

I then cut up a flight of stone steps and cut diagonally back to the Lost Lagoon along two of the paths in the urban Forest known as Stanley Park. I couldn't get a decent picture, but just about at the spot of the picture above, there were two Bald Eagles in a dead tree above me.

On the way to Lost Lagoon and then down Georgia St. back to the Fairmont to meet up with Eric-post his business meeting. We visited another part of Stanley Park together later in the week.

English Bay, Vancouver, BC

7:30 A.M., English Bay, Vancouver, BC

I exchanged perhaps thirty "Good Mornings" in absolutely no time. As a cynical New York born it became almost too much...the smile on my face, I mean. Those out and about (say it like a Canadian, you know you want to!) doing their morning exercise were exceptionally friendly. It was a great first morning in Vancouver!

Couldn't help but love the full grown tree planted atop this building. The architecture in Vancouver is extremely diverse.

Architectural, artistic and natural beauty are everywhere!

The edge of Stanley Park.

Vancouver, BC

Coal Harbour and Downtown Vancouver

Vancouver Holiday!

Eric and I are off to Vancouver for a five day, mid-January holiday! Woo Hoo!

How Could I Not Post This?

Philip, on Marriage Equality and what the U.S.A. stands for...



Don't you just want to jump through the screen, shake his hand and thank him?

Click HERE for an Monsters and Critics article on Philip.

Holiday Cheer!

Something amusing I found on the Wiki regarding Santa Claus and the mail he receives via the Canadian Postal Service. Anyone else think it's awesome?

Santa Claus

In 1974, staff at Canada Post's Montreal office were noticing a considerable amount of letters addressed to Santa Claus coming into the postal system, and those letters were being treated as undeliverable. Since those employees did not want the writers, mostly young children, to be disappointed at the lack of response, they started answering the letters themselves. The amount of mail sent to Santa Claus increased every Christmas, up to the point that Canada Post decided to start an official Santa Claus letter-response program in 1983. Approximately one million letters come in to Santa Claus each Christmas, including from outside of Canada, and all of them are answered, in the same languages in which they are written. Canada Post introduced a special address for mail to Santa Claus, complete with its own postal code:

SANTA CLAUS

NORTH POLE H0H 0H0

CANADA

In French, Santa's name translates as "Father Christmas", addressed as:

PÈRE NOËL

PÔLE NORD H0H 0H0

CANADA

H0H 0H0 was chosen for this special seasonal use as it reads as "Ho ho ho".

As the H0- prefix would normally signify a rural area in Montreal, this portion of the postal code allocation is otherwise relatively empty. H0M, assigned to the Akwesane
Indian reserve, is the only other H0- postal code in active use.