My Glorious Day

I had the most glorious day today in Vancouver. Here's a snapshot and some snapshots... After dropping off my friend Kelly's car for servicing in North Van, I jumped off the bus at Denman and stopped for coffee.
After picking up mail at Denman Place Mall and making a trip to my friendly neighborhood bank machine - and stopping in to give a hi and hug to my wonderful travel agent Nat - I wandered up to English Bay. And the tulips were glorious!!! Look closely, do you see that snippet of red in amongst the yellow?

I got a little closer, and this is what I saw. There were exactly one and a half petals that were red on this flower. Look at how cleanly the line is between the two sides of the half and half petal! Didn't know they grew like that! I love it.... A rebel tulip. My kind of tulip!

More glorious tulips with a glorious backdrop - and my feet, of course....

OK, every spring, for one day, the beach looks like this. And I happened to be by to see it. It's such a weird sight! All the logs lined up perfectly and the sand freshly groomed. It's rather ugly and unnatural.... yet it's oddly interesting - and exciting, as it means spring really is here! One interesting thing I learned in recent years is that all the logs on our beaches are a very West Coast thing... many places in the world there are no logs on the beach - and when people come here and see them for the first time, they are really startled.

My feet. The sand. How orderly.

This is the groomer guy working while the supervisor looks on. heh.

Wide view of orderly sand. More feet. Sweet whitecaps. I like the beach later in the year, of course, when the sand is messy and the logs are moved all around by industrious beach-goers determined to get the right log in the right spot.

Love this shot!

After a quick stop at home, off to Kits to have lunch with my long time friends, and often colleagues, Debra and Marilu. We had such a great lunch and it was great to reconnect.

On my way back on the bus, as I went along Cornwall, I couldn't help but jump off again. What? Am I kangaroo? (and that makes me think of my friend Sap, who is Australian, lives in London, who I met in Spain, who does an awesome imitation of a roo ;-)!!... Anyways, I made my way down to Kits Beach and strolled for awhile. The purple of these shells was so brilliant!

Yes, there was skin visible. And a guy with his head hidden in his jacket. As yet ungroomed sand and logs. How Vancouver. I did not take pics of the folks smoking pot however. heh. How Vancouver.

This sailboat had blown up onto the beach at about 11:30 this morning. When I came upon it, I thought that it was one of those boats from 2 weeks ago (more here), but ended up chatting with this gentleman who witnessed the "landing". I think he needed to tell his story. He'd phoned 911 as he could see the sailor in the water trying to prevent his boat from beaching and he was worried he was going to get his skull knocked in. Apparently, no help unless the injury happened. That includes the Coast Guard whose jurisdiction ends at the sand. Anyways.... he seemed disappointed to learn I wasn't a reporter. Huh? Did I look like a reporter? I was carrying a sketchbook and taking pics, but, frankly, I looked pretty non-reportery, but...

This is the boat that is still there, the guy has been digging it out by hand for two weeks and tries to float it at high tide every day. I heard him on the radio two or three days ago saying he thought he'd get it afloat that night. I guess not.

I was sitting on a log watching the gathering of watchers (good spot to see men! ;-) when I got the call that the car was ready. So headed back to the bus..... Snuck sneaker pics (more here).

My day wrapped up with another trip to the North Shore to pick up the car (favour for the friend who did my mail and banking while I was in Europe for 7 months), then dropped it off, then home for a bit, then out for coffee this evening to reconnect with my friend Sean.

I have days where I don't see a soul - except on the street - so this was a luxury of interaction. And a luxury of truly glorious Vancouver sun and wind and waves and blue sky and sand in my shoes. A nice Vancouver day.