Vancouver on the cheap

We are on the pre-retirement, kids in college, cash in the envelope budget plan.

Looking at colleges for high school junior Piper means a road trip and a lot of tailgate picnics.

We started at the top, with a one-day trip to Vancouver, B.C. a couple weekends ago.

In our envelope:  100.00 in discretionary money for the week.  This went to coffee, parking, gas and picnic items for four from the Kitsilano Safeway.

Here we go.

We wake up at 4:30 and arrive at Nick's in Seattle an hour later.  Nick was sound asleep, but took less than 20 minutes to get ready, passport in hand. After stopping at the Roosevelt Safeway Starbucks for coffee drinks--no more than 4.00 per person, we're on our way. It's now just after 6 am.  We need to get through customs by 9am so that we have plenty of time to arrive on campus for our 9:45 tour.  We've  stopped to give the dog a break somewhere along the way, and we leave the car at 9:43, right next door to Welcome Centre at Brock Hall.

We made it!!  First we have to check out the totem pole at the entry.  Quite an impressive welcome.

The Thunderbird totem pole is by a woman--  Ellen Neel--and the thunderbird became the first college mascot legally bestowed by a First Nation on a Canadian college.  It's meaning is "Victory Through Honor" and when it was erected, in 1948, dancing and singing by First Nations people was still an indictable offense. It was vandalized and rebuilt 50 years later in 2004.  read more about it here

A vigorous, free two-hour tour includes the following facts:

UBC has 22 museums, gardens and libraries in all, including the beautiful

Botanical Garden and Nitobe Garden

First Nations House of Learning Centre

(photo courtesy of UBC)

and the most sustainable building in North America:  the aptly-named Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, or  CIRS

No one has had breakfast yet so by the time our tour has ended we've all had our picnic breakfast at some point, on the hoof.On our way out, we stop for coffee at the Centre for Sustainability's Loop Cafe and discover lots of other features along "Sustainability Street".  That will have to wait for another blog entry, though.

After leaving the campus we make our way to Jericho Park for a dog run and beautiful views of the nearby mountains across the water.  We eat our Safeway sardines, brie and pecan tartlets and drive along the water, back thru campus and on south just as the sun sets, with all of Skagit County bathed in shades of peach and sage.  Mt. Baker was spectacular as were the lighting effects across a number of sloughs and estuaries.

 

If you look closely you'll see Mt Baker as it looks in the setting sun from Ferndale.  This isn't the bridge that 

collapsed in Skagit County last year, but we went over that one, since rebuilt, as well.  

Nick was extremely impressed by the college, but we'll have to wait and see if Piper chooses it over the ones in Portland coming up on another road trip in a week during mid-winter break.

All photos by the lovely and talented Sean Bentley except where otherwise indicated.

Playing Catch-Up

A spring

A summer

It's time to catch up

Parking Garage of Your Dreams

Check out this video of  Eleven-Eleven, Miami's answer to parking garage design.  Utterly beautiful in concept and sculptural elegance it completely turns everything you thought you knew about parking garages on its head.  People are working out on the open staircase, clubbing in the open air below and the designer actually lives in a palatial aerie on the rooftop.

Like Miami, "it's all architecture without cloth", according to architects Herzog and deMeuron.

Thank you to the blogs archinect and architechnophilia for bringing some Miami heat to my fog-wrapped little corner of the world.

Yarn Bombing

Check out yarn bombing Seattle-style in this article:  downtowntraveler

The urban art is by Suzanne Tidwell and is featured throughout Seattle.

The author asks your opinion on which you prefer--Seattle's...




or New York City's "lamppost "cactus" pictured here:

Apparently the votes are in Seattle's favor because yarn is more environmentally friendly.  With our rainy climate, though, it's been suggested that plastic ties (recycled and bio-degradable, of course) might be more appropriate.

See more of Tidwell's fabulous street art here.

None of the surprises we encountered last summer in London was bigger than this:

London Hatwalk

From the Duke of Wellington near Hyde Park to the Duke of Wellington outside the Bank of England in the Square Mile a "hatwalk" was created by two very famous milliners (the ones who do all the hats for the royal weddings).  Creating a total of 21 new looks for some of the most venerable in English history, we spotted a few:

 The same company who designed Lord Nelson's original hat 200 years ago was hired to create the hat for his statue in Trafalgar Square.

The hats were commissioned by the Mayor of London and are the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, part of London Festival 2012.  Shakespeare in Leicester Square had a designer baseball cap, which was stolen and has yet to be recovered. 

Red Apple Redux

Meanwhile, back in Newport Hills:  eff-stoplocal posted these shots from a momentous occasion.  They capture the most auspicious moment in the five year life of this blog so far.  I was actually able to step inside and experience the Red Apple Grocery Store, the namesake of Red Apple Elegy, for the first time since it closed five years ago.

In all its spooky Chainsaw Massacre glory I toured curious neighbors through the back loading docks and secret passageways, hidden closets and exposed wiring that was more Halloween than Christmas.  This was, after all, the venue for our annual Holiday Crafts Bazaar.  And we had our work cut out for us!

I especially like how eff-stop captured the red in Red Apple in a decidedly un-festive light.  It's been abandoned for five years now--what do you expect?  Hopefully, the tide is turning.  Stay tuned.

A Whole Lot of Intervention Going On

When we walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum we thought we'd see this.

Instead we saw this:

and this:

Inhabitat has the story here.   208 recycled traffic safety cones were painted white with a reflective band wrapped around each one to catch the elusive London sun.  Placed in a webbing of stainless steel they shelter visitors from showers in a way that almost makes you feel as though you're standing under a giant chandelier.

  

Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of this canopy/marquee for the Victoria and Albert Museum is famous for the Olympic cauldron featured in the Opening Ceremonies last summer

204 separate torches of burnished copper joined together to represent the participating nations in a giant moving sculpture which looked especially spectacular at night:

Mr. Heatherwick also designed this London bus:

Dezeen has an interview with Mr. Heatherwick here.  Far and away the best design idea of 2012 the bus is also 40% more fuel efficient because it features three doors with easier access for wheelchairs and baby strollers as well as two staircases to make getting on and off much quicker, thereby shortening idling times.