Around Vancouver

We live just south of the Canadian border about an hour from the city of Vancouver.  We also have a daughter working and doing research there, though only until January, so we get there fairly frequently, but not do not very often have a lot of time to see and explore the city.

This month (December) on two occasions I was able to spend a day there and had opportunity to wander around the city and see some of the sights and take some pictures.  These are some of the pictures taken on those occasions.

I was there with my wife on the 9th of December for a concert.  For our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary our children had given us tickets to an Andre Rieu concert and had also gotten us a hotel room near Rogers Arena where the concert was held.

We went up to Vancouver that morning and spent the day wandering around the city.  We walked first across the city to a Greek restaurant, Stepho's, recommended by our daughter and had a late lunch there.  We then walked north to the waterfront and explored that area before returning to our hotel room.

 

The concert that evening was wonderful and after the concert we wandered around a bit more (in the rain), had a bite to eat and cup of coffee at Starbucks, before returning to our hotel and a relaxing and comfortable room there.

Two days later my wife and son left to see her parents in Michigan and while they were there I spent another day in Vancouver.  Bored and lonely, I went up on Friday, December 17th, to stay a night with my daughter and go skiing.

In the end we did not go skiing, but used some free tickets she had been given to go to Christmas concert put on by Chor Leoni, a Vancouver men's choir.  Pictures were not allowed at that concert, but I spent the day exploring the city and visiting the Vancouver Aquarium.

I arrived at her apartment early, before she left for work and left shortly thereafter and walked across the Cambie Bridge and then along the seawall to Stanley Park and the aquarium.  I spent several hours at the Aquarium before walking back to her apartment.

 

After going out to supper with her at a Chinese restaurant and then attending the concert, which was wonderful, I spent the night at her apartment before returning home the next morning to take care of some work that needed doing.

Winter in Washington

The Friday, Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving Day we traveled to Spokane to bring our handicapped son, who had been home for the holiday, back to the facility where he is a resident. We also stayed in the area with him for a few days, since I had several days off from my work.

The weather on the way was very wintry and the passes were very bad, requiring chains or traction tires. We went by way of Stevens Pass and Highway 2 and stopped along the way several times to take pictures. At that point the weather was sunny, though it soon turned gray.

We also stopped along the roads in Eastern Washington for pictures, especially at an apple orchard where the frozen Golden Delicious apples were still on the leafless trees, making quite a colorful display against the leaden skies, snow, and bare trees.

In the Spokane area the weather was snowy and the roads bad, but we did manage to get out to one of our favorite places, Manito City Park, where my wife wandered around the grounds taking pictures of the snow while I stayed inside the conservatory with our son and took pictures there.

Sunday night there was freezing fog in the area and I went out at night and took some time exposures and flash shots of the rime covered trees and branches. They were spectacular in the dim light and I managed to get a few decent pictures, though focusing and exposure were very difficult.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

No orchids in this post, but a lot of snow. We've had winter with a vengeance this past week, first very cold temperatures, cold at least for our area, and then several days of snowfall. On Thanksgiving Day we went for a walk in the snow after our big dinner and took our cameras along. These are some of the pictures we took. Although many of them look like and have the quality of black and white photos, in fact none of them are black and white.