Popped up to BC to see the Bourget kinship of cousins.
Three days in Vancouver as a guest of cousin Jo in The OFH (old folks home).
The guest suite is a generous rate and comes with a hot breakfast with an abundance of spuds. Dinner with the aged is quiet and another good deal as is the pub that serves one of the beers worthy of the Carlings O’Keefe Brewery that was the building’s original purpose. No need to recruit the younger relatives to smuggle in alcohol at this fine establishment. It helps take some of the edge off the sober reckoning that we are not that far away ourselves from induction.
We vulture the culture at the Vancouver Art Gallery showing Picasso and Bard on the Beach staging The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1960s Ontario. A howling good time.
Jo drives us to Whistler for a visit to the Audain Gallery where the First Nations collection has it all over Picasso as a master of line. A very good amount more of Emily Carr and the Group of Seven offers a strong introduction to BC painters. On the drive up we stop off at the Sea to Sky gondola for Mimi to ascend solo into the ether while Jo and I tempt no sky gods with our height phobia on terra firma.
Last day we drop by the Epicurean Cafe, Jo’s “local” where she and the morning regulars are not taking kindly to the new management’s modifications.
Onto the Tsawassan Ferry to Swarz Bay enjoying the bountiful buffet and views of the Straight of Georgia then onward to Salt Springs Island. We stop in Ganges grocery shopping amidst a Woodstock of Hippies both vintage and retro-regenerated.
The About Thyme Cottage welcomes us back for a second visit, a rare thing for us to do. We’re alas too pooped out for the outdoor hot tub under the August full moon: ah-WOO!
Invisible Inklings 