We stayed at the Royal BC Museum
from 10 am to 2:30ish. That includes not only exploring the First Nations
exhibits and the Century Hall and the Old Town (in other words, the entire
third floor) but also visiting the two gift shops and the café (where I had a
berry smoothie, a veggie calzone, a little bit of my dad’s salad, and one half
of my dad’s carrot cake). We bought nothing at either gift shop. I’ve noticed
that my dad is very enthusiastic about shopping, much moreso than I. I get into
it if it’s book shopping or wandering around an art gallery.
Lobby of the Royal BC Museum
We wandered downtown, which was
full of pedestrians. Tour guides had several booths set up on the sidewalk in
front of the Empress Hotel.
Russell's Books
We went to the arts and crafts
fair on the street, or rather, spread throughout three alleys. I especially
liked fairies carved from driftwood, The artist is Debra Bernier
(shapingspirit.etsy.com; www.facebook.com/ShapingSpirit), and I fell in love with her
work, but it was quite pricey. I bought a card with a photo of one of her
fairies on it.
I also liked little porcelain
kitties, a variety of handmade jewelry (by the way, Canadians spell it
jewellry), and sock monsters that have mouths into which you can stuff “food.”
The monsters are made from old sweatshirts and socks; the artist gets them at
thrift stores. I was tempted to mention that in Portland we have “free” boxes
on sidewalks, some of which have those garments. On many occasions, there are
plenty of things I might have said if my dad hadn’t been talking on and on, as
usual. Granted, I’m very shy and often refrain from saying things.
At the jewelry booth, a woman I
recognized said, “Did you like dinner at Green Cuisine?” I laughed and gushed
about the previous night’s restaurant, and my dad said he really liked it even
though he’s not the vegetarian but I am, and we had kind of a long conversation
with her. Some people here are very friendly—I think it’s friendlier and more
laid back than Vancouver, but we stayed downtown (aside from the drive to and
from downtown) while in Vancouver and were really in the business district.
Maybe Vancouver has some hippie neighborhoods, some bohemian neighborhoods like
Portland.
After hanging out at the street
fair, we walked a few blocks to Russell’s Books, a new and used bookstore with
great deals—I got four Buddhist books for $9.99 each. My dad (who’s been
watching Grimm and Once Upon a Time though he’s not terribly
familiar with the traditional fairy tales that inspired them) got himself a
middle grade Penguin book that’s a collection of some of Grimm’s’ fairy tales,
including “Aschenputel.” Initially I warned him that it’s a kids book, and it’s
not the complete Grimm’s fairy tales, but it occurred to me that really, it’s
sufficient for his purposes. After picking out that book and leaving it with
me, he went elsewhere (the shop occupies two buildings). Meanwhile, I grabbed a
stool and got comfortable in the Buddhist aisle; that’s how I ended up with a
bunch of Buddhist books. Actually, the aisle was for many different religions,
but Buddhism covers at least two whole bays plus part of the “Indian Religions”
section. Oddly, no “Hindu” section—all Hindu-related books were categorized as
“Indian religions,” as though Hinduism has never been practiced outside India.
I think it would have been better organization to have a separate Hindu
section, etc; on the other hand, maybe the shop sometimes has books on Jainism
and other less popular religions that began in India. The subcontinent has many
Muslims, but of course that religion didn’t begin in India, so Islam was
separate.
We headed back toward the
hotel—indirectly. Still downtown, we passed Darth Vader playing a violin on a
street corner. No joke. We walked down Belleville and took a look at where we
need to get on the ferry to Port Angeles in Washington state. In doing so, we
passed a beautiful old Neoclassical building with the words “B. C. Coast
Service Offices” over the door, and the date of 1924. I peered inside, and it has
an impressive fireplace inside and looks like nowadays it’s used for public
gatherings, perhaps art shows and whatnot.
At my urging, we went back downtown
in the evening to look at a couple of historic buildings on the grounds of the Royal BC
Museum: the Helmckien House, originally built in 1852 and the oldest building
in British Columbia still standing at its original site; and a school house built
in 1858 and moved to its present site. We also saw more totem poles and a
native house built in 1953 and featuring a big face in basically the same style
as the totem poles.
Yesterday I finally realized that
what I think of as a Canadian accent is derived from Scottish accents, because
so many people immigrated from Scotland to Canada.” A woman working at a
tourist shop has a very pronounced
accent that sounded almost Scottish. That explains the “aboot” and such. And
this is my third trip to Canada; not to mention I traveled with Canadians in
India, too, and didn’t figure it out then.
Tomorrow morning our plan is to
get out before 9:30 in order to not miss the 10:30 am ferry. First come, first
served. Just a bit of a rush. I’d rather be sitting around in the car than be
too late and not get to Seattle tomorrow…or have to spend the night somewhere
in Washington state, between Victoria and Seattle.
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