Vancouver BC - Bus and Trolley Tour

I am pretty certain we took http://vancouvertrolley.com/, but it was sort of a spontaneous thing that we did, and I don't remember for sure. Because our primary purpose was visiting a friend, and not really being tourists, this trip was different for us.

I like these hop on/hop off tours, because they combine transportation with information. Some of the information comes from the training they provide, but some guides take it to the next level. "Mike" was great.

In addition to having lived in the area for a long time, he had also worked in the film and television industry. Not only did this give him more anecdotes about the filming that happened at some of the locations (those double doors became the Daily Planet for "Smallville"), but also he had been working on a documentary about the Vancouver Biennale, so he also knew a lot about the art along our route. He was also familiar with the architectural history, so really he was just full of information, and pleasant and engaging. We had a great time and learned things.

Since that helped us get the lay of the land better, after we were done we knew we were close to Gastown, so we wandered back down to get a closer look at the clock, and then other things were more familiar. If you are going as a tourist, this is highly recommended.

Orca

It should have been very easy to include the aquarium with Stanley Park, because the aquarium was the main thing we did. My feelings were all mixed up though, because of Blackfish.

Killer whales were always a big part of our trips to British Columbia. On our first trip to Victoria, we went to Sealand. Tillikum was not there yet; it was Haida and Miracle, but on our next trip there, Miracle had died, and they had Tillikum. When we went to Vancouver instead of Victoria, we went to Stanley Park and saw the whales at the Vancouver Aquarium, and then the Disney Channel had a show, Danger Bay, filmed there, so we could see it more. I think I even remember seeing killer whales at Knott's Berry Farm long ago, but that may have only been dolphins.

(And yes, we did watch Orca when it was on television, but aside from the factual inaccuracies, I think there were plot and acting problems.)

This is all many years ago. Learning later that Tilikum had been moved to SeaWorld, and about the deaths, was unsettling, so I was fascinated when Blackfish came out. I did not see it immediately, but I read enough about it that I started to feel that orcas did not belong in captivity.

Returning to the Vancouver Aquarium, I was happy to see that they no longer had the orcas, and I love belugas, so was glad to see them. I remember thinking that it made sense that you could keep belugas and dolphins in captivity, because of their smaller size. Orcas are so much larger, and they have these complex social groups, and it is not practical to have enough space to fill those needs. As I started getting closer to reviewing Stanley Park, I started wondering if I was right.

I tried some internet searches, and couldn't get anywhere. I also decided I needed to watch Blackfish. I watched it the day that I wrote up Stanley Park. I had not written anything previously, but I had selected the pictures that I wanted to use. After watching the movie, I found I could not deal with the aquarium at all, and I deleted all the pictures from the aquarium.

The movie was only about orcas, and so my question still was not answered, but I needed more time. I still don't really have any answers.

One thing that I thought would be helpful is that if the Association of Zoos and Aquariums gave accreditation to the Shedd and to the Vancouver Aquarium, but not to SeaWorld, or to none of them, that might be an indication; they are all accredited.

I did a search on belugas in captivity. That took me to an activist rant who was against any of them being in captivity, but she also said all scientists agreed that whales are smarter than humans, and lauded Keiko's release to the wild as a success story, which is an overstatement. Maybe if he had lived longer that could have gone better, but he was lonely and he died.

The point is that I can't trust her judgment. I can't trust SeaWorld's either, because one thing that the movie demonstrated was that they have a horrible track record on truth telling. I know they complain a lot about the movie, and its bias, but they had film footage and newspaper articles and court documents for their claims.

So, yes, I am glad that the Vancouver Aquarium no longer keeps orcas. The more I looked into it, trying to establish a timeline for my memories, it just grew worse and worse. Miracle drowning at the bottom of the pool sounds more sinister. Haida's life was sad. Tilikum's life is a tragedy. But what about other cetaceans? I don't know.

I do not have a moral objection to zoos. I know they can be done well or badly. I remember when our zoo was all concrete and iron, and that's not how it is now, and I do believe in the role they play in conservation.

Obviously an important factor is the quality of life the animals get. It may be hard for us to judge, but one alarming thing was learning how bad the lifespan of orcas in captivity is. Whales that could live from 80 - 100 years in the wild usually die before 35. That's horrifying. Clearly they do not belong in captivity.

I can't find equivalent statistics on belugas and dolphins. It looks like it is not great for false killer whales, which is not surprising, but they don't seem to be widely held. However, I did see some statistics for the percent of belugas now in captivity who were captured in the wild, and that doesn't look good. Maybe another criterion needs to be whether self-sustaining breeding programs are possible.

So I end this concerned, and without being able to do a normal review of the Vancouver Aquarium. The non-cetacean exhibits are okay, I guess, but they didn't stick with me. Right now my favorite aquarium is the one at Point Defiance, because I remember good use of space, and respect for the environment, but also, no cetaceans. They would be too small anyway, but I think that's for the best.

Vancouver BC - Stanley Park

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx

In my mind I had always thought of Stanley Park as the aquarium, which is actually Vancouver Aquarium, which is just one possible thing to do in the park. In that way, it is similar to Point Defiance - yes there is a zoo and aquarium there, but there is also a lot more.

Our path along the Seawall led to Stanley Park, and we did quite a bit of walking through there, but later on we got a bus, and we took a tour bus through the area later.

There are walking and biking trails through trees and along the water, but there are also horse-drawn trolleys, art, wishing wells, and scenic spots for weddings. It is a good place to enjoy nature and soak up the sun.

However, most of our time there was at the aquarium, and I need to treat that separately.

Vancouver BC - The Seawall

https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/seawall.aspx

Stanley Park being one of our memories from our childhood trips, it was the thing in Vancouver that we most wanted to see again. I will write about that next week.

The reason we were in Vancouver this time is that we were visiting a friend, and she lived near Lonsdale Quay, and pretty much everything we did started with a trip via the SeaBus to the Waterfront in downtown Vancouver. This made it pretty convenient to walk along the Seawall to Stanley Park.

The entire path is 22 kilometers, so we did not do the entire thing. We saw other parts of it via regular bus and a tour bus. I really loved what I saw.

The path works well for walking. Actually there are two sections, one for pedestrians and another for bikes and skates. (Well, they specify inline skating. If you have old-fashioned roller skates I'm sure you can get away with it, but I suspect skateboards aren't allowed.)

We were lucky to be going on a sunny day, and everything was just beautiful. This is just a small sampling of the pictures that I took, but you have landscaping, art, boats, water features, and as you near the park there are trees everywhere.

The path was smooth and pleasant, and it was popular. Making good use of waterfront is a key way to put some life in the heart of a city, and this is something that Vancouver has done well. While some of the renovations are from after Vancouver started getting big, the Seawall itself goes back to 1917, so that is almost a century of civic pride.

I would love to go back and bike the entire thing. For walking, I'm not sure how much was the Seawall itself, but from the pedometer I know we logged over eight miles walking that day. I'm not saying we didn't feel it, but it was also pretty satisfying.

Vancouver BC - Art around the city

As we walked and rode around Vancouver, there was art everywhere.

Much of this was due to the Vancouver Biennale:

http://www.vancouverbiennale.com/

Their web page describes it as every two years, turning the city into "an open air art museum". That seems like a pretty good description. We only saw the sculpture aspects, but there were clusters of sculpture everywhere.

In theory these installations are temporary, but many of them stay on, like A-maze-ing Laughter:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/08/10/why-are-you-laughing-5m-secures-vancouvers-beloved-smiling-statues-but-what-do-they-really-mean/

While the festival is certainly responsible for some of the art, I have to feel that it was building on an existing tradition, and appreciation for artwork. There wouldn't be the sustained interest otherwise, and many of these pieces do not come from the festival.

However, much of the artwork is still pretty new. My favorite piece was Digital Orca, by Douglas Coupland, next to the Vancouver Convention Centre. It is designed to make you think of pixelated images, but my first thought was that it looked like it had been built out of Legos. (It is actually powder covered steel.)

Digital Orca is from 2009, like many of the other pieces that were part of the Convention Centre's Art Project. There were other projects as well, reflecting the city's growth, both in population and wealth, so perhaps it felt like a growth in culture was required as well.