The swaying Canadian suspension bridge....
We had taken the morning ferry and were looking at a map in North Vancouver. We're looking for a famous "hanging" bridge nearby.
The big surprise was hopping on a city bus down by the ferry boat landing and riding up the hills in the suburbs.
Past all the chain fast food places and a few shops that clearly were Canadian.
The yellow pull cord pings and the bus slows to a stop. Huh?
The crowd starts to get off and we ask
"is this the bridge?"
The driver points across the street to the entrance of a woody nature park.
Yep, this is it. I can see some tall totems just inside the gate.
Nice neighbourhood.
The
Capilano Suspension Bridge is impressive.
Overheard a guide tell a nervous lady that the bridge was strong enough to support it completely filled with people - stacked 7 high.
I was ready to venture out.
Nobody was being placed on top of another.
As the link explains, it's a woody park with the Capilano River running white water 200 feet below the bridge.
If that's not daring or daunting enough, you also can "space walk" out on an arc that juts out from the side of a mountain.
Or climb up to a series of walkway-connected tree houses high above the forest floor.
Remember, this is just a few blocks away from a drive-through McDonald's.
And, back in Vancouver, we still planned to visit the
Jimi Hendrix Shrine at the Backpackers Hostel.
That's another kind of high near Chinatown.
With our feet firmly back on the ground, we found tranquil little parks in the midst of downtown high rise.
The excellent ground and water transportation system opens the whole area to visitors.
A
Hop On - Hop Off bus offered a variety of drivers as you explored the city.
The slogan is
"Very friendly and informative with a great sense of humour."
(Click on the photos for more detail).
It is so much fun to relive a vacation by editing photos!
Double your pleasure.
.
Labels: Backpackers Hostel. Hop on-Hop Off tours., Capilano River, Jimi Henrdrix, McDonald's, North Vancouver, Please click http://photo.meetup.com/687., suspension bridge
Playing Tribute to Jimi....
Going to see
Buddy Guy tonight at the Performing Arts Center.
I shot this picture last year at a free concert in Myrtle Beach.
Buddy is one of the world's leading guitarist playing tribute in a program saluting the musical genius of
Jimi Hendrix.
The
Experience Hendrix is led by Billy Cox, bassist for Jimi's band and tonight will feature Guy, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Randolph and others.
The lineup of the traveling 3-week tour varies from city-to-city and also includes several of my favorites
Keb' Mo' and
Taj Mahal who, unfortunately, won't be here tonight.
I was thinking just the other day that Charleston is overdue for a visit by Keb' Mo'.
Hopefully, sometime soon?
I saw "The Experience" a few years ago in Washington, DC at Constitution Hall and look forward to another exciting evening of music.
(Click on the pictures for a larger image.)
Support live music!
Let's keep 'em coming to Charleston.
(Did anyone else wake up an hour late this morning? We lost an hour but gained more sunshine.)
Labels: Billy Cox, Experience Hendrix, Jimi Henrdrix, Jonny Lang, Keb' Mo', Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Randolph, Taj Mahal
400th BLOG. Yikes.
Moments in time.
My
400th posting on my blog.
Marked by a "1970s time travel" experience.
Yes. That is
James Taylor in concert in Columbia a few days ago. Still in fine voice.
His
Sweet Baby James album came out in 1970 with the intensely personal song
"Fire & Rain."He sang the title song as well as
"Fire" and
"Carolina On My Mind" but not
"Steam Roller."
His "Special Guest" on the stage was his son Ben Taylor.
Singing, playing and banter was good from his barefoot boy.
The 63-year old dad broke his left leg skiing last week and quipped he was doing fine
"thanks to some great chemistry." Ben added
"Guess we should stop saying 'break a leg.'"There were wooden stools on stage but both stood up to play and sing as well.
Earlier in the day I stopped at the Columbia Museum of Art.
Enjoyed 2 hours of time tumbling through the 60s, 70s and 80s.
No picture-taking was allowed inside but here's the poster out front with Punk stars
The Ramones.
This classic shot captured a moment at Eric's Club in Liverpool,1977.
Get over to Columbia before this goes away.
The Beatles, Janis Joplin, baby-faced Keith Richardson and The Stones, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire, Kurt Cobain...all these and more were caught in front of these cameras.
Richard Avedon on his 1961 shot of the
Everly Brothers:
"A portrait is not a likeness....but an opinion."Outrageous album covers were being imagined and created long before
Photoshop.
Officials in Morocco were reluctant to allow placing actual giant inflated red balloons along the top of sand dunes at dawn but that was the vision of the album designer.
The funniest part of this looking back experience was using my
Smartphone and
GPS guidance system to find these places.
(Click images for detail. Koger Center for the Arts was aggressive enforcing no cameras..but only on the front row! Flashes going off all around the hall and my little non-flash camera acted as a magnet.
Easy-to-get-to rules enforcement.)
Labels: Ben Taylor, Bob Gruen, Columbia Museum of Art, Elvis, Fire and Rain, GPS, James Taylor, Janis, Jimi Henrdrix, Koger Center For The Arts, Richard Avedon, Smartphone, Sweet Baby James, The Ramones
