October 17, 2001

Greetings from Vancouver, BC!

We arrived here Friday evening just after sundown, to wait in long customs lines, but without incident. We’d flown from SFO in the company of Pat Clausen, another UCSF employee with whom Sue works. According to the suggested pattern, we’d arrived at SFO the requisite two hours before departure. We’d then cleared security, and waited at the gate for 45 minutes before boarding. The flight was smooth and simple; and unlike our September trip east, the plane (Air Canada) was mostly full.

A young Canadian citizen seated next to us, a man who travels frequently, complained about the “cattle-car” feeling of this flight. “It’s the old Canadian Airlines,” he said. “They’ve been taken over by Air Canada, but haven’t learned their customer service yet.”

At any rate, our flight was perfect, I thought.

Memorable site seeing and visiting.

On Saturday, Sue and I split our time between walking in the city’s commercial center – great if shopping’s your thing – and touring the internationally famous Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. (You can visit them on-line at http://www.moa.ubc.ca). This, Canada’s largest teaching museum, located within the traditional territory of the Musqueam First Nation, exhibits and teaches about the First Nations of what is now BC.

We arrived in time for an afternoon tour, in which we were shown and told about totems – outside the house for identification; inside the house representing the families’ clans while supporting the main roof beam, or supporting the lintel at the entry; and memorial and mortuary poles, wherein the (usually chief or leader) person’s remains were interred. We also learned about bentwood (storage) boxes, huge carved wooden “dishes” used at potlatches, and the transformation of art forms from historic wood carving into carving of silver and gold jewelry. Sue loved this new style totem, where hands, fists and arms stick out from the pole!

We saw examples of how the Musqueam people have recaptured a once-lost art of weaving here.

Finally, we saw a wonderful sculpture in wood representing one of the stories of the origin of mankind. This, called the Raven and the First Men, tells the story of raven who found tiny men living within a partially opened clamshell. Raven invited them to come out and live in the land; and the individuals are shown in various states of dealing with their first encounter with the world. The sculptor has depicted the kinds of reactions any of us can have to major change in our worlds. One has scrambled right back into the shell, while a second is in total chaos. His world has turned up side down. Others are staring out pensively, leaping out with glee, or withdrawing into the interior.

On the way out, Ric met a bear.

Sunday started Sue’s working time with a breakfast meeting for mentors and new members. Sue had been matched up with Dr. Marilet Sienaert, a South African woman who has taught French literature for 20 years, and who now works at the University of Cape Town, as the new Head of the Grants Section and Proposals Manager in the Department of Research Development (DRD). While they met, breakfasted, and worked, I went for a walk out to False Creek, about 10 or 12 blocks from the hotel, and west toward English Bay. I enjoyed a pleasant clear morning, after a rainy Saturday, with crisp temperatures, and autumn colors on the Maple and other leaves here. My 75 minute walk included standing at mid bridge, watching boats and bicyclists, and the beginning activities on Granville Island, a sort of “Fisherman’s Wharf” of Vancouver. My walk left me feeling exhilarated.

Our Sunday visits included the 1000 acre Stanley Park, the largest urban park in North America. Stanley Park includes the Vancouver Aquarium and Marine Science Center. We (Marilet, Sue, and I) rode the free shuttle there from our hotel. Once there, we purchased tickets for the horse-drawn carriage ride through the eastern third of the park. We saw the display of totems, the rugby and cricket fields, and various statues, including “Girl in a Wetsuit,” a not-quite-copy of the famous Little Mermaid in the harbor at Copenhagen.

Following that hour-long ride, we walked through an open-air art exhibit to the Aquarium. On the way, we passed the new demonstration project showing the salmon’s migration upstream to spawn.

Once inside the Aquarium, we were treated to all sorts of local (and distal) aquatic life forms, from sea urchins of the local waters, to piranhas, crocodiles, frogs and toads, crustaceans, cephalopods, fish and sharks from all over the world. If you’ve enjoyed the Baltimore Aquarium, you’ll LOVE this one too.

Vancouver Aquarium has been involved in a long-term project to track and differentiate pods of whales by recording and analyzing their voice patterns. In the same way that song birds have “local” calls and people have regional dialects, pods of whales have distinct calls, separable by frequency patterns. So scientists can regularly identify which groups of whales are recurring visitors to the near-by waters.

We returned to the Hyatt by about 3pm, with Marilet ready for a nap. She’d made the two-day trip from Cape Town via Johannesburg and Amsterdam – a total of 22 hours flying time, with an 11-hour layover in Amsterdam. When we saw her later, she’d refreshed some, but it would take another day or so for her to shake of the last off the jet lag.

Meantime, Sue and I attended to a few meeting-related details, and then went off to St. Andrews-Wesley church for a 4pm Jazz Vespers service. It turns out that their senior Pastor, Rev. Dr. Gord Turner, began adult life as a jazz trombonist. So he’s brought his love for jazz into his preaching, and for 10 years has held these Sunday afternoon services. He says he regularly sees about 150 people at Jazz Vespers, and about 300 at the traditional morning service. (St. Andrews-Wesley was formed by the merger of a Presbyterian congregation with a Wesleyan congregation.)

Turner uses a straight-forward format: Opening; opening song (“Opus 1”); Psalm; Prayers; a song (“New York, New York”) to set the Theme; and then the other readings from the day’s Lectionary, each followed by a few words to put the reading in the context of today’s theme, and a song. Today’s songs included “Mack the Knife,” “That’ll be the Day,” “What a Wonderful World,” “As Time Goes By,” and “Unforgettable.” Music is provided by one of at least 18 bands, quartets, quintets, etc. A ‘love’ offering compensates the musicians. This day’s orchestra, a seven piece “big band” which has been playing in Vancouver for nearly half a century.

Monday and Tuesday, Sue worked all day. I read some each morning (Understanding Islam, by Thomas W. Lippman, Meridian. New York, 1982). After lunch each day, I walked to the relatively new Vancouver public library, the design of which astounded me. The library is housed in a round, mostly glass, seven-story building. Along one quarter of the library building’s circumference, and about 30 feet away, is a 30-40 foot deep curved building, also seven stories high. To enter the library, one enters the 30 (or so) foot wide space between the library and this other building, only to find oneself in a three-story high, glass enclosed walkway. One can enter either side of the building. This walkway serves as a “street” from which to enter the numerous coffee shops, bookstores and stationers, which populate those areas. Above the shops in the outer building are office spaces. Below the entire complex are retail spaces too.

Near the library, I found the Broadway Centre, a performing arts theatre. I saw this wonderful restaurant, at the top of an office building. I walked passed the RC Holy Rosary Church, and the Queen Elizabeth Performing Arts Center, and on through Gastown, an historic part of the city, where the old commercial buildings have been reclaimed as boutiques and antique stores. I soon arrived at Canada Place, the cruise ship terminal part of the roof of which has been constructed to resemble sailing ships.

I walked much of the downtown part of the city during the several days there, and I take away an impression of a clean and modern city, where pedestrians can cross safely at intersections. Vancouver is the largest, or 2^nd largest, port in North America, depending on whether you’re talking about import or export: New York is Vancouver’s opposite. And Vancouver’s a delightful place for the many people who shop the many shops, and find (I suppose) many bargains. I’ll remember the clean air, and the views of water in every direction – Coal Harbor, with Stanley Park in the distance; and the vast and busy Burrard Inlet.

Memorable Dining.

On Friday, we arrived and checked into the hotel by 8:30pm. As we often do, we ate in the hotel restaurant, Fish & Co. Our meals – Sue’s soup, and my salad, were pleasant, and service was OK. Prices were moderate to high.

We ate lunch Saturday at Zin’s, a casual place with bright colors and soft music playing. We enjoyed a salad, a fine Hummus garnished with marinated and finely chopped red onion, zucchini, and _____.

Saturday, upon our return from the museum, we dawdled over choices until we decided finally on a short walk to the Allegro Café (604-683-8485). Serving “northwestern” cuisine, Allegro offers some of the finest food and best presentation we’ve encountered in a long time. Prices are moderate, and servers were competent, friendly, informed and informative, and helpful.

We ate Sunday evening with Marilet Sienaert. Also joining us were Odile Orantes (a UCSF employee whom Sue is mentoring through a UCSF program) and her husband Eric. We all walked the few blocks to Bacchus (604- ), a very upscale restaurant

Marilet, Sue and I lunched at the Allegro Café, this time enjoying three different and wonderful soups: carrot and coriander; smoked salmon with cream cheese; and pheasant and lentel. Each of us thought his/her soup was the best.

Monday, Carol Tippery and Marilet joined us for dinner at Lucy Mae Brown (604-899-9199). While fine and upscale, food was better than acceptable but not top notch. Service was inexorably slow, and the noise level much too high for these old ears. We would not return here. On the way back to the hotels, we encountered John Schweri, the SRA person most involved in developing the international aspects of SRA. Marilet will work with John to understand how an SRA presence might be developed in South Africa.

Tuesday, Marilet, Sue and I ate very light suppers at an informal place, which I don’t remember and wouldn’t recommend. Except that we all enjoyed each other’s company!

Vancouver is definitely on our “do again” list!

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