Vancouver! Our final day in Vancouver and we wanted to make the best of it. We started off with a tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery. They have a Monet exhibit that we all really
Vancouver!
Our final day in Vancouver and we wanted to make the best of it. We started off with a tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
They have a Monet exhibit that we all really enjoyed. Max thought they were “crazy”, his favourite was of three people; a mom, dad and girl walking through a field with umbrella’s providing shade.
We also saw an Emily Carr exhibit. We all thought some of the forest paintings seemed dark and moody, whereas others had a brightly lit focal point (often a tree) that Max thought was confusing but I thought looked like a heavenly aura.
We saw some other art that is described by the gallery as “illuminating the shifting role and unexpected endurance of technologies, physical objects and bodies”. Max describes it as “weird, very weird and it was completely different then everything else. It was art. It was crazy.”
We left the gallery and saw a farmer’s market setting up which of course attracted Cathy- however- it was all marijuana booths; with large jars of different strands of pot, edibles, literature. Is pot legal in Vancouver?
We went back to Gastown for a great meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Mmmmmmm. A long-time friend of Chris’s joined us for a drink after lunch. They haven’t seen each other in 10 years so there was a lot of “remember the time” and inside jokes. For example, “the liver” followed by 5 minutes of laughter. Or “Steinhatchee” and another 5 minutes of laughter.
Not finished with shopping, Max and Cathy convinced Chris to go to Granville Island to complete the typical tourist in Vancouver circuit. Max found himself a boat in a bottle- the one souvenir he has really wanted.
We returned to our hotel to get a bit of rest before the big party tonight, which is Aunt Joyce’s 90th Birthday Celebration. We were a bit tipsy in our cab on the way home in the middle of the night when Max said “I would have thought a person’s 90th Birthday party would have been a little quieter but this one was all rock and roll all night.” A good description! There were friends and family from far and wide, a lot of yummy food and great music, much of which was live and provided by Joyce’s children and grandchildren. There were many great speeches acknowledging Aunt Joyce’s patience and love for her friends and family. George made a great speech, sharing some stories from when they first met. Joyce’s sister in-law Agnus lives in Holland and brought with her to the party a letter Joyce had written to her in the 50’s describing the wedding dress she was making for her self. Agnus still had the fabric sample Joyce had sent. It was really beautiful. Max also spontaneously decided to go to the microphone and share that he love’s Aunt Joyce because she always seems interested in the things he has to say and she is really caring. It was very sweet.
We had a great time and were sorry to have to leave. Happy Birthday Aunt Joyce!
Vancouver seemed like a city of great wealth and great poverty. We saw a lot of unbelievable cars (Cobra, Bugatti, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Maclarin etc). We also saw a lot of homeless people, long lines at soup kitchen and other signs of poverty.
We will be up tomorrow and heading to Golden, B.C.