Friday, December 8, 2017

Hello Sunshine, My Old Friend

Or so I thought while out walking Tuesday, under a gorgeous blue sky with the warm sunshine beaming down unimpeded by clouds. For me, it is a glorious sight seeing the snow capped mountains as I walk through downtown on both errands, and just plain sight seeing trips.
In the above photo I am in Gastown, near Waterfront Station, the main transit station downtown. From the station you can board all manner of transit including the Seabus that takes you across the water to the pictured North Shore. I've yet to do that but, of course I will at some point.

I've put some miles on these legs this week; this day I went from one side of the city to the other and then across it aways, stopping at Canada Place for another mountain view.
That bevy of ducks in the water! I only wish I could have gotten closer, alas, that was not to be. My next touristy thing was to go to the Hyatt Regency on Burrard Street to see their annual display of gingerbread houses. Crossing Dunsmiur, why, yes it is another film crew, this time for a show called Colony.
Passing the four buildings that make up the Bentall Center, I sure wish I'd seen this on my walk! Then again, it might have made me homesick and I try to avoid those feelings if at all possible. :)

 "Gingerbread Lane" was everything I could have hoped for and more. Oh my goodness, not only did it look fantastic, it smelled fantastic as well.
Some were made by bakeries, as above, while others were made by teenagers.
Every one of them are just wonderful, and I was not alone holding a camera up before the intricate creations.
According to a flyer I have, there is another fantastic hotel display on Burrard that I've yet to see, however, on that day, I was wearing out, so it was back home to rest.

Wednesday, Bruce decided to take a day off because he'd worked on Sunday, so while he was getting ready to take me to WalMart, I told him I'd be back soon---I've got to go photograph that fog hanging over the water by English Bay. I set off and baby it was cold outside! The sand....well, with the frost on it, doesn't it look like it could be the surface of the moon?
This dog didn't seem to mind the weather in the least! Baxter, on the other hand, is not much for the cold.
So, the frost came as a bit of a surprise, and what happened with this innocent looking fog, taken around 9:30 in the morning, came as a surprise as well.
I know it sounds ridiculous to get excited for a WalMart run, but I was, mostly because my pantry was getting bare, and buying a lot of groceries at once is my preferred method of shopping. Not to mention it is way less expensive. Before we shopped, though, we ate at Nando's, the delicious chicken place that I first fell in love with in London. Matt and Tom held their rehearsal dinner at Nando's so it will always hold special meaning for me. This location is way cuter than the one near us downtown.
We sat in the corner part of the booth, next to the pictured women who studied the menu as if it were a newspaper. Never having seen anyone take close to twenty minutes to go over a menu before, I became somewhat fascinated with them. Nor could I help but overhear the woman in the coat berate the server when they finally got their food. She called the portion size a "rip off" which I've also not heard in a while. Eventually she conceded that despite the price, it was delicious, and she at least got that right.

With the 75 purchased items stowed in the back of the car, we drove back into the city where it was still looking beautiful coming over the Granville Bridge.
Once it grew dark, however, things changed rapidly. From the balcony I noticed I could not see the Burrard bridge at all because of fog. As the night wore on, the fog kept coming towards us, and by the time we got up yesterday morning the condo was enveloped in fog. Once I was dressed in adequate clothing, I went down to the park to see what the building looked like from afar. No wonder I can't see a thing...
That is indeed our building behind the lit tree, and with us being up so high, I now had another perspective on the matter. Well, what photographer wants to stay home when there is a weather phenom? Not this one. Before walking to the bus stop, I repeated a shot that I showed in my last post. Should you have missed it, you can read it here.  Although it is not the same time of day, the difference is absolutely remarkable.
My destination was to the other side of Stanley Park, which although it isn't super far, taking the bus there allowed me to save my legs for walking around in the park. I wanted to see the giant trees enveloped in fog and I was not disappointed.
I took scads of photographs, but I've pared them way down so as not to bore you. Suffice it to say that it was a surreal experience because you could see absolutely nothing across the water. There were others out, including runners in shorts which boggles my mind as it was 34 degrees and damp, as you can well imagine.
Even though I had a map, I got lost with no landmarks to guide me. Normally you would see all of the North Shore across the pictured expanse of water, somewhat like you see in the photo earlier in the shot from Gastown.  At one point, I did see a group of super cool ducks , that I've yet to identify, eating green stuff. The only reason I could see them is they were somewhat close to shore.
Continuing along the seawall, a man saw the camera hanging around my neck and pointed out an EAGLE high on a structure beside the Vancouver Rowing club complex. Sadly, the fog was just so dense, the photos are worthless. Finally, or so it seemed, I walked back into the city proper where the fog, although still visible, was not so intense on the street level. That is until I returned home and this is the view from the windows, both yesterday afternoon and this morning.
Again, as mentioned, it is a complete white out! Even at night you cannot see any of the city lights, the fog is so thick, at least at this altitude. Apparently, the region is under a fog advisory that hopefully will be cleared sooner rather than later. We have experienced some extreme weather situations while here: from the summer wildfires filling the sky with smoke, to the rainiest November in decades, to now blanketed in fog. What next?

The adventure continues...

yours truly,

Gail

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