Cruisin’ Canada: The Mean City

Vancouver, beautiful and lovely, filled the with rudest people I have ever run across in all my travels. I love this city, I am not a fan of it’s residents.

We decided to spend the whole day biking the city, exploring and having fun. We made our way into the downtown area, staying on the perfect bike paths that surround this lovely place. Too bad on these perfect paths are populated by the rudest creatures. These creatures would jump bike straight for you in a game of chicken as fast as they could, even though the rest of the path was clear. These creatures would walk on the bike paths and bike and the walking paths. They would fly by the people (namely: us) who would actually walk their bikes in the sections that were marked “walk bikes only” loudly cursing us for being in their way. The creatures would hiss at us as they walked blindly in front of us (on the bike path) as a pedestrian. I heard a 20 year old girl screaming at a older man on a bike that he had done something she didn’t like. She kept yelling obscenities at him for another minute as she passed him on her bike. The servers are rude, the people in the parks are rude, the store clerks are rude. People it is sunny and gorgeous outside take a chill pill!

We biked all along the water line of the city, through Stanley Park and took a break to play at the playground that looked too fun to miss.





After our park play we continued along the water and found ourselves in front of what looked like Epcot Center at Disney World. It was the science center museum and the boys were excited to enter. We thought it would be perfect-- we could spend a couple of hours there and then head to the lunch spot just a few blocks away that was pre-chosen (a raw food restaurant called Organic Lives that had been recommended).

The Science Center was amazing. The exhibits were all perfectly kid friendly and plentiful. The kids favorites were trying to sink a pirate ship, bug skee-ball, the disco room, the skiing game, the mind control game,








panning for gold, searching for treasure with a metal detector,











lifting hippo with a lever and folcrum,












racing to save the planet by taking mass transit, learning where our food comes from and where our trash goes,











making a bass drum beat with the electrical current that makes their heart beat. The crowd was manageable and the boys still had tons they wanted to do when we left a few hours later.

We left to eat some lunch (the raw food, not such a big hit at this restaurant for the boys) and kept riding along the edge of the water to the People’s Market. Selling everything from fish heads to flowers, all things local and fresh could be bought here. We had some local raspberries while we perused the stalls of candy, baked goods, treats and sweets, and chocolate. All of us stayed strong and kept with our raspberry treat and moved along through the local artisans and back outside.

We decided to turn back and let the kids have a bit more time in the museum, they just weren’t quite finished yet. We stopped to take in the giant bird statues in the Olympic Village area, and then parked the bikes and headed inside for an hour.


And this is where the city gets downright mean...

Bill came out to grab the water bottles for a refill when he discovered someone had cut our lock and stolen his graduation, one of a kind bike! When he came inside he just showed me cut lock, no words necessary. His face said it all. He called the police to file a report, while I gathered the kiddos and filled them in. The boys were so worried and sad for their Papa. Bill came out from using the phone, calm and collected and together. I was so proud of him. The impression it made on both boys that Bill was so upset (I mean, we all know how much he LOVES that bike!) and yet there wasn’t any hysterics coming from him. They knew he was sad and mad, and yet didn’t take those emotions out on anyone else around him. The lesson that example taught them was priceless (thank you, Bill for being so amazing!) Bill took the bus home, while I biked back with the boys. We are all devastated for Bill.

Like I said earlier, this is a beautiful, cool city with much to offer a visitor. It just happens to be populated by some very mean people.