November 11, 2019

Vital Vancouver

By roads-rus

It’s happening.  Vancouver, BC is becoming a world-class repeat destination like Paris.  it’s inexhaustible.  We went there last week worried that we wouldn’t  find enough to do since we’ve been there, like Riverdale and Arrow characters, so many times.  There was no need for worry.  As Ruth and I were leaving, we were already planning our next trip there.  Next time we’ll take the train.  It will be soon.  In the meantime we have fond memories of rediscovering the glories of UBC.

The University of British Columbia is becoming a travel destination all by itself with at least 8 attractions.  We went there twice this time to the same one, the UBC Botanical Garden that we had never been to before.  It was alive with multi-generational families, dressed for autumn, and as glorious as any New England scene.  We tromped all over it and were rewarded with blue poppies and an unusual medieval garden.  That white puffball was in it.  We had been to this university’s two most famous attractions, its Anthropology and Beaty Biodiversity Museums on previous trips.   We have taken guests, including Ruth’s traveling cousins, to both.  This time we learned about this botanical wonder, the only place on campus where visitors can park free for 3 hours, and we found the Belkin, a gallery that had an exhibit called “Spill” that didn’t interest us until we spent 2 hours looking at it.  The University of British Columbia has become home to Vancouver’s 2nd most important entertainment venue, the Chan Centre.  Its entertainment roster can only be compared to Phoenix’s #1 tourist attraction, MIM.

There are 3 attractions on this campus that we plan to see for the 1st time when we return.  the Audrain Art Centre, the Pacific Museum of Earth, and the Nitobe Memorial Garden.  Nitobe is said to be a Japanese stunner that’s just now beginning to be included in Vancouver’s best crowd-pleasers.  We planned to go there this time but it was opened on week days but seasonally closed on weekends.  There are 2 busses from downtown Vancouver to UBC, and parking  for visitors is available in many university garages all over campus.

One of those garages is close to the excellent Museum of Anthropology, Nitobe, Chan Centre, and the Belkin.  Ruth and I came out of the Belkin much later than we anticipated and, walking back to this garage, we unexpectedly came across the stunning view of the Strait of Georgia and another well-groomed garden below.  This scene was being enjoyed by many students and visitors like us.

Hank

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Monday, November 11th, 2019 at 10:16 pm and posted in Canada, Great City. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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