Travelog for: Pepita

Today I am visiting heritage houses on the Vancouver Heritage House Tour.  Here's a map of all of the houses on the tour this year:



Each house on the tour has a write-up in the booklet everyone is given.



Abby was not allowed to take photos inside of the houses, as they are all private residences, but I will show you the outside of the house and tell you a little about it.

This is the first house we went to, Number 4 on the map.



It was built in 1910 and has a twin house directly across the street that was built at the same time.  The area at the front on the second floor used to be a porch, but it was closed in sometime during the 1920s or 30s.  There is an infill house in the backyard that is nearly as pretty as the house itself.  The current owners have built a rather nice wine cellar in the basement.

The next house we went to was Number 1 on the map.



This house was built in 1905.  The front part of the house used to be a candy store called the Georgia Confectionary, hence the boxy shape with the large windows.  The current owner is Bill Richardson, who is a broadcaster on CBC Radio Two.  He encouraged everybody to write on his walls in the front room.

The next house we went to was Number 2 on the map.



This house is a designated heritage building.



It was built in 1903 and was a rental house to many people over the years.  One group was the family of a ship captain, James John Bartlett; when the current homeowners were renovating they found a postcard from him dated November 1914 and they now have it framed in their dining room.

Abby completely forgot to take photos me me at the next house, Number 3 on the map, so here is the photo from the program:



It is a yellow house built in 1908.  When the area (called Grandview) was first opened up for development, this would have been a rather working-class lot.  The current owners kept a lot of the original elements of the house, but opened the area up a lot more.

The next house was Number 8 on the map.



It was built in 1930 and the first owners were a dentist and his family; his practice was at the back of the house.  It was a rather grand house at the time it was built; only those of a high class would have been able to afford to live there.  The current owners kept the same basic layout of the house.

The last house we went to was Number 7 on the map.



It was built in 1912.  Most of the original documents regarding this house were destroyed, so not much is known about its early years.  The current owners were not around, but I noticed based on the pictures around the house that one of the owners is a former Olympian.

Abby's parents got to see the rest of the houses on the tour, but Abby and Erin had something else planned...

I went with Abby and Erin to their audition to be in the 2010 Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.  Abby was rather busy during the audition (they looked like they were working very hard), so she really couldn't get any pictures.

This is Abby's audition number.



While we were waiting for everyone to arrive (there were aobut 45 people at this particular tap dancing audition), we watched the opening ceremonies for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.



Afterwards Abby and Erin were very tired, so we cooled down at Starbucks.

Next, it was time for some sight-seeing downtown.

This is Victory Square, Vancouver's war memorial.  It used to be overrun with homeless people (being on the infamous Downtown East Side), but the area has cleaned up somewhat in recent years.



This is the Dominion Building.  When it was built it was the tallest building in Canada.  Apparently it is haunted by the architect, who died falling down the big spiral staircase in the centre of the building becore it was completed.  The building is trangular.



That tall building you can see in the background is the new Woodwards building.  Woodwards was a department store that went bankrupt in 1993.  It was vacant until it was purchased by Simon Fraser University a few years ago to become part of its Vancouver campus.  The building will be the new home of all of the fine arts programs, as well as a community centre for the Downtown East Side, student residences and low-income housing.  Part of the original facade was kept, and once construction is complete they will restore the old, neon Woodwards 'W' that sat atop the old building.



This is the Gastown Steamclock, the first clock of its kind to run solely on steam power.  It is a huge tourist attraction.  It chimes every quarter hour and releases a lot of steam in the process.  Unfortunately we just missed one of those moments, as it would have made a good photo.



This is not a great photo, but down the street you can see the district of Gastown, the oldest business district in Vancouver.



In the distance you can see Canada Place.  It has many large halls and is used for conventions and parties.  The sails are lit up at night.



This is Waterfront Station, which is the terminus station for many different modes of transportation.  The commuter train West Coast Express stops here, as well as the Skytrain, Seabus and many buses.



This is the Marine Building.  It is the best example of art deco architecture on the West Coast of North America.  The interior was used in the Fantastic Four movies.  It was built right at the beginning of the Depression, and because the contractors went bankrupt, the interiors were not completed as they were originally meant to be until recently.



Here is a close up of some of the detailing.

The power went out unexpectedly, so Abby decided to show me her family's gardens.







I met a bunch of these gnomes in the front garden.  This one said that Abby's mom named every single one of them 'Smedvik.'





We climbed the maple tree.



The Canadian and British Columbian flags.




This is where the family bees live.



I played in the grape vines.



These rhubarb leaves are huge!



They also grow lots of vegetables.  This is the lettuce garden.

Today is the public opening of the new Goldenears Bridge.  No cars yet, just people.





These eagles (at the top of the towers) are in a few different places on the bridge.



There was a show of vintage cars.



Look!  We cut the ribbon! (or, rather, a bumper sticker off a line of bumper stickers)



On the North stage was a group called Kutapira, who describe themselves as a percussion marimba band.



Some people from a local First Nations group were performing.



The bridge crosses the Fraser River.  This is the view down-river.  The, ahem, suicide guard was decigned to look like fish traps.





We had to get our picture taken with Mounties.



On the South stage was the Langley Ukulele Ensemble, who are a bunch of very talented youth if I do say so myself.



Along the length of the bridge were passport stations, where you could get your 'passport' stamped.  When you visited all six stations you could enter to win a prize.  All of ours are stamped!



I hope these cables hold...



This is the view up-river.



Back on the North stage, a group called Aché Brasil, who were performing Capoeira, a form of martial arts started by Afro-Brazilian slaves.



After this the crowds were too much and they had to stop letting people onto the bridge so that we could get off, so we decided to leave.

Today we went for a picnic at Belcarra Regional Park.



The view is lovely from here.











For our picnic Abby prepared tuna sandwiches, potato salad and lots of fruit.  Yum!



For dessert there was condensed milk candy, straight out of Russia.

Today I said goodbye to everyone.  I can't wait to spend some time at home!

Hi,

today I arrived back home to rest a bit before my next trip: Smaug told me that I will spent most of the summer visiting new hosts in Germany and that I have already an offer to visit Australia later in Autumn, I’m so excited  Here I found a “crowd” of TVs. While I was away Sully Monster arrived from Australia while Mr Bananas and Purple Haze came from England...and there is my friend sammino as always...of course we spent the whole night chatting 

Hi,

today another guest arrived we were expecting PinkyHH to appear anytime soon, so when Smaug appeared with an envelope from Malaysia  we got extremely excited: and it was her!


Of course she was very tired for the trip and a bit confused by the jet lag so we let her falling asleep very early...we’ll have plenty of time to chat tomorrow 

Hi,

today we went with Smaug to Medicine Hat, a town South-west of Calgary where he had to attend a meeting.  The place is 300km from Calgary so we had quite some time on the road to look at the prairies. Well, here are a couple of shots that will give you an idea of the landscape.



But you shouldn’t think that the view was the same for three hours, there were plenty of changes like hmmm, the odd herd of cows grazing on the side of the road, the side of the road were the odd herd of cows was grazing on and of course the colour of the cows in the odd herd of cows, so exciting 
You won’t be surprised that we spent most of the trip reading the newspaper and chatting.


We actually didn’t see much of Medicine Hat itself as Smaug was a bit busy so we only managed to get a picture with the biggest tepee in the world. It is actually a steel structure, much cooler if you are not too close to it


When we came back home I finished my packing, said goodbye to everybody and jumped in my envelope, ready to travel to my next host in Germany, wow . I’m so excited, can’t wait to arrive there

sammino and Paulina gave me such a sweet goodbye hug, I thought they were going to choke me 

Hey !

When I arrived today, BlackCat was just on the way to the driving school. Her boyfriend has his driving exam today, so he will hopefully get his driving license.

She took me with her in a bag. So I was able to see some things in the driving school. Made some photos there.


Here I am on a bike.




Here are some street signs. The first means, that the way is for walkers and bicycles. The second sign means, that bikes are not allowed to drive this way.




That's an old parkometer. You can't really find them in the city anymore. But the driving school has one !

So, that was my day with BlackCat. Her boyfriend got his license ! So the day was really cool.

Greetings,
Pepita

Sorry for not updating for so long. BlackCat has a lot stress at the moment, so she didn't went out and on the weekend we went out, but the camera didn't work ! Now the camera is fine again and we hope that we can go out this week for a lot photos. You will see them here, then !

Love,
Pepita

Text will follow later...

Hey,

today there was a big thunderstorm. But BlackCat and her boyfriend had to go shopping. So we went with them in the car. We made a lot photos from inside the car.














That's us at the coal mine Zollverein. An UNESCO world heritage site.







It was a nice, but rainy day.

Pepita