Thursday, October 11, 2012

Hey...a captive audience!

So, I'm relaxing in my seat on the airplane.

It's been an interesting - but tiring - trip across most of Canada on a fantastic railroad adventure and I'm reflecting on the sights I've seen.

I noticed the young girl in the aisle talking to passengers.

Then I saw the flash of a colorful catalog sheet when she held it up. It was for Girl Scout Cookies!

Her clipboard was clutched in her right hand and she was taking orders. At 36,000 feet.

The day before, I had flown down to Seattle from Victoria, B.C. on a float plane. A seaplane.

The pilot told me later he was cruising only at 500-1,500 feet during the 30- minute flight back into the US.

As we passed by the Space Needle I saw a small lake near downtown and realized that was our landing site.

I had seen many sightseeing float planes taking off and landing while I was in Vancouver for two days.

I looked forward to when our "floating aircraft" would lift off the water.

It was smooth as was the landing.

The landing and takeoff zone in Vancouver had been in front of Canada Place.

This is the iconic city convention centre sitting on the harbor.

In Victoria, I had enjoyed views of the famed Butchart Garden but bumped into a bus situation that could have been ugly.

We timed our leisure walk to end just before the 4:10 bus would leave for the 40-minute drive down from north Victoria Island to the capital.

So did about 60 others who were already standing in line.

The city bus filled and pulled out.

15 of us had the option of walking nearly half of a mile to a bus stop outside the garden for the next transport at 5:04. Or, take a cab.

The park closes at 5pm so no more buses could enter. Yikes.

And, yes, it WAS uphill.

Probably both ways.

We were back in the capital in plenty of time for a drink at the Empress Hotel and dinner nearby. The British Columbia Parliament building is outlined in small white lights and was a spectacular sight as the evening darkened.

Yes, there are pictures taken during the Whale Watching boat cruise but let's hold off on that for now.

(Click on the photos for more detail.)

Please come back and continue my Canadian adventure.

If you're thinking about a train trip, look into this one!

(Please click http://photo.meetup.com/687.)

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posted by chuckography @ 7:04 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, July 22, 2007

ALL Statues Should Be White Marble...


A fellow blogger proposed we start a picture category called "Stand By Your Statue" as an ongoing visual meme.

Since I like to dig around in my stacks of photos, I quickly searched for a few candidates and came up with a king that had been royally pooped on in Montreal.

Wonder if any city has ever erected a statue of a pigeon?

Roaming around downtown in Atlanta, looking for the famed replica of the New York City Flat Iron Building, I had to stop when I came across this bronze lady reading a paper.

Either the birds have not found the memorial for Councilwoman Barbara Miller Asher yet or statue cleaning maintenance is much better in Georgia than it is in Quebec. However, her briefcase did have cigarette butts in it.


I try to wear my Tilley wide-brimmed "sun hat" everywhere I go and this bust in Seattle caught my eye since Chief Seattle must have heard the same advice from his dermatologist.

This monument was in a park at the bottom of a steep slope headed to the mill, near the river.

A tour guide had just pointed out that it was NOT a great part of Seattle to live in during the busy heyday of lumbering. There were many, many accidents and lots of destruction caused as logs were sliding by on the greased road.

Fortunately, there were not many homes here..mainly just bars. The area originally was called Skid Road.

Today we call such a place Skid Row.

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posted by chucker @ 9:48 PM 2 Comments