On a Sea Bus

We did not miss the free ride on a Sea Bus to North Vancouver after we had arrived at Waterfront Station. It was a bonus to us all.

The Sea Bus carried solely passengers (mainly arrived by Sky Train) across Vancouver Harbour to North Vancouver and their return.

The side board showed that the ferry had operated for over 30 years (since 1977). It was so designed that the wide window at the front and back of the ferry provided the passengers a panoramic view of the two shores of Vancouver and North Vancouver. We were so lucky to be the first lot of people sitting at the front, so by raising my camera, I could easily take as many photos as I wished.











Lying on the opposite shore of North Vancouver were several dockyards and storage godowns. On the mountain slopes in the north laid a large number of private luxurious houses. The area around the pier the ferry was heading was well-developed with tall buildings and busy with people shopping, eating and strolling. Outside the pier was a bus terminus where I could see a bus to Lynn Valley.












Next to the pier was a big market called Lonsdale Quay Market. This market was tidier and less crowded than Granville Island Public Market. There were florist’s shops, fruit and meat stalls, fast food and fashion shops.











We took lunch there. Then we walked around the pier and took some photos before we stepped into another Sea Bus back to the opposite shore.

Mini pumpkin

Usually the pumpkins for sale at markets are usually very big.

This time when Abby carried home a baby pumpkin, slightly bigger than an orange, I felt a bit surprised. It might be that these mini pumpkins were specially cut for these small children of three years old.

Please compare the sizes of the plastic pumpkin ring with the orange-sized real pumpkin.

Our First Ride on Sky Train

There are three lines in the Transit system in Vancouver at present, the Expo Line (ever since 1985), the Millennium Line (ever since 2002) and the new Canada Line (2009).











It was Saturday, October 10th that we took a Sky Train on the new Canada Line (North-South bound) from Richmond to Waterfront in Vancouver.

We first drove to and parked our car at Lansdowne Station, the second last station to the southernmost terminus, Brighthouse Station, at Richmond.











The station we saw was a modern one, mainly made of glass, metal and concrete. Passengers could reach the platforms by elevators or lifts. What I could see were two ticket-vending machines in a small hall. Paper money could be inserted and changes would run out. I learned from Philip that on Saturdays and Sundays, the fare for each adult passenger was just C$2.5 for any single journey no matter how far the train went. This was really a good promotion to the flow of people from Waterfront, Downtown, through Vancouver to Richmond during holidays.










When I stepped into the train, I found no driver. To my amazement, it was automatically driven. The two-carriage train moved smoothly, first on elevated rails at Richmond, then across the SkyBridge over the Fraser River. Once it reached the shore of Vancouver, it ran underground into tunnels of different shapes, rectangular or circular. I was deeply impressed by the performance of the train. It ran fast except before turning and stopped accurately at stations.

There were sixteen stations in all. The final one was Waterfront. Philip told me that the ticket fare included the free ride on a ferry to North Vancouver.

A Pumpkin Ring and ........

Abby bought home a plastic pumpkin ring from school one day last week. It was a little gift to each of the students at school.

She wore it at her index finger on her right hand when I took this photo. In her left hand she was holding an orange object. It was another gift, but this time she got it during her visit to a Nature Park at Richmond.







What was she holding in her left hand?
A/An (a) pumpkin (b) orange (c) mango (d) grape fruit (e) tangerine

Taking Breakfast on Sydney Harbour Bridge

It might be once in a life-time an occasion that made some of the Australians happy on the Sunday morning of October 24th, 2009 because they could take breakfast on Sydney Harbour Bridge (see top photo).

What they could do was to sit or lie on the turf laid earlier (bottom photo) touched by light sea breezes, soaking in the sunshine, sipping coffee or tea, eating sandwiches and cakes and, most important of all, chatting with one another.

Can we do this on our Tsing Ma Bridge on a Sunday too?

Meat Flower

What is the meat flower made of?
A. octopus
B. fish
C. jelly fish
D. prawn
E. crab




What is the stuff in the centre of the flower?
P. sweet vinegar
Q. soya sauce
R. sesame oil
S. tea
T. black bean curd

Chinese Barbecued Pork and Chicken Rice

On a Sunday two week after our arrival at Vancouver, we had lunch at Aberdeen, a name very familiar to me.

Aberdeen is actually a very popular mall operated by Chinese businessmen in Richmond. There are great varieties of shops including a food court at its top floor.

What we wanted to taste that afternoon were the Chinese rice with meat that we often ate in Hong Kong. It was rare to find these kinds of food in Vancouver.










The shop was on the ground floor at one end of the car park. It sold meat such as chicken, roasted duck, barbecued pork with rice.

Since the shop was quite small and full of people, our family of six had to wait for a while before a waitress arranged the seats for us.










We ordered our favourite meat rice which I considered had reached Hong Kong delicious level. The meat was tender and the taste was very good indeed. We were all satisfied with the lunch here. The bill came to C$24.5 which was about 180 to 190 Hong Kong dollars.

I believe we shall go there again in the near future.

Trees in Vancouver in Autumn

Roughly speaking, most streets in Vancouver are lying vertical to one another.

















In Autumn leaves of trees gradually change colours. Turning the corner of a street into another, one will find a completely different view of colours of trees.

Here I bring out some trees of different shapes and colours. Let us take a look at the beauty of these trees.

Autumn leaves

Most green leaves of trees in Autumn Canada turn to yellow or red or brown before they shed and drop to the ground. A gust of winds and showers of rain may speed up the process of shedding. It is really interesting to see the leaves drifting down. One may follow the path of a falling leaf until it reaches the ground.

The change of colours in the streets of Victoria is conspicuous. The top photo shows a tree which changes its clothes slowly.

At the moment I took this photo in a side street of Victoria. There were patches of green, yellow and red all fused together. The bottom photo shows the ground paved with beautiful fallen leaves.

Bed & Breakfast Inn

It was a wonderful experience to stay in for two nights at a B & B inn called Fisher House at Victoria. It was a hundred-year-old house operated by a married couple, located in a quiet street near the city. A staircase led us to the Main door. From there, it took us about fifteen to twenty minutes to reach the main streets.

The house had three storeys. The lowest one was the basement where the landlords lived. The middle one contained a sitting room, a dining room, then a living room and the kitchen. There were four bedrooms on the top storey, two smaller ones and two bigger ones. One of the big rooms is a suite with a bathroom and a toilet inside. There are extra bathrooms and toilets. We lived in the two bigger bedrooms inside each was a King-sized bed, big enough to accommodate three people at a time. The bed covers and sheets were beautiful. The beds were quite high. We had to climb on them before we went to bed. The curtains were beautiful too. The scenery outside was more attractive because the trees had begun to turn colours.










For the two mornings we were there, the lady landlord prepared two breakfasts for us. On each plate were three blueberry pancakes, fruits of cut banana, strawberries, raspberries, and a sausage in the first breakfast. Orange juice and coffee or tea were also served. The second one contained a piece of bacon, a quiche with rich cheese on top, fruits and drinks as before. Abby had different kinds of food such as yogurt, bacon and pancakes on the first day; yogurt, egg and ham on the second. Probably these breakfasts were the richest of all in my travels.










There is one thing I want to point out here about this old house. We had to walk lightly along the corridors and inside the bathroom because we felt that they were the thinnest and weakest parts of the house. Creaking sounds of footsteps could be heard easily. Abby’s stamping feet always created loud sounds at the corridor. We had to remind her all the time to walk lightly on the floor, otherwise the lady landlord might come up to quieten her.

Seaplane

A new visitor to Victoria like me never knows that the strip of water at its inner harbour is the airport for seaplanes.

It was the first time in my life (on October 15th) I saw a seaplane taking off from the sea. At about five o’clock, we were walking along Belleville Street. The throbbing sound of an engine attracted my attention . I crossed the road to the waterfront to track the sound so that I could locate where the seaplane was. It would be best for me to take a photo of one such seaplane home.

It was by luck that the plane was heading towards my direction and still sailing on the water surface. I believed that it had to reach the farthest point in the harbour to allow the waterway long enough for it to take off.

There are two seaplane companies in operations at the moment–
(1) West Coast Air and (2) Harbour Air.

The one in the photo was a West Coast Air seaplane which could carry 18 passengers to and from Vancouver each flight.

Victoria (3) – Coat of Arms

The Coat of Arms of British Columbia was officially unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1987. The crowned lion standing on the imperial crown incorporates Her Majesty’s Royal Crest.

British Columbia is the only sovereign jurisdiction to be granted use of the Royal Crest. To differentiate British Columbia’s Royal Crest from the original, it has been changed to include the crown lion wearing a collar of dogwood flowers.

Below the crown is a helmet – the heraldic symbol of sovereignty – that represents British Columbia’s provincial sovereignty in Canadian system.

The red and white mantling displays Canada’s official colours, which represents the British and the French.

The Union Jack flag with the centre crown symbolizes Canada’s colonial origins. The setting sun indicates that British Columbia is the western-most province and next to the Pacific Ocean which is represented by the blue stripes. The white stripes represent the snow on the Rocky Mountains.

On the left side, the elk represents the former Colony of Vancouver Island. The big horned mountain sheep on the right represents the former Colony of British Columbia.

The Latin motto at the bottom – “splendor sine occasu” – means “splendour without Diminishment” or “Beautiful British Columbia” .

Entwining the motto is another dogwood garland.

Victoria (2) – Inside Parliament House

Our speedy legs carried us to the Parliament House at Victoria because heavy rain started to pour down. It was the first wet experience at the capital of British Columbia. Not far from the door was a souvenir counter.

On the wall was a machine which would eject hand-cleansing liquid automatically when hands were placed near. Although Abby was short, she asked me to lift her up to the machine to get some of the liquid foam to rub on her little hands.

Abby was free to stroll about the halls. We had to keep an eye on her so that she would not get lost or break anything.















During our stay inside the Parliament House, a guided tour of about twenty tourists arrived. The guide was a young man, bald to some extent, introducing the history of the Parliament House and its exhibits. We stood among the tourists to listen to some of his descriptions of the Coat of Arms, symbols on stained glasses and processes in a Parliament House meeting. Abby was bold enough to stand beside the guide and, at one time, shook hands with him and introduced her name to this gentleman.

Knowing that we were leaving with two infants and a pram, the kind lady at the souvenir counter offered her help of taking us down the ground floor in a special lift.

That was a courtesy ride of a lift in the Parliament House of British Columbia. Our family was treated as VIPs. What a wonderful experience we had had!

Blindfold Elly?

No, I should rather say, pinkfolded Elly.

Today, Connie dressed Elly in a pink overcoat with a hood. It might be that the hood was too big for Elly, it covered her eyes, so she could not see anything when she was placed at her car-seat. There she was looking at a pink curtain before her. She did not protest at all. Perhaps she enjoyed the great fun of being pinkfolded.