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2004-03-26 - 10:24 a.m.

City Made of Glass

Some folks call Kansas City �Paris on the Plains� and it is true enough that Kansas City has some lovely neighborhoods and there is plenty to see and do....and EAT! Our football team is undefeated and our baseball team won more games than they lost this year (as I might have mentioned) KC is even big enough to have a gay ghetto.

The downside of living here is that the weather is unbearable 10 months of the year, although October is nice. It�s one of the violent crime and murder capitals of North America. Downtown is dead after dark and there are plenty of parts of town where you don�t want to be after dark. Public transportation is almost non-existent. It�s a paranoid town too. We don�t want tourists to think it�s a cowtown and less cosmopolitan than St Louis.

Which brings us to Vancouver, British Columbia. Call me a tourist from a Midwestern cowtown, but Vancouver IS cosmopolitan. And it seems to be a workable, liveable city. And very beautiful.

Want to know the only thing I knew about Vancouver until a few years ago? It�s where �The X-Files� was filmed. Anytime Scully and Mulder were chasing aliens thru the woods, they were really in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Remember when Krycek got his arm cut off in the Russian forest? Same park in Vancouver.

Sometimes X-Files nitpickers would complain that there really aren�t snow capped mountains near Washington DC., but that is just being petty.

Vancouver is vertical and made out of glass. We were staying on 28th floor of one of the glass high-rises. After 6 hrs in flight and a grueling hour of getting through Canadian customs, I was exhausted and spent for the day. I saw my balcony with it's spectacular view of downtown and the ocean and announced that I hoped the hotel had good room service because I was never leaving my balcony again. The view was that gorgeous.

Because it a city of glass, I observed two things. First, other people�s lives are open to you like they were living in a doll house. What caught my eye first was the hot naked man in the hotel across the street that was fresh from the shower. Well, of course, I am going to notice the naked guy before the woman feeding the toddler in the highchair or the woman watering her hanging baskets.

What a town for a voyeur!

People were cooking or reading. Sunning themselves on their balconies, watching TV, working at their computers. Fat cats were observing the day out of glass windows. What a great town in which to be a cat.

The second thing I noticed was that when the sun came up in the morning, because of the glass and the reflection, the light would bounce around and the whole city became a sunrise. It was brilliant and amazing.

Of course there is a lot more to Vancouver than becoming a peeping Tom.

I had always heard it rained a lot there, but the weather was sunny and mild while we were there. Sitting in a sidewalk caf�s with either a fine Canadian beer or coffee, depending on the time of day, and watching cute Asian boys stroll by was high on my list of things to do.

We did some touristy things, of course. I wanted to see Stanley Park and where Krycek lost that arm...and Totem Poles.

Totem Pole park was so packed with tourist buses you could be barely see the poles.

We went to Chinatown which is always exotic for a Kansas Lad and full of interesting smells, not all of them pleasant. I did find my favorite sandalwood soap on sale; 3bars $ 1.29 and that�s Canadian

A short list of other things we did that you can�t do in Kansas:

Saw a film at the Vancouver Film festival

Spent a lot of time looking for places to park. Even more time looking for a gas station. Good public transportation cuts down on the number of gas stations.

Miss B drank opium tea near Main and Hastings. Vancouver is like the Amsterdam of North America and we saw people selling crack on the streets

Tried Robo-Sushi

Tried maple blackened salmon for dinner

Drank bubble tea

Sat on the balcony and watched the sunset over the water.

Bought my nephew a Canucks jersey

Heard people end every sentence with �Eh?�

Next stop, Victoria BC, eh?



Go Back
Previously in Justinland: Our Last Five Entries

Wagons Ho! - 4-23-2004

This Old Barn - 4-17-2004

Death and Taxes - 4-15-2004

MMQB:Leftover Peeps - 4-12-2004

The Alamo; The Movie not the Shrine - 4-10-2004


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