Totems

Travel

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Being awake really early is not at all surprising, so we will just skip that.

Besides getting registered for the conference and visiting a few souvenir shops, what was important was seeing a bit of Vancouver. This is the Pacific North West. It rains. Not to be amazed that it was raining here. And occasionally coming down hard enough to get us wet, even with the new umbrella we purchased having not remembered to bring one along. I did bring a rain jacket. But putting it on makes me feel like a wimp. So instead it stays in my bag while I get damp.

But anyway….

We drove around Stanley Park which is at the very end of the peninsula that has the “old city.” (This is Old in a Northern American Continent kind of old. – not European old.) Just for your general interest, Vancouver believes in charging for parking, a lot. At least I think $2/hour for street parking or pull over parking in a park is a excessive. But it does make money for the city and prevent commuters from using it as a parking lot.

Then there is the  University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology with an incredible collection of First Nation Artefacts. The most prominent of which are house totems as well as other Salish and Haida works, both old and contemporary.
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Since the purpose of being in town was to attend  CISTM10,  it seemed to make sense to attend the opening of the conference (along with the included reception). Because of unexpected road construction not there this morning, we missed the Bagpipers. But heard some short, very entertaining greetings and saw the Chinese Dragon Dancers.
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The only issue for me was the number of people crowding around the snack tables. It was much nicer watching from the balcony above than being in the press.
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Knitting

In the middle (between registration and museum), we had headed to Grey’s Point. I checked out Urban Yarns. Other than carrying a complete like of Fleece Artist, they had some other lines, all higher end and good quality. The store is quite small, but good use is made of the space. Their sock yarns were limited to Fleece Artist, Lorna’s Laces, Koigu, and three different colorways of Regia. Not lines, mind you, but three individual color patterns. But the women working there were lovely. I did pick up some Seawool, but the guy colours were pretty limited.

According to the clock on this system, it is 0752 on the 21st. Since it is not that where I am, it explains why I feel so tired.

-Holly

About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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