Captain Vancouver, Royal Navy


As mentioned in a previous post about Vancouver City Hall, here's a sketch of the statue of Captain George Vancouver. It stands outside the north entrance of the building, overlooking the city and the north shore mountains. The caption on the plaque reads like this:

"On June 12th, 1792, Captain George Vancouver, R.N., celebrated mariner and intrepid explorer, under authority of His Majesty King George III of England, sailed into Burrard's Inlet and landed men on the site of the present City of Port Moody.

"To the memory of that enterprising mariner whose geographical accomplishments are venerated to this day and whose proud name this city bears, this memorial tablet is erected on behalf of the citizens of the City of Vancouver, this 22nd day of June, 1962."

Lowell's Restaurant at the Pike Place Market, Seattle


We recently visited Seattle's Pike Place Market, and stopped for brunch at Lowell's, a restaurant that has been serving customers under various names for almost 100 years. With windows overlooking Elliot Bay, you can sit and watch the ferry traffic coming and going from the port below. The restaurant is steps away from the original Starbucks coffee shop, which opened in 1971 in the market.

Links:
Lowell's Restaurant and Bar, with photos
Pike Place Market
Starbucks: photo of the original store at Pike Place Market


Time for a parade

Many thousands of people attended the annual Santa Claus parade in downtown Vancouver. The parade featured more than fifty floats, lots of marching bands, and the man who is naturally at the centre of it all, jolly old St. Nicholas.

Sponsored by Rogers, the parade is also a major event for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. Volunteers collected donations throughout the route. Organizers said the public donated a total of about 4,000 kg of food and raised approximately $18,000 dollars at the event. This will bring a smile to many faces this Christmas season.

Reading the newspaper at the local coffee shop


Here's one of the pleasures of life: casually reading a newspaper in a comfortable chair at a coffee shop. When I saw this woman taking her time with her favourite pages, I must confess I pined for the pre-Internet days, when so many more of us followed the daily ritual of going through the paper. Now it feels like a bit of a luxury, often relegated to weekends and special occasions. Instead, we read electronic headlines, press our thumbs on tiny keyboards and gloss from topic to topic like flat stones skipping along the surface of the water.