Vancouver is the #1 most liveable city in the world, according to the latest ranking by The Economist.

More than 125 of the world's cities were ranked in 5 categories: Stability; Healthcare; Culture & Environment; Education; and Infrastructure.  But after what happened to me yesterday, I think another category should be added: Honesty.  And here's why...

Five days ago my life was interrupted by a new roommate going by the name of Strep Throat.  In almost every place I've lived, this roommate has barged in on my domestic solace… just seems to find me no matter where I am.  Last Wednesday I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Strep all over again.  Luckily, Strep had a shorter stay than usual so, with some regained energy, I went for a walk in the park yesterday.  Stanley Park to be exact.

For my walk I was blessed by the company of my Mom and my older brother.  We began at Prospect Point out of curiosity to see how the area hit hardest by a severe windstorm last December is faring with its cleanup and rejuvenation. 

Here's a photo of the land right in front of the Prospect Point Café (which you can faintly see in the background).  The area used to be densely forested with very old cedar and Douglas fir trees.  But now?  Kinda looks like a clear cut…

By the way, the fast food stand at Prospect Point charges 9 bucks for a burger, fries and drink combo.  9 bucks?!  Ain't nothing liveable about that. 
I'd rather sit through an entire viewing of High School Musical.  Or starve.  Whichever is less harmful to my health.

We walked on the trails south of Prospect Point.  Along the way, there were a lot of camera-phone moments as the extreme changes in Stanley Park were shocking.  Ancient, towering rain forest one minute.  Stump-filled graveyard the next. 

Like a true boob, I kept my camera-phone in the same pocket as a $20 bill.  This arrangement of pocket contents ensured each time I stuck my hand in there to grab my phone for a picture, I compromised that pocket as the #1 most liveable place for my $20 bill.  Each time I removed the phone from my pocket, I almost also removed that money from my pocket.

After an hour or so in the forest, I realized that my 20 bucks was gone.  No longer in my pocket, somewhere on the forest floor… gone.  No doubt, it's not a huge sum of money, but when the man charges you nearly half of that for a burger combo you tend to notice the loss.

My dear, sweet, frugal Mom strongly encouraged the idea of us re-tracing our steps in hope of finding the money.  Personally, I thought it was a lost cause.  I mean, it's a big park and there's a lot of people in it.  I figured the likelihood of finding my lost $20 bill was pretty much the same as Angelina Jolie consulting a plastic surgeon for beauty tips.

We turned around with our eyes on the ground and hoped for the best, as we back-tracked to Bridal Trail where we had previously been hiking.

As we scanned Bridal Trail, voices behind us grew louder in their rapid approach.  We heard one of them say, "On your left!".  We turned around to see a group of 4 cyclists coming up behind us.  We collectively stepped to the right.  As the first cyclist passed by, my brother forewarned, "If you see a $20 bill up ahead, it's ours, we've lost it".  The lead cyclist replied, "No problem, we've already eaten lunch".

Each cyclist wheeled past us with rubber tires crackling against the small stones of the trail.  The unmistakable aroma of cut cedar continued to fill the air and overhead sea gulls alerted one another to human targets below.  After a few moments, from ahead of us yet out of our sights, we heard another voice.  "We found it!".

What a lame joke, I thought to myself as visions of dwindled funds danced in my head.  We continued walking, rounding a short bend, and saw a tall guy wearing a white T-shirt.  I momentarily glanced his way, but continued looking down at the ground. 

There it was!  My $20 bill!  Folded in thirds as I'm so compulsively inclined to do!

"White-T-shirt-Guy" picked it up and handed it to me.  My lower jaw involuntarily unhinged and took up residence on the forest floor.  He told us the cyclists, moments earlier, spread the message that 20 bucks was the object of a search performed by another group coming down the trail.  They told him to leave it alone if he found it... and he did!

My faith in humanity grew.  I couldn't believe I was careless enough to lose the cash, I couldn't believe my Mom thought we'd find it, I couldn't believe my brother told strangers about our mission, I couldn't believe that I actually spotted my money just laying there waiting to be found and I couldn't believe that another stranger handed it to me.

If "liveable" means well-suited for living, then my brush with honesty yesterday keeps Vancouver as the most liveable city in my own personal rankings, too.  I'll keep that in mind for Valentine's Day.  Maybe there's a Hallmark card saying something like: For the City I Can't Live Without …

btw - Since picture-taking caused me to lose 20 bucks in the first place, here's a look at some of those pics of Stanley Park's Prospect Point…

Canadian Travelers tell their Canadian Travel Stories

 August 23, 2007 by Tourism Vancouver

You snapped it in a terrific shot. You couldn't wait to blog about it. Or maybe you caught it on film. The point is you got it. You posted it. Now it's time to be recognized.

The Canadian e-Tourism Awards supported by the Canadian Tourism Commission and Yahoo Canada is looking to recognize the best Canadian travel experiences being told online through words or images. They are looking for links to your photos, stories, and videos or short films that show the most moving and thrilling moments of your Canadian travel adventures.

Apply now through midnight PDT, August 31, 2007 at www.canadianetourismawards.com at no cost to individual travellers from all over the world and Canadian residents. Entry is open to anyone who raises online awareness and interest in Canada. Winners will be recognized in a live awards ceremony on November 8 at the Science World at Telus World of Science held in conjunction with the Canada-e-Connect e-Tourism Strategy Conference in Vancouver from November 7-9, 2007.

Under The Hood

August 21, 2007 by Kent Hurl

Now that Vancouver is getting some sun again, I can't get from the cab to the curb without spotting someone wearing short shorts or a tight top.
 
Those who spend Vancouver's rainy winter on a treadmill or yoga mat tend to greet summer in an outfit the size of a napkin.  Meanwhile, those who wait out the rains at drive-thru windows or on a sofa tend not to wear anything to reveal the softer side of a lazy winter.
 
And for every hard body on display, there's a good chance you'll also see a hot car cruising the streets.  And that's one thing I love most about summer in Vancouver… the cars.  Especially the older muscle cars (but there's lots of variety to go around for everyone).  The cars of summer stay under a tarp somewhere for several months until they are set free on the streets of the Lower Mainland.  Like this Lotus parked near Thurlow street the other day.  It kind of looks like a bug...

Down by English Bay, a '68 or '69 Dodge Charger was snuggled up next to Fat Burger...

Near Gastown, this throwback from AMC stood out as a rarity…

And then there's this particular Vancouver icon…

That one shows up all over town each summer.  As I took that photo, a CBC crew was filming it for an upcoming documentary.

Advertisers also think Vancouver is good for cars, especially when preparing TV campaigns for new vehicles.  The other day I watched as a TV commercial was made for the new Nissan Rogue...
 

It might be summer in Vancouver, but that didn't prevent set decorators from following orders to turn Vancouver into a winter wonderland in August.

Since then I've spotted and/or met my fair share of stars right here in Vancouver: Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Dempsey, Alanis Morissette, Bruce Willis, George Michael, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah McLachlan, Jon Bon Jovi, John Travolta and 20 or so cast members from the Young and the Restless.  Stalker much?  Anyway, I haven't recognized anyone lately except for Marke Driesschen doing the weather the other day in front of the CTV studios on Robson Street.  He appeared in Final Destination, which apparently it was not for him.

But that's not to say that there aren't any BIG stars in Vancouver right now.  An A-lister who spent much of 2006 making films here such as The Fantastic Four is in town once again.  You know her as Jessica Alba and she was making the scene in Gastown's Blood Alley a few evenings ago.  And just yesterday, Josh Groban arrived in Vancouver for his concert on Friday night at GM Place.  If you can add two plus two you'll get pretty close to figuring out where he and his younger brother are staying.

Today I came dangerously close to requiring an adult diaper when I learned that The Bionic Woman was filming right across the street!  Naturally I surmised it was a long-awaited (at least by me) installment of the classic series starring Lindsay Wagner.  Sadly, it was not.  Instead, it was a remake coming this Fall to a TV near you.  If you ask me… no Lindsay Wagner?  No viewers.  NO LINDSAY?  NO KENT!
 
Bitterness aside, I thought I'd check out how the filming was going.  In the next picture, you'll see the surest sign in Vancouver that stars are in our midst… a long row of parked, white trucks.  They hold all the "stuff" needed for stars to shine while on location.

These were parked behind The Vancouver Club which was around for one complete century before I saw Tone Loc at that mall. 

Here are a couple of shots of the actors filming a dialogue scene in front of the building today.  Check out the long boom microphone hanging over the actors.

If that microphone is visible in the finished product, the Bionic Woman will need all of her super-human strength to thwart her most competitive foes... the ones hiding out on another channel.

 August 11, 2007 by Kent Hurl

I've seen The Wizard of Oz only once, but it's hard to forget the scene where the wicked witch of the west perishes, melting into a bubbling pool of her former, wicked self.  As she reaches her demise, she cries… "I'm melting, MELTING".

It was that very cry which played back in my mind at the Vancouver pride parade as I watched drag queen after drag queen, each sitting atop a float or high-heeling it past the adoring crowd, fight off the summer sun in hopes of saving the 17 pounds of foundation caked on to their faces.

It was my good fortune to be introduced to one of them, a famous drag queen from Germany named Lilo Wanders.  I'm led to believe she is pretty much the RuPaul of western Europe.  Except way more white.  Here she is (she's the one on the right)...

I've been wondering what my Christmas cards will look like this year…. perhaps now I have my answer.

The pride parade in Vancouver has gotten pretty big over the years.  About 400,000 people watched it along Denman street and Beach avenue. 

The parade is two hours long and has about two hundred entries from community organizations like P-flag and The Centre and political groups like the NDP including their national leader Jack Layton, pictured here…

…and the Liberals (led by Member of Parliament Hedy Fry who resembles RuPaul much more closely than Lilo Wanders).

Have you seen Hairspray yet?  John Travolta's character was originally portrayed by the unforgettable Divine in the first version of the movie.  Divine died about 20 years ago, but I swear the dead had risen at the parade when I saw this:

That is not a picture you'll get at the Sears portrait studio.

Neither is this…

Later on, it was good to see the cast members from Theatre Under The Stars using a Stanley Park horse-drawn carriage as their mobile stage…

…the Vancouver School Board brought their big yellow school bus…

And even a group of square-dancers choreographed their way through the streets...

All in all, it looked like a good time was had by all…

You Light Up My Life

August 6, 2007 by Kent Hurl

How happy was I on Saturday night? How happy was I to be in a condo on the 26th floor of a Beach avenue high-rise for one of Vancouver's best annual fireworks parties, while all the post-fireworks traffic inched its way along the Burrard Bridge after the Celebration of Light finale on Saturday night?  Well, here's how that bridge looked through the lens of my camera phone...

 

 

So, I guess I'd say I was pretty darn happy.  (Mind you, I would have been ECSTATIC if the owner of that palatial condo had signed it over to me free and clear, but that's a whole 'nother story.)

 

But, said happiness wasn't simply because it was so easy to point and laugh at everyone stuck in horrendous city traffic on a long weekend, but also because Canada won!

 

 

Just as I'd hoped, the Great White North cleaned up and kicked butt at the 2007 Celebration of Light.  So put that in your igloo and melt it.  Like I said the other day, Canada's show offered precision timing, lively song choices and no dead air.  Canada totally deserved to win the largest fireworks competition in the world held right here in sweet, little, old Vancouver.

 

If you missed it this year, you gotta check it out next summer.  It's one of the best things to do in this town.  Here's a nice shot from this year's Celebration of Light which I found on Flickr.

 

 

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Light My Fire

 August 3, 2007 by Kent Hurl

 

So I've totally decided on my new favourite place to watch the fireworks.

 

And I'm totally keeping it a secret.

 

Seriously though, the Celebration of Light in Vancouver deserves to be viewed from the best spot you can possibly find.  And by "best" I mean you should just stay home. (You didn't think I'd reveal my secret that fast, did you?)

 

Well, ok… here it is.  In my humble view, the best spot to take in Vancouver's Celebration of Light is standing right in the middle of Beach Avenue near Cardero or Bidwell streets.  Why?  Because it's as close to English Bay beach as you can get without having to actually be on English Bay beach. 

 

I realize there are more than a few people who consciously choose English Bay as their preferred spot to watch the fireworks.  I guess I can understand that considering the fireworks are launched right off that shoreline and therefore that beach offers the most complete view of the show.  But, choosing to go to English Bay is choosing to re-enact life inside a tin of smoked oysters.  You are packed in side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, earlobe fuzz-to-earlobe fuzz. 

 

Even just blinking your eyes requires strategic planning because you're in such terribly close proximity to the person next to you... the person RIGHT next to you.  It's the stuff of claustrophobic nightmares.

 

 

So join me, won't you, in a place where you need not sacrifice your natural human desire for enough personal space to avoid your skin sticking to the skin of another with whom you are not currently intimately involved.  From my spot, you can even see the low fireworks which rise barely over the barge.

 

In a nutshell, my location rocks because you can see the entire show from a spot right near the actual beach, it's less crowded than the actual beach and you can easily hear the music drifting through the summer night air from the speakers at the beach.  The best part is, when the show is over at 10:25pm, it only takes one simple 180-degree turn of your feet to point you in the direction of "get me outta here"! 

 

You'll be slightly ahead of most of the crowd, thereby allowing you to retain enough sanity to convince yourself that you want to return to that same spot to view the next performance which is Saturday night at 10 o'clock sharp.  And remember, Saturday is the finale so you know it's gonna be right off the 'ol hook. 

 

Happy BC Day ~ Let the Weekend Be Long!