Pacific Populaire

This weekend was one of the best in recent memory. The sun was shining and it was actually around 20° C. today. What great scootering weather - but I didn't scoot at all.

Why not?

Two words - Pacific Populaire.

My friend, Stew (whose photos grace the blog entry today) asked me if I wanted to join him and a friend a few weeks ago. I said that I would probably go but actually waited until the last possible moment so I could check the weather forecast. As it turned out, the weather was perfect.

I drove into Vancouver with my bike on my carrier and parked at Stew's house. Stew and I were joined by his friend, Lana, who had come over the night before from Vancouver Island. After a quick cup of tea, we headed out on our bikes to the Pacific Populaire.


The event is put on by the BC randonneurs which is a long distance cycling group. This particular event was just for fun so it attracted everyone from the serious hard-core cyclist to, well, us. There was a choice between 25, 50 or 100 km so we went up the middle and chose 50 km.


When we arrived, there was a huge lineup for registration - obviously the good weather had brought out a lot of last minute participants. Luckily we had pre-registered so we didn't have to lineup for an hour.


There were so many people registering that the ride was delayed by half an hour. Then we were off!


As usual when I'm starting of on a long ride, I went to fast and did not find my own pace until about 5 km. After that I slowed down a bit and found a pack of cyclists at my own speed. The ride starts in Vancouver at a place called Riley Park and goes along streets that have dedicated bike lanes. We headed south and eventually crossed the bridge over the Fraser River and went by Vancouver Airport. We then ended up cycling in Richmond.


The Richmond part of the ride was very enjoyable as it was relatively flat and there wasn't too much traffic.


At around the 20 km mark, we stopped for a quick coffee at a coffee shop. It was a nice break as we watched the other cyclists whizz by but eventually the sweeper of the 50 km ride stopped by and we decided it was time to press on!


We made good time on the 5 km to the halfway mark and then got our control cards stamped.


Happily there was a nice variety of food including bananas, cookies and cakes.

We had a quick rest and then got back on the bikes as we didn't want to stay at the back of the pack....


I felt really good for the next several kilometres. We made good time as the roads were smooth and the headwind eventually dissipated. We continued on until we crossed the bridge back into Vancouver. Then began the hill back up to the start. Although I slowed a bit on the hills, I still made pretty good time.


Finally, we rode into Riley Park and received a pin to commemorate our ride. We finished the 50 km ride in 3 hours and 24 minutes but that included the 30 minute stop for coffee. After having a couple more cookies and a celebratory photo, we headed to another coffee shop for a quick latte. A very enjoyable ride, but I don't know if I'll be up to the 100 km next year!

A grey palette paints the day

When we lived in Scotland on my year long teacher exchange, so many days were grey but also beautiful. It looked like God had decided just to use a palette of greys, but still painted a masterpiece.

Yesterday, the rains stopped and, as I had some appointments in Vancouver, I rode out on my Vespa. It seemed that the Scottish palette of greys was in use again, with the occasional splash of fall colours.

Some dark clouds were brooding over Burke Mountain as I rode through Coquitlam. I had a hard time riding in traffic as I saw so many different cloud formations so I ended up pulling over several times.

One of the cloud formations had sun behind it and I was hard pressed to find a place to pull over. It amazes me that I seem to see so much more on the Vespa than when I’m in my car. I really try to take advantage of the many traffic lights on this route so I can rubberneck safely.

The traffic was fairly light as I headed onto the Barnet Highway. This photo of the sulphur piles in the Port Moody Arm of Burrard Inlet is OK - in reality the sulphur is such a deep and saturated yellow that it almost seems to pop out of its surroundings.

Further on up Barnet Highway, I pulled over and took a photo of the inlet looking west. The colours of the palette had definitely gone beyond grey at this point. Unfortunately, my camera kept shutting of at this point because the battery needed recharging.

I continued on into Vancouver with the sun providing some actual warmth. There were no near-death experiences and a bus driver actually honked to let me pull ahead!

In Vancouver, I stopped at the Kits Coffee Company and had an excellent latté and a Sicilian grilled sandwich. I had brought my laptop so managed to mark most of my students’ work that was done online.

My final stop before my last appointment was Granville Island. I never tire of the views from there. The public market is great there as well - I grabbed some sort of French sausage to supplement my dinner - and then walked out towards the water. Luckily, my camera had enough life in it to fire off a bunch of night photos - of which one or two were pretty good.

Unfortunately, at the end of my Vancouver time, I got a phone call that one of my good friend’s father had passed away. A tradition with this particular group of friends is to buy a nice bottle of Scotch and then spend some time with the person who has lost a parent. I stopped in at the fancy Cambie Street liquor store and bought a bottle of cask strength Laphroaig.

An hour and a bit later, I was at my friend’s house, toasting the memory of his father with a couple of wee drams. This “grey” end to the day, sort of a “pre-wake”, was actually a pretty comforting way to end off the day.

Summer's here!

Ahhh, summer... here at last.

A few days ago, we had a family luncheon in West Vancouver. The day was so nice that I thought I’d take the scoot and meet the family at my brother-in-law’s newly renovated house.

The ride was pleasant and warm from Maple Ridge to Vancouver. Once I was downtown, the traffic increased but was fine.

To get to West Vancouver, the road goes through a causeway in a huge park called Stanley Park. After the causeway is the famous Lions Gate Bridge which connects West Vancouver (part of the North Shore) to the city of Vancouver.

The causeway is three lanes so there was one going to West Van on the day I was riding. I was a bit worried about keeping up but the traffic was a bit congested so I had no problems.


The most exciting part was when I was on the Lions Gate Bridge. (Above picture from here) I’ve been on a few bridges already but not one so scenic and so high! It was a bit windy which was a bit scary but the thrill of being up on top of the world was amazing!


When I reached my brother-in-law Rob’s place, my little nieces and my year-old nephew were very excited by the Vespa. I didn’t take them for a ride but they had a blast posing on the seat.


Then I did what I always do when people admire my Vespa - I invited Rob to take it for a spin. He was gone for about 15 or 20 minutes (I was just a little bit nervous) and returned with a large smile on his face.


There were some beautiful views off of their deck. In the picture above, there is a great photo of the Lions Gate Bridge. Behind the bridge are the trees from Stanley Park. The city is beyond that.


After a great time,. I headed back through Vancouver, taking this photo of a couple of Vancouver’s tourist attractions, Christ Church Cathedral and a tour tram. Unfortunately, when putting away the camera in my pocket (as the light turned green) I jammed the lens and now my new camera from Japan (which isn’t covered by the warranty in Canada) is kaput. Oh well, at least summer’s here!

Wet, Grey Ride to Vancouver

If I were an artist - and I’m not - and I had to paint the colours of today’s ride, I’d only need black, white and maybe a bit of grey.

It was time for another servicing so today I rode into Vancouver. I take my Vespa in every 2000 km or about 4 months to get an oil change and to be checked over. It’s certainly more often than suggested but I l only really want to ride my scooter, not tinker with it, so this has worked well for me.

My youngest daughter is in Japan - I head there on Thursday - so she has my camera. The photos I have posted today were taken with my video camera so I apologize for the lack of quality.



I meant to take some photos on the way but the rain, which was not bad when I was still, completely soaked me while riding. Luckily I have good gloves, waterproof clothes, and I was even wearing my gortex overbooties!


After dropping off the Vespa, I headed into Kitsilano - a trendy section of Vancouver where Vespa Vancouver is located. There’s lots of good restaurants., cool stores and loads of interesting people.


I stopped at Kits Coffee for an early lunch (panini) and a latté while I read a couple guidebooks on Japan. Between the library and the Book Warehouse, I’ve accumulated a number of books about Tokyo - you’d think I hadn’t lived there before - sheesh!


I saw this interesting mutant bicycle - looks like some sort of Harley - Peugeot hybrid. It caused a few people to stop and look.

While talking to my favourite Vespa dealer, Bob, I found out that, much to my surprise, Vespa Vancouver was not rebranding but, in fact, now had a competitor. A couple weeks ago, I was at the Green Living Show in Vancouver and saw a display for Vespa Metro. I assumed that this was a new name for the old store, especially since I vaguely recognized one of the people at the display.


No, Vespa Inc. has decided to open another Vespa retailer in Vancouver, near (but not in) the area known as Little Italy (Vespa Metro is pictured above). Bob is not particularly happy as people think that the two stores are owned by the same people. He’s also a bit worried about a price war which could be good for the consumer if prices drop and could be bad for the consumer if they both go broke. For the time being, I’m very happy with Bob and the service at Vespa Vancouver so I’ll stick with them.


Vespa Metro does have a cool mural in progress, though.


I left with my serviced Vespa and headed home, stopping at Coquitlam Centre to pick up some Chinese groceries at T and T market. Lo and behold, when I left the mall, the sun was almost breaking through the clouds. It was definitely worth a photo.

So now, I am getting ready for my upcoming trip to Tokyo. I will hopefully be reunited with my still camera (or might even get another one in Tokyo) and have some interesting photos for this blog. Until then, sayonara!

Rolllin’ Along

It’s that busy time of year. The students at school are working pretty hard, report cards are looming ahead so there’s lots of assessment and projects to mark, and the home front is pretty busy as number one daughter readies herself for graduation from high school and university next year.

Another thing I’ve been involved with is called Humanoes for Hope. It’s a project that our school district is getting involved in which brings wells , food, schools etc. to Malawi. My part has been to make the video for the project. Every spare moment that the computer is free, I’m busy burning DVDs - I’ll need a couple hundred before next month.

Anyway, I’ve been busy doing all these school related things that I haven’t really had or made time for long scooter rides during the past month. The weather’s been variable - some snowy or icy days and other days where the sun actually makes an all-to-brief appearance.

But I have been riding a lot. Most days to school or to Vancouver or to New Westminster - just not anywhere particularly new and exciting.

I haven’t bothered to take a camera lately but I am still enjoying the ride. Sometimes I underestimate and get a bit chilled or overestimate and end up stuffing my pet carrier with sweaters. But I still get that fresh feeling of excitement every time I hop on the scooter, whether it’s the hour long trek in Vancouver or the ten minute ride to school. It’s all good.

As the weather continues to warm and the load from school continues to lessen, I look forward to spending a day here and there just cruising. Until then, though, I will rollin’ along, with a smile on my face.

Gung Hey Fat Choi!

Happy New Year!

Chinese, that is....

Thursday marked the beginning of the newest lunar new year, the year of the rat, and I was lucky enough to have two opportunities to celebrate.

First, on Thursday, I took my class down to to Chinatown in Vancouver for a field trip. It is a great trip that is a real eye opener for many of my students.

The city where I live has around 8% visible minorities in the population, much less that Vancouver (where I grew up). The kids just aren't used to anything but "North American"or western culture. When they go to Chinatown, it's like a whole new world is opened up to them. And all of the comments from the kids are really positive.

We took Skytrain from New Westminster to get to Chinatown. Skytrain is an elevated rapid transit system which some of the kids have not taken before. It's quite a slick system and could accommodate all of us very easily.

After arriving in Chinatown, the students had a scavenger hunt to fill out which involved observing and taking to people in the different stores there. When we talked about that part the next day, all of the students had only good things to say about the merchants in Chinatown. Afterwards, we had dim sum in a large restaurant and then headed back to the school.

Today was the parade for Chinese New Year. My family and I headed down and got there just before it started. Because it was year of the rat, there were lots of Chinese Mickey Mouse hangings - and I'm sure that Disney In. received 0% in royalties!

The parade started off with the God of Prosperity - a very archetypical Chinese figure - and guys throwing lots of packs of firecrackers on the ground. My eldest daughter commented on how there were so many sound bites in the parade - firecrackers, music, bands, the crowd, the stores, drums - that really added to the parade.

After came the bands and then the politicians and other VIPs. Now, Vancouver is a very West Coast kind of place so instead of all the famous people sitting in fancy cars (which would cause a lot of pollution) they all were walking (The one exception, of course, was Mayor Sam Sullivan who was zipping along in his wheelchair)! It seemed a very open, green, and responsible thing to do.

After a few more marching groups such as the scouts or different Chinese societies, along came all of our favourite - the dragons! The dragons had at least two people in the costume. They ran and deked and spun around in a sort of dance. They are nothing short of spectacular to watch. One dragon had about ten people controlling it. Very cool!

There was a good mix of Chinese people and gwai loh - non-Chinese - and a very festive atmosphere. I think that it's great that people can be Canadian and live in a country yet still retain their cultural heritage.

As for scootering - two things since my last post. Number one, I didn't win the contest. There were literally hundreds of entries including people who kayaked every day, snow shoed, and a host of other remarkable commutes. Even thought I didn't win, I was glad for the chance to write down how I felt about my commute.

Number two, the weather here, after a fair bit of snow two weeks ago (including two snow days - Hurray!) has become decidedly warmer. The temperature has hovered around 8 or 9 degrees Celsius (close to 50° F.) and has been especially great for zipping around town. I'm looking forward to making some longer trips very soon!

Let me wish everyone gung hey fat choi (which means congratulations and prosperity) and may the new year be a great one!

Vancouver, Step by Step

Today was another one of those glorious days.

I had to go into Vancouver and decided to scoot in.

There are certain sections to a trip to Vancouver from Maple Ridge so I thought I’d share what the different phases are like. By the way, my apologies for the photos acquired from other sites - I left my camera at my sister’s house on Canadian Thanksgiving....


Maple RIdge - Pitt Meadows

This part of the trip is on the Lougheed Highway and is OK. It’s mostly flat so I can get going at a pretty good clip but I’ve done it a zillion times before so it can get a bit humdrum. Going over the Pitt River bridge is the best part simply because I like going over bridges!


Port Coquitlam - Coquitlam - Port Moody

The next part I don’t go on as frequently as the first part of my trip. The road is fairly flat but there are lots of different stores, lights to stop at, lane changes, and more than a couple coffee shops to stop at when I get too cold. Luckily it was a fairly warm and sunny day today so I zipped right through this part of my trip. I sensibly wore my jeans and had a couple layers under my gortex jacket.


Barnet Highway

I’ve blogged about this highway before. Since I can’t go on the freeway (not that I ever would want to with cars whizzing by at 100 kmh), this is my best route into the city. It is a very pretty ride, with lots of trees and Burrard Inlet to my right as I ride into the big city. There’s two lanes each way and one of the lanes is a commuter lane where motorcycles are free to go on. There’s also usually a fair number of cyclists on the route (momentary guilt) and I sometimes give them a polite ‘meep’ of encouragement when I go past. The only downside of this part, which connects Port Moody and Burnaby, is that it is mostly in shade because of all the trees and so can be quite cold.


Hastings Burnaby

Although Hastings Street has a bad name in the news, the part that goes through the city of Burnaby which is adjacent to Vancouver is quite nice. Two neighbourhoods, Capital Hill and The Heights, are particularly nice and have come back from bad reputations as a result of the residents turning things around. I really like The Heights as there are lots of ethnic shops and restaurants and, most importantly, coffee shops to stop at for a warming latté!


East Hastings

Once I enter Vancouver, Hastings is still not such a bad place. The Pacific National Exhibition is on the right and quiet residential areas fill out the rest. As I ride closer to the centre of the city, however, the street becomes more desolate and depressing. The Downtown Eastside is centred on this area with homeless people, drug users, and a host of other social ills. Still, I don’t mind riding through this area - people don’t antagonize me and it’s probably a good idea to be aware of what’s happening in this part of the city.


West Hastings

As I ride past the Church of Scientology, sort of a marker between east and west, Hastings Street changes to swank, stylish buildings and trendy, upscale malls such as the Sinclair Centre. It amazes me that in just a few blocks the cityscape changes from homeless people to high end designer stores. I ride on, to the edge of Vancouver, sunshine shining down on me as I scoot towards the North Shore.


West Vancouver

After scooting through the causeway of Stanley Park, I rode onto the Lions’ Gate Bridge for the first time on my Vespa. It was incredible! The scenery was beautiful and I felt so high up! I’ve been over the bridge thousands of time before in a car but never on a scooter. It was amazing. I rode onto West Vancouver into the Village at Park Royal to my destination, coffee with my wife at Caffe Artigianno.

And, wonderful as the ride was, after I had my latté, I smiled as I contemplated the ride home....

Tour of Vancouver

We’ve had the good fortune of having visitors from Scotland over the past couple of weeks. I went on a teacher exchange about six years ago and my family got to know a good number of different people in the village where we lived (Ardaneaskan) as well as the town that was up the road (Lochcarron). Our visitors were good friends with my whole family and it was wonderful to show them around town.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have done some touring around Vancouver. I thought I’d share some places that I have particularly enjoyed visiting lately.

First up is the Vancouver Aquarium. It is in Stanley Park, a huge park area attached to the downtown area of Vancouver. It’s a 1000 acres and is actually a bit bigger than Central Park in New York.



There was once a zoo but there was public pressure to get out of the zoo business and just concentrate on aquatic creatures. There are some seals, otters, whales, etc, but they tend to be rescue animals rather than animals captured explicitly for the aquarium. There are shows but these tend to focus on the animals’ natural abilities rather than tricks.

There are also a huge variety of different tanks, an amazon area complete with a zillion butterflies, and lots of interactive displays for the kiddies.



Next is the Vancouver Art Gallery. We saw an exhibit called Monet to Dali. This is a great cross section of artists on loan from the Cleveland Museum of Art. I never realized that Cleveland had such an awesome collection of paintings.




Outside the gallery, which is located in the old courthouse, there was a film crew filming a large group on the steps leading to the front. The gallery often is used in movies and TV shows for - you guessed it - a courthouse.




The last interesting thing was a countdown clock beside the gallery. The Winter Olympics will be held in 2010 in Vancouver. Reaction to this upcoming event ranges from ecstatic excitement about what is going to happen in three short years to upset grumblings as the costs rise and construction takes over the city.



The third place that the females in my family especially like is Robson Street. It is a shopper’s paradise - several blocks of different stores, ranging from touristy and tacky to music to high fashion to great restaurants.



Of course, I like to spend my time wandering around and people watching. I really don’t like the shopping part but I do like looking at the different kinds of people - different nationalities, rich and poor, young and old.



I also like the unusual things that happen to make their way to Robson. In one block there were two unusual cars - one advertising a restaurant and the other - well, it looked interesting!



Inside one of the stores, there was this old Harley - looks like a heavy duty bicycle with a motor - obviously a precursor to the modern motorcycle.



The final stop for this tour of Vancouver is Little Italy on Commercial Drive. This is the kind of place where you’ll find scooterists getting together before a ride. I also like the sense of humour for some of the signs in the area.



We had a great lunch at an Italian restaurant. I was particularly struck by the pizza oven - not only how it looked, but also how well it worked. I love true italian style pizza.



After a great meal, we headed back home - well, actually, it took a couple of days to see these attractions but what the heck. I guess there are a lot of things to see in Vancouver....