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 !

Back to the beach...

Day after tomorrow, it's an early morning flight to Puerto Vallarta. I know from experience that a good book, walks on the beach and tequilas by the pool will take precedence over my fiddly notebook computer and a WIFI signal that seems to waft on the breeze.

I will leave you with something to entertain you for many hours. It's the latest year-end List of Lists , compiled by Rex Sorgatz on fimoculous.com. Sorry no sound of the waves and warning: may not be hangover-free.

Talk to you from Mexico :)

Top Ten Blog Posts

I've been blogging for just over a year now and I want to thank you for reading! A special thanks to those of you who commented. Your remarks and my little old "statscounter" give me a real insight into what you would like to see and read. Sometimes it surprises me - a lot of you looked at my post on the life and death of architect Arthur Erickson. A lot of posts largely made up of my own photography seemed to grab your attention. That tells me to keep the blog personal.

Here are my Top Ten Blog Posts of 2009:

10. Who knew that our trip to Tofino would capture your attention? Obviously, the secret is out.
9. Glad you liked my tip off that Google Earth now shows you beautiful Vancouver in 3 D.
8. As an innkeeper, I just had to get the stifling subject of nestled over-coziness off my chest!
7. Then, I took the guest perspective on common apprehensions about B & Bs.
6. I tried to look at all sides and the pros and cons of online reviews.
5. Five ways to avoid bed and breakfast burnout spoke for itself.
4. So did the top 5 reasons to open a bed and breakfast.
3. The most popular of my professional insider posts was about loving people.
2. A video review of Nelson House B & B was not only an Editor's Pick on tripfilms.com but the most watched Vancouver video there! This is the youtube version of it in a bigger screen.
1. My many posts on a local's view of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games drew the most hits by far. This post is just a sneak peak of what is coming!

Love to hear from you. David.

Vancouver Olympics. No pain, no gain?

Public events during the imminent Vancouver Olympic Games will include free entertainment, large screen live coverage, family food and drink at two downtown locations. One is a disused parking lot owned by the city. Unfortunately, the other is one of the most important urban green spaces in Vancouver. David Lam Park, in the Yaletown-False Creek neighbourhood, has been closed for conversion into a so-called LiveCity Olympic venue.

Security cameras are up. Construction fences have walled off adjacent children's play grounds, public tennis courts, gardens, benches etc. Workers are laying paving bricks over acres of the former lawns to create this Olympic plaza. According to this signboard, it will be almost eight months in total before the park is returned to the citizens of Vancouver.