Vancity visit

The hubs and I took our second trip to Vancouver this past July. We were there in December last year for the first time & loved it. The summer trip was all that plus warm weather and more day light. The best part of the visit was being able to spend a lot of time by the water. Our digs were near the harbour, so everyday included a stroll/jog/what-not past the marina & down into Stanley Park.

Fave apartment building in Vancouver, Stanley Park adjacent

Orderly queue for the bus

Vancouver seems to me to be the city, to a degree, that San Fran wishes it were. Or maybe SF doesn't want better public transport, exceptionally user-friendly bike lanes, and really excellent coffee shops? Living here, it's sometimes hard to tell. The one thing these two cities do have in common are extortionately high housing prices due to a proliferation of foreign investment. Like San Francisco, Vancouver is a great place to visit, but hardly affordable as a place to live.

Mr. Vancouver

At the mid-century modern shop on Commercial

The above mirror may not be really photo-worthy, but there's a story here. After the divorce of my parents in '78, my mother & I moved about a mile away from the family home into a dingy apartment. Mom decorated the apartment with hand-me-downs from friends & items found in second-hand shops & made it cosy as she could. The above mirror is exactly the same one we had in our little apartment. It hung in the kitchen, if I recall correctly. The only difference between the one in Vancouver and ours is the frame. Ours was wooden. Upon my moving out of the house in 1990, my mother gave me the mirror to decorate my own flat with. Sadly, in 2013, I inadvertently ruined the forest decal by cleaning the glass with a water-vinegar solution & wound up tossing the thing out. It was great to see 'my' mirror again, and so far away from home.