Granville Island, BC

On Tuesday we headed back west on the TCH toward downtown Vancouver and Granville Island. GI was originally a sandbar on False Creek, where shipping demands required a deeper and wider channel. Enter Ocean Construction. OC began dredging the sandbar and processing it to make concrete for the growing city. The Gilley Brothers opened the operation in the late 1800's and became the first building materials supplier on the Lower Mainland. Today, 125 years later, Ocean Construction is the very first thing a visitor to the island sees and hears and the huge concrete trucks are the first thing a visitor encounters on the Islands' streets!

It is a real shock to see such large vehicles navigate the narrow streets leading into and out of the tourist district! All of the concrete trucks are painted in striking patterns....where the drum looks like a huge strawberry or cob of ripe corn! Even the more traditionally painted trucks are kept clean and shiny!

Granville Island is home for artists and crafts people from across the spectrum, as well as one of the largest public markets in the area. Our first stop on a walking tour was at the Granville Island Broom Company, known for it's beautiful, hand-made brooms. Made onsite, these beautiful brooms are more works of art than utensils.

We ate lunch (Polish Dogs with all the fixin's) on the outdoor deck and watched people and boats for an hour or so, and admired the tall buildings of North Vancouver.

The public market, of course, has everything from soup to nuts (literally).

Pastries, pastiches and confections were everywhere!

We took a last stroll along the river, admiring the lady, the boat, and the handsome guy....

Then we braved the rush hour traffic and headed east toward home. Although touristy, Granville Island is a mix of art, glitz, and blue collar. Fascinating!

Granville Island is crossed by a major elevated highway, and the only entrance to the island is via a surface street under the highway.

Wednesday, June 28th, we elected to do laundry, go to the grocery store, and generally prepare for the next leg of our journey. We were fortunate to spend several hours in the evening with our new-found friends, Gord and Nancy. They are Vancouver(ans), and live in Eagle Wind Park while Gord works in the area. He has a fascinating career in the film industry, expediting equipment, trucks, and trailers to various shooting locations in the area. He is very good at this, and often will be away from home from 5 or 6 in the morning until the wee hours of the next day. As a former long haul truck driver, he evidently has learned to get by on very little sleep! His wife Nancy is an accomplished interior decorator and wine fanatic. She has a degree in wine(ology?), and is a wealth of knowledge about all sorts of spirits. We enjoyed our short time with them.

Today, Thursday, we have meandered 106 miles north on the Trans Canada highway to a small hamlet named Boston Bar. We're staying in site 3 at Canyon Alpine RV Park, an old park that is in the process of being rejuvenated by new owners. The park is nestled into the trees near the Fraser River, and is protected from serious weather by the surrounding mountains, but has minimum amenities. The sites are level but only dirt, and the entrance road is well used gravel. The owners are very nice, and after a bit of uncertainty about our reservation, invited us to a Canada Day Celebration this coming Saturday. We'll have to attend, since we're here for 3 nights, and there's nothing else to do in the area! Well, that's not quite true: the scenery is beautiful and the river is awesome. We'll check it out tomorrow.