Day 4: Vancouver to Seattle

Well, today we have to leave.  It's been a fun trip to Vancouver, but we have more places to go and see.  So we packed up our backpacks again.  They were already stuffed to the gills since we aren't planning on going back to Boston until next year anyway; now they seemed even more full.  

But we did have some time to kill.  Our Airbnb needed us out by noon, and our train wasn't until 5:35.*  And it did look like a lot of rain that day.  So what do any self-respecting tourists do?  Go to a museum, of course.

The Museum of Vancouver had a few fascinating exhibits, and a "History of Vancouver" section that taught us quite a bit about the city.

There was a temporary exhibit about old neon signs in the city, which is now dividing Molly and I.  I think there is such a thing as a well done, interesting neon si gn, and she is most strongly against them.  While we couldn't tell if it was permanent, or a temporary exhibit, there is a section about one of the First Nations settlements in what is now an industrial part of the city.  It was very well done, not only about the history of the area pre-western influence, but also about the efforts of the local native population to maintain their identity and history in the face of Western colonization, and was told almost entirely from their perspective and voice.  As such, it was more moving, and didn't seem quite as empty or wallpapering a history as one normally hears about the fate of Native Americans (which was even true at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian).

The last temporary exhibit was a strange amalgamation of architecture, design, and planning about the relatively new territory of Canada called Nunuvut.  The actual exhibit had no unifying voice, style or even cohesive plan, but did manage to highlight Nunuvut, and how remote, and unforgiving a landscape it is.  Nunuvut is the northeast part of what was the Northwest Territories of Canada, and reaches from the Northern Edge of Hudson Bay to almost the North Pole.  The average temperature in mid July is 3 degrees Centigrade.  In other words, it is a very very cold, empty, and desolate place.  The exhibit talked a bit about what it takes to even a small settlement there, and the possibilities of actually designing buildings for the area, as opposed to the re-purposing of more southern style buildings that currently exist.

Okay, lecture time over, sorry about that.  After the museum, we went for a walk.

Which is to say, the way to the train station from the museum was a weaving, beautiful pathway along the water.  Most roads and pathways in Vancouver seem to be beautiful and by the water, so we were no longer surprised when our route always seemed to have great views of boats:

and skyscrapers,

and interesting residential areas,

and mountains.  ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  It's almost as if Vancouver is just showing off now.  I get it, Vancouver.  You're awesome.   Your people are polite and friendly.  Everything is beautiful.  There is no trash on your streets.

Your skies and mountains are majestic and JUST RIGHT THERE.  I get it.  You don't have to keep rubbing it in my American face.

And then we went to the train station, passed through customs, and hopped an evening train to Seattle.  We'll see how Seattle and my infatuation with it stacks up against Vancouver.