Our Saturday walk brought us to Canada Place, where Howard was thrilled to discover three cruise ships. To add to the excitement, one had just arrived, so we had the joy of watching it tie up at port. In fact, it was so exciting I sat on a bench reading my bus book while I waited for him to scrutinize every inch of the three ships.
After finishing the bus book, (a bus book is whatever I’m reading at the time of the bus trip. I bring it with me so I can read it on the bus. Why waste precious time just sitting when you can read?) I decide to see what’s happening on the cruise ship in front of me. This one has finally tied up, and has unloaded hundreds of people who will rush to the taxi stands and add to the Saturday morning traffic congestion. I notice lots of people buzzing around the lower deck wearing bright orange life jackets, and for a minute, I wonder if something really exciting is going to happen, like maybe a sinking or something.
But no, Howard informs me it is a mere lifeboat drill. Some of the crew pull on blue poncho-kind-of-covers over their life jackets; I guess they’re team leaders, or drill sergeants or something, I have no idea. The crew separates and groups of five or six line up and stand beneath each of the lifeboats. And then they just wait. Some of them fidget, but some of them stand really really still. I have no idea if they get extra points for standing still. The blue ponchoed people walk around, but I don’t even see them taking notes. Maybe they have really good memories.
After a long time, it seems to me, someone announces something over the PA system. We all know what PA systems sound like, whether on a ship or in a hospital; add to that the foreign accent of the announcer, and all I heard was a repeat of blah blah blahs in an Australian accent. I assume the crew could understand, though, as they left their posts and wandered off somewhere. I noticed some of them were wearing chef’s hats. If I ever ended up in a life raft on the middle of a huge ocean, I would hope to share that life raft with at least one chef. At least he would know how to prepare the sharks and octopuses that would try to eat us. Another thing I noticed is that life jackets make people look fat.
When Howard realizes I am about ready to jump over the railing, he comes over and we continue our walk. Because of ongoing construction, we have to retrace our steps, which means climbing up five or six flights of stairs at one end, and down the same amount at the other end.
By this time, even though we had walked very few steps, the number of the ones that went up had wreaked havoc with our leg muscles. We will never climb mountains. We decide to walk around the new Conference Centre, so we can finally, after years of waiting, see the other side of the cruise ships that are tied up at Canada Place. How could life ever get better than this?
We come to a group of people, who obviously weren’t robbed of their cameras last week. They were all taking pictures of an RCMP officer, all decked out in his scarlet dress uniform and little brown hat, sitting on a horse. Wow. He had ridden that poor little horse to the waterfront that day, so they could stand – well, he was sitting, but the horse was standing – in the sun and accept donations for the SPCA. Now, maybe it was only me, and I wasn’t in the best of moods at the time, but I thought maybe if he stood beside the horse, it might be kinder and more apt an advertisement for the society of prevention of cruelty on animals. I wanted to hang around for a few minutes in case the horse took a bathroom break, but by this time, Howard was way ahead of me, so I ran to catch up. Well, I didn’t actually run, but I caught up with him anyway.
I think everyone who owns a sailboat in Vancouver was out in the harbour this morning. The ocean was the most incredible shade of blue, and the sky a perfect cover with a coordinating shade. A breeze riffled the waves, and the hundreds of white sails drifting over the water would have made a beautiful picture. Assuming, that is, that one had a camera.
Because the sea wall walk still was under construction, we had to take a short cut to the road, which of course consisted of about 500 stairs. And Howard thinks I’m happy now that we’ve finally started our walk.
Ha.
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