Overcast, with poor contrast

Yesterday after I posted the employed person and I went out for dinner. she wanted to see a couple of the things that I had posted about (naturally enough I think). My morning visit to the Burghers of Vancouver had been mostly a private event. By the time she and I arrived the site was swarming with tourists. That's OK, that's what we are too, tourists.

She adopted the attitude prevailing among the tourists, and decided that she was one of the burghers.I was a tiny bit surprised by this but it seems to be tulip time in Vancouver.I am also a little surprised by the palm trees. We are, after all, north of the 49th parallel here, which to my 45th parallel Minnesota sensibilities, seems too far north for palm trees.

Today when she went to work I did some walking, actually probably a little too much walking in Stanley Park. Stanley Park is named for Lord Stanley who was the Governour General of Canada at the time the park was established. It turns out that this is the exact same Lord Stanley who donated that silver cup that the hockey people are so excited about at this time of year.

This is the image that appears on the front of the local "official guide" to Stanley Park.But, no, that's not Lord Stanley or any other Stanley at all. That's Harry Winston Jerome who in 1971 was named the British Columbia Athlete of the Century for 1871-1971. Jerome was a sprinter of exceptional accomplishments, setting six world records during his career in the early 1960s. He set the world record for 100 yards at 9.3 seconds in 1960, lowered it to 9.2 in 1962 and to 9.1 in 1966. He looks fast even today but in actuality is not even moving. It's a statue.

Those are very fast times for 100 yards. Well, I guess a world record IS a fast time. I admit to not being aware of Jerome previously. My interest in track and field probably began shortly after Jerome's period of prominence. The winner of the 100 yard dash in the Olympics was at that time dubbed the world's fastest human (the same appellation currently applied to the winner of the 100 meters, it's a meter kind of world). The first world's fastest human that I recall being aware of was Bob Hayes, the winner of the 100 in 1964, with, if I recall correctly, a world record equaling time of 9.1 seconds.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica is the current world's fastest human and the world record holder in the 100 meters with a time of 9.58 seconds.

A bit further along the walkway I came to the totem poles. It seemed OK to me as the whole area seemed pretty culturally sensitive to what the signs called the First Nation peoples.Here's something I didn't know, totem poles have no religious significance. They are just stories told in carvings, often telling details of family history or other such things.

Here's a view back across the harbour towards Vancouver downtown with Canada Place the white sail looking place on the left and the Vancouver Convention Center on the right (that's where the employed person goes to work). The convention center has a grass covered roof.I also found out while I was over there that that Dead Man's Island thing isn't exactly PRIVATELY held as the guide book said. The Department of Defense, specifically the naval reserve, operates a training center on the island.

This is back on the downtown side, next to the convention center.

It is called "Digital Orca".It probably looks a bit more impressive on a day when the sun is out. I was a little disappointed with the lighting conditions but sometimes you just have to consider that you may never be here again and that these may be the best lighting conditions for photography that are ever going to be offered to you and you just have to go ahead and take the picture.

Here's one for a selected audience, I call it the Vancouver version of the Galeries Lafayette map.Actually it is probably a bit better for navigation that the Galeries Lafayette map but only just a tiny bit so.

The sun came out this afternoon, eventually the temperature rose from the morning 8C to probably 12. With the sun out that was plenty nice enough.

But then we had to spend WAY too much time getting the employed person's cell phone squared away. Last week while we were at home we/she subscribed to some additional services (that means dollars) that were meant to make our phones work in Canada. At first not so much but it appears that after a lengthy LiveChat that she has gotten her media squared away.

We're still here.