Springtime

On days like this, it's good to be alive in Vancouver, BC.

Fine Dining in Vancouver, BC

Calling all foodies! This week the Golden Plates Awards 2010 were announced in the Georgia Straight. The hip, formerly hippie weekly, is one the most objective viewers of Vancouver's amazing, multicultural dining scene.

At the B & B, I have had guests from Tokyo rave about the freshness of our city's Japanese food and guests from Taiwan exult over the vast variety of Vancouver's Chinese cuisine. Literally thousands of new immigrants from over a hundred countries are bringing their Mama's homestyle cooking to a corner cafe somewhere around town. Then there is Pacific ocean seafood purchased on the wharf this morning, top-quality BC and Alberta beef, local native influences, wild game, organic supplies and sophisticated food fusion experiments. On and on it goes and it's hard to keep up with the ever-changing deliciousness of this city's 4500 restaurants.

What I like about the Straight's annual review is it's comprehensiveness. It acknowledges restaurants that are popular and perennial favourites as well as those that peers in the food industry think are outstanding.

If you are coming to Vancouver, follow the link, plan ahead and prepare your taste buds for some of the best and most adventurous dining in the world.

What does being "gay friendly" mean?

Recently, two news reports of gay travellers being refused accommodation by bed and breakfast owners, got me thinking about the subject of gay friendliness in the hospitality industry.

Years ago, a new B & B owner in Vancouver contacted me in order to introduce herself and her business and ask me for some tips on successful innkeeping. Over coffee and reciprocal visits to each other's guesthouses, she told me that she did not understand why I mentioned the word "gay" in describing Nelson House B & B. She said that Canadian society was moving beyond such labels. Surely no one had to worry over outright prejudice and wasn't one's sexual orientation just a private thing?

I hesitated as I didn't know her very well but I figured an honest question deserved an honest answer. First, I said that like most people(meaning the majority of heterosexuals) in the world, I would prefer that my sexual orientation remained a private and personal matter. However, now that I had opened my home to the public as a hospitality and accommodation business, I saw the need to flag sexual orientation to potential customers who might, for their own reasons, prefer to stay elsewhere. And also, I wanted to indicate to gay(and read lesbian too) travellers that no one at Nelson House B & B would blink an eye at an adult, same-sex couple wishing to share a bed.

My new innkeeper friend was too new in the business then to realize that gays form a loyal and highly desirable portion of the travel industry's client base. Even though she was a Jewish woman and probably knew something about prejudice and discrimination, she still found it very difficult to put herself in the shoes of someone suffering discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

All of this came to mind this week when the UK press gave national prominence on the BBC, newspapers and the internet to the denial of accommodation to a gay male couple once the innkeeper realized that the guests were actually a same sex couple. Simultaneously, here in Canada, an almost identical denial of service occurred in Kelowna, BC. The difference in the Canadian case is that the innkeepers defended their actions based on their evangelical Christian beliefs. In both England and Canada(and 50 other countries), national laws are in place to protect all citizens against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Incidentally, the United States is NOT one of those countries. Police in England decided not to press criminal charges and it is up to the English gay couple to pursue possible civil damages. According to media reports of the Canadian case, the couple chose to file a complaint to the BC Human Rights Tribunal. This interesting clash of rights will be decided by early next month.

Now lawsuits and heavily reported civil rights cases are not the reason anyone goes into the bed and breakfast business. In the ten years since I advised my new innkeeper friend, much of the mainstream hotel industry has discovered the reportedly lucrative "pink dollar" and most now trumpet their gay friendliness. Tourism Vancouver and many other cities, states and provinces now dedicate portions of their websites and other marketing campaigns to bragging on their non-discriminatory practices. A go-getter, gay-owned marketing company out of San Francisco has made a bundle by certifying the gay friendliness of corporate hotel chains with little icons of gay approval in the form of luggage tags. Many other PR executives have cleverly inserted a rainbow flag somewhere on their website to reassure and attract gay customers.

I now look back on twenty years of successful innkeeping and look forward to many more ahead. To me, even though times have changed, I know not everyone has changed with the times. As the gay owner of Nelson House B & B, of course I understand and genuinely welcome gay and lesbian travellers. As a man who believes in treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, I have long since dubbed our brand of hospitality as people-friendly!

Beautiful Vancouver Spring

Majestic West Coast daffodils tower amongst the giant centuries-old blue spruce. This is a sight to leave visitors in jaw-dropped awe. Just be ready to yell "TIMBER" and run for cover!

Next week, we stalk the elusive mountain bumblebee - some the size of a VW!!

Vancouver video dreaming...

Surprising to some but this city has a heart. In the two weeks of Olympic glory, Vancouverites let go of their shades and earplugs isolation to high-five strangers on the streets, to smile, cheer and enjoy each other's company. It's a memory that locals are calling "amazing" and "incredible". It's a memory that stirs emotions and raises questions. Was that real? Can we ever be the same? Do we want to be?

On the internet, the following video called Vancouver City featuring Linda Ganzini has gone viral with over 800,000 views on YouTube. It is an artistic collaboration between the Inner Life Project and TimeLapseHD. If you have the broadband connection, I recommend viewing it in HD and taking the time to let it buffer first. As a Vancouverite, I think it captures some of the dreaminess that locals feel living in this place.



Today, 60,000 people have given their heads a good shake and despite cold rains are heading down to BC Place for the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympic Games. Now, with very little media hype and the Olympic apparatus in the process of deconstruction, Vancouver finds itself inspired to support a second torch relay and the relighting of the flame.

Olympic Pictures tell the story...

Immediately prior to the Vancouver Olympics' Opening Ceremonies on NBC, Tom Brokaw explained Canada to Americans in just six minutes - well worth a look!




On Day 1 of the Games, between two and three thousand spirited Vancouverites formed a "flash mob" the whole length of a Robson St. block to kick off one of the greatest people parties ever.



Courtesy of The Big Picture on Boston.com, some of the world's finest photographers captured extraordinary images of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. The photo essay is compiled chronologically in Part 1 and Part 2. Enjoy!

From Vancouver - thanks world and come back soon!

Yea - wasn't that a party?! 16 days, 17 nights of international good times, sporting excellence, shared human sadness, joy and pride. Our B & B's guests from Canada, the USA, the Netherlands and Switzerland enjoyed themselves immensely. Like tens of thousands of other visitors, they will carry the word that Vancouver is a "can do" city that is much more than just a pretty face.

Those of us who live here feel kind of lonesome today. Even as normal life picks up again, there is a strange kind of feeling that yes, the party's over and the guests are heading home, but dammit, didn't we just pull off something enormously difficult and complex in this post 9/11 world? We gave it our best effort and rolled with the punches.

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Most commentators today seem to think Vancouver did most all of it with panache and true Canadian decency. In Russia, Putin and company are firing all their top sports brass for their team's inadequate performance. The next Winter Olympics in Sochi look like a real struggle starting almost from scratch. In Britain, the organizers of the next Summer Olympics vow to learn from Vancouver's exceptional organization, volunteer effort and try to achieve something like the same warm national embrace. Sebastian Coe hopes for some of Vancouver' s "magic". With a budget already four times over budget, a cynical media and a dangerous security threat, good luck to them as well.

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Here in Canada and the USA , where television viewership set new ratings records, both countries have something to cheer about. The USA captured the most medals overall and the largest number they have won at any Winter Games. Canada, with one-tenth the population, also won more medals than ever before and more gold medals than any country has ever won at a Winter Olympic Games.

World news may now go on to politics as usual, the next disaster, NHL, NBA and NFL regular seasons, the World Cup in South Africa, the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, back to the stress and inevitable hating but we should all remember, that for two weeks in 2010, there was love and excitement and friendship in the air in Vancouver. And we did win that little hockey game too!

Olympic City 2

People laugh about the cauldron leg that failed to rise during the Opening Ceremonies but they come to gaze at the cauldron burning outside against an ocean and mountain backdrop. Those rings are floating almost a mile away out in the harbour.



Meanwhile, the friendly, almost exhilerated crowds wander the downtown streets, to take in the pavilion exhibits, the free concerts, entertainment and amazing people-watching!

Adrenalin is pumping in Vancouver. At night, the party continues into the wee hours!

Olympic City

It's been a full week since the Good Fairy of the North smiled on Vancouver. She gave us a symbol of light and put the spirit of joy in our hearts.

Yeah -yeah, you don't believe that for a minute. But you would believe, if you were here. Vancouverites believe.


I have lived here for over twenty years and have never seen so many smiles, heard so many cheers and been part of such a truly momentous party. Canadian patriotism and pride are front and centre. Red and white is the new black. Everywhere you go, there is amazing people energy and camaraderie. Russians party with Americans. Brits party with the Irish. It's a sight to behold.

While the determined, the wealthy and connected go about the business of observing world-class competition, the rest of us are enjoying every minute of day and night, free entertainment, the almost unprecedented cultural outpouring(probably nothing like it in Canada since Expo'67), the food, drink and all round fun. People need to pace themselves as this party is only halfway done.

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If you can, come to Vancouver NOW. Seat yourself in a sunny sidewalk cafe. These are the "spring olympics". All at the same moment, you will feel just too cool on the outside as you feel something wonderfully warm on the inside.

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It's not too late. Come to Vancouver and feel it for yourself!

Welcome World !

Vancouver is ready. I am ready. Only hours to go before the Opening Ceremonies and the Olympic Torch Relay is winding it's way towards the stadium through cheering crowds on Vancouver's streets.

Last night, I joined thousands of people at one of the LiveCity public plazas to see the torch finally arrive in Vancouver. And incidentally, the runner who passed us with a huge, happy grin on his face was Vancouver's own, Michael Buble. It was Day 105 on the longest torch run in Olympic history. Over 45,000 kms. from sea to sea to sea. The torch has been passed through the loving and excited hands of more than 12,000 runners. I actually got to hold one in my own hands.

Wandering the streets afterwards, it was impossible not to be thrilled at the international flavor of the crowds - the athletes are from over 80 nations - and the sounds of celebration everywhere. New and dramatic art installations literally light the night sky. Twenty 10,000 watt searchlights, mounted along several downtown shorelines, are controlled by people logging onto the internet at Vectorial Vancouver and suggesting where the lights should shine.

We came to a stone inukshuk that originally stood before the Northwest Territories Pavilion at Vancouver's other world party, Expo '86. Despite considerable local controversy, a stylized inukshuk was chosen almost seven years ago as the logo for Vancouver's Oympic Games. Some people didn't think that it was West Coast enough. The organizers replied that the Inuit people stack rocks in human form as a symbol of hope and friendship. The organizers said that they wanted these to be Canada's Games.

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Along the way, millions of Canadians embraced the Olympic torch and fell in love with one piece of Olympic merchandising - red mittens - like your grandma might have knitted. Well, last night, we saw that someone unofficial has added grandma's mittens to a stone creature that used to look kind of forbidding.

The Vancouver Olympics have coined several successful catchphrases. They have used "with glowing hearts", some evocative words from our national anthem. TV ads have been asking Canadians for months "Do you believe?" My own feeling is Yes, maybe belatedly, we do believe.

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The newest slogan features celebrity British Columbians like Michael J. Fox, Sarah McLaughlin and Ryan Reynolds telling the world - "You just gotta be here."

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I hope you will be - maybe now on your living room TV and someday soon on your next vacation. You really should see this beautiful place for yourself.

Welcome World !