What I Did on My Summer Vacation

where Drumpf wasn't invited

Hi all! This episode of my newsletter offers something a little lighter…a travelogue of my getaway to Vancouver, British Columbia last weekend.

I’m not trying to ignore the sh*tshow out there (nod to, among other things this week: the 5-year-anniversary of George Floyd’s death, the Big Bad Billionnaire Bill slithering its slimy way through Congress, and the advent of Pride month—**HAPPY PRIDE! may it be so**—amidst bigger and louder threats to queer and trans folks).

But real sabbaths, whether it’s spending an afternoon in your backyard with a good book or having a novel experience in a new place, is still great medicine and the central-nervous-system reset we need to stay in the fight.

So! Come to Vancouver with me right now!

Because Vancouver is frigging awesome. If I were ever going to abandon the US (which I won’t) for fairer climes (again: I’m staying. Sacred duty demands it), I now know where I would go. Vancouver!

It’s ocean! It’s islands! It’s mountains! It’s cute Canadian accents! And the fabled kindness and chill! Peter and I kept waiting for people to glare at us when they heard our American twang. We braced ourselves to be refused service, duly punished for our dictator. And I wouldn’t blame them if they had. But honestly, the only evidence that came up of the quarrel between our countries was when one of our bartenders apologized that they weren’t serving Kentucky bourbon anymore.

Peter just got a new job after being laid off a few months ago, so we wanted to sneak in a juicy trip before he becomes a workaholic again. We went to Vancouver because 1) we had a flight credit on Air Canada from a planned 2020 family trip to Nova Scotia that went sideways with the pandemic, 2) we wanted to go someplace new to us both because novel experiences are great for longtime marriages! And 3) we wanted to go someplace that felt foreign but wasn’t too far or physically demanding.

Here are some of my favorite things about Vancouver, and recommendations if you ever go:

The Indigenous presence.

“Mother holding child” element of a totem pole in Van Dusen Garden.

Right off the jetway at Vancouver Airport, we walked through natural landscapes including an indoor creek, and multiple indigenous art installations including massive gorgeous totem poles. A bug-not-a-feature of Native American culture in the U.S. is how invisible it is, by (white) design (aka colonization and erasure). In Vancouver it feels ubiquitous by comparison. Indigenous culture is not history; it’s not a minority side-note. It’s present, palpable, integrated into everything.

I accidentally walked into indigenous neighborhoods not once but twice while wandering around: with street signs in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (spoken by the Musqueam people), and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (spoken by the Squamish people). Indigenous art appears everywhere: counterculture graffiti on underpasses to commissions in official government buildings. At the airport, there is a statement of “friendship and permission” gracing giant banners: the Musqueam people acknowledging their land as their own, but permitting its use for travellers. Altogether an elegant, widespread acknowledgement of indigenous rights, dignity, beauty, enduring culture and claim. [I don’t mean to paper over the manifold historical and current offenses against First Nations people in Canada…but I did want to lift up these wonders and differences]

Recommendation: actually, don’t go into the indigenous neighborhoods! You will be trespassing, I think. I went by accident both times and sped out. But there are lots of ways to experience First Nations culture legitimately, including the Museum of Anthropology at UBC which we didn’t get to but have on our list for next time.

Urban + Wild Mesh!

Praying to Mother Earth on a Lynn Canyon hike.

Oh my gosh. I already live in one of the most beautiful/interesting places in the world. I can be in downtown Oakland at a street protest or a Chinese foot massage place or a five-star soul food restaurant and 20 minutes later be up hiking second-growth redwoods with nary a human in sight and a mountain lion secretly stalking me.

But Vancouver puts my town to shame. The skyline teems with literally hundreds of giant glass and steel skyscrapers (and everywhere the eye could see, dozens of cranes putting up more). And right behind them, enormous snowcapped mountains rise up 6,000 feet above sea level just a few miles north of downtown. It was like being a tourist in Oz, or the most majestic and least Mordor-y part of Middle Earth. I kept calling the heart-stopping mountains the Cliffs of Insanity until Peter made me quit it because it was disrespectful of their wondrous beauty.

For outdoor adventures, we skipped the touristy, expensive and too-long-for-this-acrophobic-author Capilano Suspension Bridge and went to Lynn Canyon, which also had a (very cute and just the right size) suspension bridge and miles and miles of gorgeous trails up a creek (including the 30 Foot Pool, a swimming hole with impossibly crystalline green water made for woodland fairies) and down the Seymour River. Park for free on nearby residential streets and walk in!

Stanley Park is Vancouver’s answer to SF’s Golden Gate Park or NYC’s Central Park. Too much to do in one day, a variety of wonders, most/all free. We walked the Seawall (you can rent bikes and ride around the whole thing but some people were being speed demons and some were ~erm~ a little shaky on their wheels and we kept waiting for a 12 bike pileup); did some birdwatching on Lovers Walk up the forested spine of the park, as well as checked out the totem poles and tried to spot eagles at Beaver Pond at the east end of the park. Next time I definitely want to swim at the Second Street Beach public pool, which was huge and fun, with lap swimming lanes as well as a big shallow section with slides for all ages.

We also indulged in a whale watch that totally delivered. If you visit my house in the next month you will have to sit and watch all 33 of Peter’s videos of humpbacks, orcas and bald eagles. I saw 3 bald eagles on this trip, which is 2 more than I’ve seen in the entire rest of my 50-something life. We also finally resolved a longstanding conflict in our marriage, which is whether or not I really did see a lone orca leap from the waves as I stalked down the beach alone in Zihuatanejo after a sparky fight on our honeymoon. Neither of us can remember what the fight was about, but Peter has still not forgiven me that I got to see a wild orca and he never has.

The Mountains Majesty in the background, and ORCAS!

Curiously, our tour guides insisted on telling us multiple times “orcas never attack human beings in the wild.” No bets on domesticated orcas?

A few fun facts about orcas. They are matriarchal, and travel in family groups. One of the families we got to see was mother Reed, who is 54 years old (just like me!) and her two adult sons.

Just another middle-aged mom, Reed! Lookin’ good girl.

Orca tail with eagle.

Orcas are the only species apart from humans where the females live past menopause. What is their purpose beyond bearing and rearing young? They continue to share knowledge with their families for their entire lives: particularly hunting strategies and geography. Menopausal women take note: maybe don’t finish teaching your family everything until YOU decide you’re ready to leave this mortal coil! ;)

When mother orcas die, their children will have a 50% greater chance of dying themselves in the year that follows. As it should be.

Not really a wilderness spot, but one evening we drove west to see the sunset behind the Cliffs of Majesty and accidentally ended up at Cypress Village Pop-Up. It’s a future mini-city (that at least one guy near the giant billboard advertising it had negative feelings about) high up in the hills of North Van, that for now is lovely public space. There were a lot of folks from kids to young adults to older folks sitting and enjoying the sunset, with picnics, playing board games, wrestling their dogs, basking in the glow. You could get a beer or pizza or coffee from the pop-up cafe there but there were no high pressure sales. And before they’ve even built all the housing and other stuff, the developers put in a public-access wilderness trail leading up the mountain. Beautiful public spaces (or public/private partnerships) where everybody has easy access and *permission* to exist and enjoy life are SUCH a great boon to human community! I wish every city had such thoughtful public amenities. Life could be really different.

Peter spent a day fishing for trout up near Squamish. He only caught a few but had a beautiful day on the water and didn’t get eaten by a grizzly bear, for which I’m grateful. When he came back he informed me that even the hills above North Vancouver do have an active bear population so we took to adopting his fishing guide’s habit of shouting “Ho, bear!” when moving about, even walking to get our morning coffee. One can never be too safe. Plus it made me feel like an extra character from Winnie-the-Pooh.

Recommendations:

Stanley Park, particularly Lovers Walk, walking not biking the seawall, Second Street beach for swimming or a picnic with a view of the Salish Sea

Lynn Valley for hiking, swimming, wonders

Prince of Whales Whale Watch did a fantastic job: efficient and kind, with a smart naturalist aboard and bottomless free coffee on a comfortable boat

Cypress Village Pop Up for a sunset frolic

Biodiversity.

For a city person I’m really not that into urban density, even though I know it’s a good idea from an environmental perspective. But what makes Vancouver a gazillion times more relaxing and liveable is how seriously Vancouverites take their trees (and flowers, and shrubs, and gardens, and and and). There are trees inside and outside and on top of skyscrapers. A riot of green lining every street, both wealthy neighborhoods and poorer neighborhoods. No one is denied the luxury of green growing things. The mildness of the climate and apparent abundance of rain probably help, but I was truly shocked by how many different species grow there.

The first place we went off the plane was Van Dusen Botanical Garden. Vancouver has a LOT of botanical gardens. This was the only one we made it to but it was honestly perfect and enough. Beautifully laid out, just the right amount of education so it felt both relaxing and stimulating. SO much diversity in climate, and it was peak rhododendron season, which left our jaws agape everywhere we went.

I’ve never liked rhododendrons. My grandmother had one in her front yard and in frigid New England, the leaves always looked to young me like shrivelled grabby witch hands (before I knew how awesome witches are). But I’ve been glamoured! I am in love with rhododendrons now! Who knew that they came in such a riot of colors? They were a beauty pageant, a burlesque show, all crinolines and legs up-to-there!

Oodles of rhododendrons. I have a feeling if I had sat on that bench one minute more I would have been body-snatch by these feral rhodos in bloom.

If you want to take a selfie you actually like, go to Van Dusen Botanical Garden around 5pm on a sunny day in May. 100% guaranteed.

Silly Peter made an appearance when we stumbled upon these giant Adirondack chairs.

Fun fact: everywhere we went, when trees were cut down, the arborists often left about 30 feet of trunk, and cut the top of the trunk in a zigzag pattern rather than straight across. I imagine this was to invite nesting birds, like eagles and ospreys? Let me know if you have a better answer.

Recommendations:

Van Dusen Botanical Garden, bring a picnic

Human Diversity.

Another groovy thing about Vancouver, especially coming from the very racially diverse Bay Area with my assumptions about Canada, was how multiracial it was. It’s hard to know about these things as a tourist, but it also felt, as a place, less…racist? My colleague Kelly whose wife is Canadian says it’s a little more complicated when you scratch the surface. And for sure there are whole groups of people missing (for example, very few Black people…presumably because no history of enslavement?). But everywhere we went, the people watching was excellent, and it felt very racially integrated. Except for North Van, where our Airbnb was. That was pretty white, to be sure.

Recommendation:

People-watch, everywhere you go!

Architecture and housing policy.

Everywhere I travel, I always like to visit the poorest and the wealthiest neighborhoods. How many unhoused people are there, and how well are they cared for? Is there a diversity of size and price in homes? How affordable is it for people at different income levels?

Vancouver real estate was shockingly expensive–close to San Francisco prices. I talked to one of my Uber drivers about it. He said they are building too many luxury condos (all those glass towers that I really worry about when the Cascadia subduction zone blows). But pretty close to downtown I spotted a LOT of smaller, super cute and varied in design multifamily units that felt very homelike. 6, 8 or 10-unit 2-story townhomes that were, again, surrounded with beautiful trees, lovely porches for each bedecked with flower boxes, all things for easy living that felt like a good mix of communal and private. I wish we had had the political will to build like that in the Bay Area!

I didn’t snap any good pics but here are a couple of multi-families I grabbed from Zillow.

Also: there were VERY few homeless people that I could see. Mostly downtown in the financial/high-end shopping district. And everywhere, even the poorer neighborhoods, were very clean. No trash anywhere.

SIGH. This is what cities *can be* with better policies and a more generous safety net. Not places of competition, unhappy chaos, in-your-face income inequality. But places of shared public amenities and beauty, ease, art, communality.

Finally, Food!

There was SO MUCH good food in Vancouver. We didn’t eat one bad meal (except for the very tired PB&Js we didn’t want to go to waste after a long day of walking around everywhere, too wiped out to go back out for dinner…but that is on us).

We were pretty thrifty in general but this arena is where we really splurged. Here are our top five meals, in order of least expensive to most.

Granville Public Market: tiny Granville Island, which looks like a repurposed industrial site, is a super funky touristy area (think: Boston’s Quincy Market). The whole island is fun to wander about in but the main building, the Public Market is a true warren of culinary delights. And has lots of free samples! Def get the caneles, and the chowders cooked in a variety of crockpots with puff pastry on top. This is also the place our whale watch left from, which was very convenient–we did the early morning whale watch so parking was a breeze, and we got to wander around the market when we disembarked.

More sausage than you could shake a meat stick at.

Guu with Garlic: a hole-in-the-wall Japanese izakaya spot just east of Stanley Park. Every single thing we ate was delicious, from the marinated eggplant to the fried smelts to the banana tempura/green tea finish! The adorable servers kept communicating in some kind of call-and-response Japanese argot sung across the dining room that was enchanting.

Anh and Chi: this very popular Vietnamese comfort food spot was super-packed the first night, so we ended up at Good Thief instead (see next). But we went back the next day for a (hooboy) preprandial drink and snack at the bar before our 10-course tasting menu at Published on Main. I regret nothing! Fun cocktails, great vibe, and I enjoyed my chicken skin app enormously. We’ll go back for a full meal next time.

Good Thief: A couple doors down from Anh and Chi is another Vietnamese place, with a groovy post-WWII aesthetic. Amazing seafood and carby snacks (oh the whelks! The garlic cordyceps noodles! The pommes frites!), and super complex cocktails.

Published on Main was our big splurge. It is a block away from Anh and Chi, has a Michelin star (but pretty affordable compared to its siblings) and is full of hipster young adults who are super kind and enthusiastic and take their food Very Seriously. Every single thing we were served made us groan aloud in an unseemly way and was as gorgeous as can be, from the fairy snack plate bedecked with edible ferns and tiny flowers that arrived first to the crab served in a beeswaxed shell to the perfectly tender and smoky steelhead to the THREE mini desserts that kept on coming at the end. Cocktail recommendation: Forest Bathing, made with egg white, citrus and spruce tips (the light green new growth on spruce trees each spring, high in vitamin C).

We asked for and got a pescatarian menu that was light on dairy, and apart from needing to roll home after so much food, it was all not only gorgeously presented and delish but really pretty healthy. Transcendent. Made me feel like a billionaire dryad. They gave us a $25 gift certificate at the end so we would come back…brilliant. I am no food photographer so these really don’t do our experience justice. You’ll just have to trust me. If you want a meal to remember (and I really think this might have been THE best restaurant meal I’ve ever had among many amazing experiences), this is it.

And that’s Vancouver! Vastness without, joy within.

Where are we going next?

love,

Molly