City Architecture

This post is part of a new series on posts about my city, the City of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. This particular post is intended to show you some of the city's varied architecture. It is not a post on describing the architecture as I am no architect or student of architecture. I simply like looking at different structures and buildings and I'm using the building as a jump off point to tell you a little more about my city. I hope you enjoy the little tour. In future and as weather improves, I hope to show you a lot more of our city's natural wonders so do drop by often.

Last week, I posted about the neighbourhood of Gastown. At the west side of Gastown is the Harbour Centre which houses the Vancouver Lookout. As the name suggests, here you can look out over the city and take in the 360 degree view. I haven't been to the Lookout for many years but when I first moved to the city it was one of the first places I went and the view was simply spectacular though the sky line has now changed considerably. The tower below the Lookout is home to 28 floors of business offices and to the satellite location of the Simon Fraser University whose main campus in located in Burnaby, BC. The Vancouver Lookout was opened in 1977 by the Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon.

To get to the Lookout, you will enter a glass encased elevator which will whisk you to the top in record time. So don't blink! Your entry fee is good for the entire day so you can leave to go and shop in Gastown next door, have a meal and return. You can also sit in the Lookout lounge and enjoy a refreshment.

The Harbour Centre and Vancouver Lookout is located just steps to the west of Gastown. See photo below and read all about it in my post here.

The Harbour Centre Lookout is also located right in front of the main station for the sky train which is the hub for the City's Light Rapid Transit. The Waterfront station is the connection point for the West Coast express (commuter train to points east), the Sea Bus (city transport over the water to the North Shore), and the 3 different sky train lines which take you to many different points in the city and to the outlying municipalities. You can read more about the schedules for each of these transportation options here.


Burrard Station is the last sky train stop before you get to the Waterfront and make connections to points elsewhere. Alternatively it is the first stop after you leave Waterfront sky train travelling to points east. Burrard Station is also a bus connection hub. Many of the buildings you see behind the station are at least 50 years old and seem to be in what I refer to as the "blah" style.

The building below is St. Paul's Hospital and is located in downtown Vancouver. It was established in 1892 by the Sisters of Providence though the sisters no longer run the hospital. This is where my cousin's daughter has been staying all week recovering from major heart surgery.

Burrard Inn, formerly Bosman's Inn, is a smallish hotel with 71 rooms and suites and has recently undergone renovations. It is the only hotel I am aware of which is in the downtown core and has reasonable rates. The rooms are $65. (Canadian) for double room from September-May and goes up to $99. Canadian from May-September. This is a favourite place for my relatives to stay when they have to come to the city for medical reasons since it is across from the St. Paul's hospital. These rooms and many others in the city are completely sold out for the Winter Olympics which will begin very soon.

Vancouver Hotel (below) is now part of the Fairmont group hotels. If my memory serves me correctly, it used to be part of the Canadian National group Hotels but hasn't been for some time. In recent years this hotel it has completed an extensive 65 million dollar renovation. The results are stunning. You can see some of the beauty in these photos here. Don't you just love the roof of this building? In olden days, you could go to a club at the top of the hotel and listen to jazz.

The next three photos show the relatively new Sheraton Wall Centre. One of the buildings is called One Wall Center and is the second highest building in the city. Designed by Busby, Perkins and Will, it won an award in 2001, its year of completion for the Best Skyscraper. apparently, it has something called a tuned water damping system at the top of the building to counter act the swaying of the building.
The first two photos above were taken last week and the photo below was taken last summer. The sky scraper is quite aesthetically pleasing in a long view, don't you think?

The building below is St. Andrew's Wesley United Church. This is one of the United Churches that recognizes and embraces the gay and lesbian community. They also have a number of broad based programs to invite the community in to their sanctuary. One of them is Jazz Vespers every Sunday afternoon. I simply love the carved stone in the building and the archways of the windows and doorways.

That is the tour for today. There is so much more to share but we will need to do it in stages. Some days I may have themes as in today where I showed you numerous structures. Other days, it may be about one specific site or a natural scene of beauty. I hope you will join me again soon.

Scenic Sunday

Fog, mountain and trees along the Coquihalla Hwy. For more scenery around the world, see here

On My Way & Frugal Questions

Ahhhhh, I finally did something nice for myself in the last 24 hours. I had a deep conditioning hair treatment and trim last night. It felt good to see my hair swing luxuriously after a nice cut and it was sooooo soft. I haven't had a salon hair conditioning treatment for so long. I try very hard to live economically and frugally so I can send funds to Kenya. See here for the Missions of Hope a worthy mission in need of your support.

And today I broke down and got some spa treatments. I travel tomorrow and where I am going it is very dry. I decided to have a hydrating facial and paraffin treatments for the hands and feet. I haven't had a facial in about a year and half. That is really too long a period and my skin was quite clogged even though I wash religiously, exfoliate and don't wear facial make up.

I've never had a parrafin treatment for the feet before. Just once for my hands. It was a little tricky lying on a masseuse table with my face and eyes covered in gauze and a facial mask while the aesthetician is saying "stick your foot deep into the oil. put it in, put it in" and I couldn't see the darn thing!! The wax was also too hot but all in all when it was done it felt good to feel the smoothness of the skin after winter's dryness. I didn't get a pedicure this time although this is something I usually do get. All the treatments were part of a well priced spa package which also included a half hour massage. I got the lady to concentrate on my lower back and upper neck for the massage. Wow! I did not realize how tight my upper neck was. After the work was done, I felt a bit groggy and tired but in a nice way. I will sleep well tonight and travel tomorrow in a relaxed manner.

It feels nice to treat myself after a long period of self imposed austerity. If any of you are of the frugal mindset, I'd love to know whether you ever treat yourself to mani/pedis, body massage, facials and the like? If so, do you feel guilty doing it or do you consider it as something you do for your well being and health? Are there things you do in between to prolong the benefits of your facials, mani/pedis or hair treatments so that you don't have to go to the salon every month? I'd be interested in your tips and what you've learned for saving the precious hard earned dollars while at the same time looking well.

I will be traveling over the next week or so. If I have time before I leave, I will schedule a post or two to publish in my absence. Failing that I will post from my destination.

Here is a picture of where I'm going.


Stay well.

Moon Light

FULL MOON

One night as Dick lay fast asleep,
Into his drowsy eyes
A great still light began to creep
From out the silent skies.
It was the lovely moon's, for when
He raised his dreamy head,
Her surge of silver filled the pane
And streamed across his bed.
So, for a while, each gazed at each-
Dick and the solemn moon-
Till, climbing slowly on her way,
She vanished, and was gone.

By Walter de la Mare

Winner of the Giveaway

The names of the entrants to My First Giveaway were entered into a bowl.

The winner selected at random is

*Drum roll* please........

the Happy Sparrow in Australia.

I will be contacting her for the shipping address and I hope that the little one enjoys Sumi :-)
Thank you everyone for entering the giveaway. I had fun hosting it.

I hope you will take a few moments to read my posts on Haiti and Kenya.
Please don't be shy to leave comments too!

Note: I hope no one minds but I changed the cut off date by one day to have time to send the parcel before I go on my trip.

These are Kenya's Children

Some of you know that I have a friend in Kericho, Kenya who is a youth pastor. I am always trying to let others know of his work in the hopes that others would come along side him and help him with his ministry to the orphans and widows in his village and further abroad.

Since the January 2008 elections in Kenya there have been many more refugees added to the countryside. My friend and many of his colleagues go out and minister to these internally displaces people as they are enabled. You can read about his last visit to a refugee camp in the post below the photo. If you can help in this work, please let me know and I will give you the information you need. Otherwise you can pray for the people and their needs as well as the ministers and agencies who try to help. I know that many of you are focused on Haiti right now and that is a good thing. But at the same time, let us not forget about the many others who are also homeless and without food.

Hello friends,

I am sitting here and my mind is far away. I have been praying for those in Haiti and thinking about the sights and voices there that I see on the news.

Here in Kenya, I am thinking of those who are in the internally displaced people camps (IDPs). Their tents are torn and leaking. It is sad that we have a cruel world.

I am saddened more with the sight of the children, crying for help, and not knowing the dangers of over exposure to cold and bad weather. The worst thing is that they don't have enough clothes to cover them.

I also met Rachael who gave birth at the camp. We asked her how she got to her child without the services of a matron, and she said, the Lord was on her side. She appealed for help in terms of clothes and warm items to keep the baby warm as they live in the tent.

We need to stand out and pray for the hurting world. It is such a sad time for those in the IDP camps.

God Bless
Pastor Jonah

Gazing in Gastown

In my first giveaway which you can read about and enter here, several of you said you would like to see and know more about the city where I live. Lynne from Canberra said she would like to know what sights I would take her to if she came to visit. So here is my first post on the "touristy sights" of Vancouver. My home by the ocean.

If you were to fly in to Vancouver, stop into port on a cruise ship or stay at one of the downtown hotels, one of the key places you would likely visit is Gastown. I had to go there today as I was looking for a particular kind of Valentine's Day cards for my niece and I haven't been able to find them. Yesterday, I had one more recommendation as to where I might find these cards so off I went to Salmagundi's in Gastown. Unfortunately the shop didn't have the cards I was looking for but it made perfect sense to stop there as it was enroute to the St. Paul's Hospital where my cousin's daughter is having major heart surgery tomorrow morning. I wanted to stop in at the hospital and sit with my relatives for awhile before the big surgery event later this morning.

Here is the entrance into Gastown from the western side of this tourist area. You can see the pavers on the sidewalk, the Gaslight style street lamps and the cobblestone streets. This is one of the oldest parts of our city. It is a beautiful area with character buildings, tourist shops, interesting shopping experiences with both a local and a global flavour and some excellent restaurants. You will also find a wonderful collection of northwest coast art and other native handcrafts, as well as a lot of other uniquely Canadian creations. For example, you will find smoked salmon pate and lox as well as the world famous maple syrup and maple sugar candies.

Gastown was established in 1867, which is also the year of Canada's birth as a nation. This part of town is on the south side of what is called Burrard Inlet (see on the map below). In those days, this area was a wilderness with only a sawmill in the area and the mill owner did not permit any alcohol on the grounds.

One day a man named Jack Deighton came to town. His nickname was "Gassy Jack" because he loved to talk and could spin a lot of tales. He arrived with a barrel of whiskey and he promised the mill workers that he would serve them drinks if they would build him a saloon. It wasn't long before a saloon was built in the area. Thus Gastown was born.

[Click map to enlarge]

Just down the street from where the first photos are taken is a steam clock. It was first built and erected here in 1977 after the area underwent a revitalization. The clock was designed and built by Canadian Raymond Saunders. His clocks are also displayed in several other Canadian cities as well as Otaru, Japan and Indianapolis, Minnesota in the USA. The clock is a great tourist attraction in this part of the city. Visitors come from all around to watch the steam emitting from the clock; much like they flock to Prague's Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square.

Gastown has had a rough and tumble reputation and has gone through many incarnations. In 1886 Gastown was incorporated as the City of Vancouver, named after Captain George Vancouver, a British Explorer. Sadly, just a few months later a brush fire burned out of control and brought the city to ruins leaving all but 2 of it's buildings in ashes. In the 1920s and onward,Gastown prospered but when the Great Depression hit, the area fell on very hard times and the area became a skid row. In the 1960s a group of people saved the area from demolition and obliteration and it was reborn and recognized as a dedicated Heritage Site in the early 1970s.

In the photos below, you will see a small sample of the many tourist shops that sell memorabilia to remind visitors of Canada and their stop in Vancouver.

[A stuffed bear stands guard in the uniform of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police]

I hope you enjoyed your short tour of Gastown and that you will visit again soon.