My last post about the day of scavenging in Vancouver didn’t do justice. Here is the schedule of the day that Sally and I organized for ourselves, scavenging around Vancouver, collecting points.
- All teams met with Bill and Pamela Chalmers at 9:00 a.m. where we received our books of scavenges —- the list of activities, each with a point value. For Vancouver only, just to get us acclimated, we can use our smart phones for maps and research. Sally and I sat in the hotel for a few minutes and planned our strategy. We walked out of the hotel at 10:00 and could scavenge until 8:00 p.m., when we had to meet in the hotel lobby.
- From our hotel, the Fairmont Vancouver on Georgia Street, we walked down to the waterfront and boarded the Seabus for about a 15 minute ride to Lonsdale Quay. At the ferry station, we changed onto a bus toward Grouse Mountain.
- We got off at the Capilano Suspension Bridge and walked across the shaky span over a deep chasm.
- We stopped in the coffee shop and asked three of the young women working there,”Who is the most famous Vancouverite”. They giggled a lot and settled on Seth Rogan.
- We caught the Grouse Mountain bus again and continued on to the base. At that point, it was raining hard. We bought tram tickets and boarded the aerial tram to the summit. On the way up, the rain changed to snow.(gorgeous by the way)
- We rented snowshoes in the rental shop, walked around for a few minutes, fell, and handed them back in.
- We descended by aerial tram and bus. At the Seabus terminal we stopped for ethnic food. We chose a Little Tokyo shop for miso and sushi with black rice.
- After the Seabus returned us to downtown Vancouver, we watched the Fly Over Canada movie, a Disneyesque large screen experience from a large chair that tilts and wiggles.
- We took a taxi to Wreck Beach, a remote beach near the campus of University of British Columbia. You have to descend a gazillion steps to get there. Worse yet, you have to climb back up. At the end of the day my step tracker repaired 35 flights of steps and 10 miles. The scavenge was to do as the locals do on this nudist beach. Sally volunteered! Even though a couple of people milled around on the beach, we found a cove where nobody could see us. In the misty rain, she posed for a picture with nothing but her scarf flying like a flag from her neck. I’m so impressed! And because Vancouver doesn’t count in the scoring, nobody else gets to see the photo.
- The taxi had waited for us on that isolated road and took us to the Museum of Anthropology.
- Next was the Botanical Gardens for two scavenges. The Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival offered lots of demonstrations, food and music to enjoy. Second was a hedge maze. It was not easy, but we got out in 7 minutes.
- We took a bus back to central Vancouver and found the world’s oldest steam powered clock.
- We found the $999 boots for sale
- At Chambar, we did a mandatory food scavenge, eating mussels and local beer.
- We stopped in a liquor store and compared prices on a product whose price we know at home (Gray Goose, thank you google)
- Sally composed the haiku
