Lunch at Queen Elizabeth Park

Today we trekked again into the greater Vancouver area for lunch with my cousin Andrew, his wife Anna and their 14 year old son Justin. I have officially become the old auntie that say's, "Oh my goodness! The last time I saw you, you were this high!" I did, however, manage to refrain from pinching his cheeks.

Anna, Justin and Andrew treated us to lunch at the Seasons in the Park restaurant in Queen Elizabeth Park

Vancouver View

Decisions, decisions...

Uncle Colin just said, "Yes, take a picture of the oldie moldies"

I think I should get bangs, that forehead is too much!

Lunch was wonderful. It really had been ages since I last saw Anna and Andrew - and yes, Justin - and it was nice to be able to get to know them a bit again.

Queen Elizabeth park looked beautiful, but we didn't have time to wander through. We did, however, make our way over to Van Dusen Botanical Garden just down (or up?) the road. Those pictures tomorrow...

Museum of Anthropology at UBC

Yesterday we went to the recently renovated Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. The museum is filled with Native American artifacts from giant totem poles to baskets, canoes and masks as well as pieces from Japan, Korea, Papua New Guinea....so much to see and read and so little space in my brain to take it all in!
I always feel a little weird taking pictures in museums so there are only a couple here. This is a sculpture by Bill Reid (probably the most famous in the entire collection) called The Raven and the First Men. In Haida culture, the raven is the most powerful of the mythical creatures. This piece depicts the story of the first humans where a curious and mischievious raven finds a clam shell filled with men on Rose Spit beach in Haida Gwaii (aka. Queen Charlotte Islands). He tries to coax these "first men" to come out and join him in his world. He eventually succeeds and these men become the first Haida.

The sculpture sits on a bed of sand from Rose Spit beach. It was carved out of a giant block of laminated yellow cedar.

I couldn't resist this angle of what looks to be a baby's bottom!

The Raven and the First Immigrant by Nicholas Galanin. Meant to be an imperfect reflection (the artist outsourced the carving of the piece to a non-native chainsaw artist) of The Raven and the First Men sculpture. It sits just outside of the Bill Reid rotunda - outside looking in as it were - and was installed 30 years to the day of the unveiling of Reid's sculpture.

After wandering through the museum a bit we headed for lunch at a restaurant called the Sage Bistro on campus where we had a lovely meal while mildly harrassed by a seagull who kept circling and landing closer and closer to our table after our bread. We were a hungry foursome though and he never had a chance at it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving through crazy downtown Vancouver traffic before making our way around Stanley Park and heading home. It was a gorgeous day and the drive was scenic and interesting especially when we passed the parking lot of a nude beach (who knew Canadians could be so racy?) and caught an unwanted glimpse of a rather large naked man. No, I did not get a picture although Constance did ask if we could turn around so she could have a look too.

Thompson Gardens

So we are now officially at the end of the third day of our trip - did I not say I knew this trip would fly by? We spent the first night in Seattle and bussed it up to South Surrey, BC the next morning to visit my mom's brother and his wife - Uncle Colin and Auntie Pat. They are wonderful. It's strange to see my mom and her brother together - difficult to imagine them growing up as siblings. They're quite different - like chalk and cheese as Constance would say.

Uncle Colin, Constance, Auntie Pat

(I'll let you decide who is chalk and who is cheese)

Despite having open heart surgery at the end of May, Uncle Colin is still able to keep a beautiful garden - though he claims it's being overrun with weeds. Whatever - take a look at how gorgeous these flowers are!

The Gardeners!

Aaaand They're Off!

Well, here we go. The shuttle will be picking us up in a couple of hours. We're packed, appliances are unplugged, the windows are locked, the garbage is out, the perishables have been eaten or given away....what else is there?
I keep thinking, "This time tomorrow we'll be......" As silly as it sounds when we have this great journey ahead of us, I am arleady thinking how fast I know the time will go and how we'll soon be re-entering our closed up house thinking, "This time yesterday we were..." Why is it so difficult to just be in the moment and enjoy each one as they come? I think that will be my biggest challenge on this trip. It is surely a big challenge in my life in general....
Aaaanyway...enjoy the moment. Here we go. In an hour and thirty-seven minutes that is....

Mission Houses Museum

Holy cow - two posts in one day! I'm on a roll.

Let's see...this next set of pictures was taken at the Mission Houses Museum in Honolulu. While I had never been, my mom had visited many years ago with my dad. The missionaries played a big part in the history of the Hawaiian Islands. To quote someone my dad used to always quote whenever the subject of the missionaries came up, "The missionaries came to do good and they did damn well!"

 

The house in the background is where the missionaries lived. Built in 1821 from pieces that were shipped around Cape Horn from Boston. It is the oldest wooden structure still standing in Hawaii!

The house in the foreground is the Chamberlain House built by a guy named Levi Chamberlain - the first secular agent in Hawaii. He built the house out of coral reef which they stamped to make look like brick. The house was used as a depository from which Chamberlain organized the disbursement of provisions for the entire "Sandwich Islands Mission."

This door struck me as so peculiar I had to take a picture of it. I found out later on during the tour that there used to be a pulley right above it which was used to haul...big stuff (I forget what) to the second floor.

A well!

Off in the corner of the yard there is a big hole covered with planks of wood. They used to catch rain water in it because the nearest fresh water stream was the Nu'uanu stream which was a mile or so away.

I thought this tree was cool.

Across the street is Kawaiha'o Church. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the church itself, but I got this pretty shot of the trees and sky...and a window.

Aloha!

Hello all! We are four - FOUR! - days away from our big adventure, but we've been busy adventuring all summer long and I thought it would be fun to start a little early with the picture posting.

My mom and I have taken the opportunity of time to visit some sites on Oahu that we've either never been to or haven't been to in a very long time. I will do better - we hope - on the road of posting as we go so everything is fresh in my mind as I write what will no doubt be clever and funny - or at least somewhat informative - captions to each photo, but bear with me for now as I get used to this blogging thing and just try to get some pictures up.

We begin at a beach on Hickam Air Force Base...

Walking out to the sand bar, Constance was forced to show a little leg...

...what is she looking for? Ooohhh sailor I see...by the sun's shining light...

A strange cement pier Constance had to check out.

Aahhh....lunch time. While you can't see them, we are surrounded by airmen in uniform.