It’s been a heavy couple of days with the supreme court decisions. An anti-abortion vote after a pro-gun vote makes it seem like protection of life isn’t really the goal.

It seems like the goal is controlling women and enabling men, like the survival of children is irrelevant, like the justices want women to have babies but don’t want those babies to survive elementary school.

Before Hannah Gadsby’s show in Seattle a couple weekends ago, she came on stage to talk to the crowd while everyone found their seats. There was a delay because of malfunctioning metal detectors. “Metal detectors,” she quipped, “we don’t need those in Australia.” The crowd roared approval.

It’s true, the United States has shockingly high numbers of gun-related deaths compared to countries like Australia and Canada. And speaking of Canada …
Nene and I spent a weekend in Vancouver. I’d heard that Vancouver was awesome, had great food, and ranked high on livable-cities lists, but I had no idea.

I thought “livable” meant it was walkable and had pretty glass buildings (which it does). What it actually means is that the people are happy. They feel safe, they have healthcare, there’s good infrastructure, they can get a good education, and they have access to unpolluted green space (parks, mountains, beaches).

Vancouver felt different as soon as we got out of the car and started wandering around English Bay (above). Everyone was outside, sitting on benches or in the sand. They weren’t on their phones. They were talking to each other, they were cuddling and watching the sunset, they were walking, running, riding bikes. They were listening to their music (and no one was giving them side-eye), they were READING. Actual physical books.

And the people were diverse, like a cross-section of the world. I heard maybe a half-dozen languages before I caught a conversation in English. And no one was glaring at anyone else just for existing.

As we walked the beach Nene said, “This is what it’s like without fear.”
The English Bay Beach path goes into Stanley Park, which is 1,000 acres of mind-blowing beauty.
They even have nesting herons. I didn’t bring my digital SLR with telephoto lens on this trip, but this was a moment I wished I had. Each nest had two herons doing herons things in it–you could see them preening and periodically looking over the edge of their nests. The smell was remarkable.
This is Lost Lagoon.
One of the paths through Stanley Park goes along the edge of Lost Lagoon. There’s non-aggressive Canadian geese. (There were non-aggressive Canadian geese everywhere, actually, even at English Bay Beach like they were seagulls or something.)
We walked along the waterfront (it has a pedestrian path and a separate bike path that run beside each other) to downtown.
The Vancouver Rowing Club, formed in 1886.
This is Spray Park.
Initially we couldn’t remember the term “seaplane,” so we were saying, “there’s a plane that can land on water!” You can rent these and take tours!
Gastown. If Disney decorated a neighborhood in real life I think it would look a lot like Gastown. Lights in trees, globe-style street lamps, lush planters and hanging baskets, cute cafes, and lots of brick.

Gastown is where Vancouver started, and it’s named for Jack Deighton, the area’s first saloon owner (the saloon opened in 1867). Since he was a compulsive talker, he got the nickname “Gassy,” so the area became “Gassy’s town,” then Gastown.
The Gastown steam clock! Claiming to be the world’s first steam-powered clock, this more-than-two-ton timepiece was built over a steam vent in 1977. The clock chimes every 15 minutes and blows steam every hour.
Hudson House Trading Company is a souvenir store, and a total tourist trap, but it is effective! They had so many cool-looking displays!
At some point Nene and I started saying, “of course in Vancouver,” to the better-than-average things we saw. The people are happy. Of course. The geese aren’t aggressive. Gastown is adorable. Stanley Park is 1,000 acres. The waterfront is amazing. Of course, of course. They put Christmas lights in their sidewalk construction tunnels (and the tunnels don’t smell like urine). Of course in Vancouver.

(We finally saw some graffiti and were able to take comfort in the fact that there’s SOMETHING that wasn’t perfect.)
On our way out of town we stopped at Tim Hortons.
They currently have a collaboration with Justin Beiber called Timbiebs that includes special coffee, donuts, and merch. (We got other food, too, but that gets its own blog post later!)
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