With Halloween fast approaching I suppose I should've posted this sooner.
I know that Halloween is primarily celebrated in North America, and similar-yet-different to the Mexican Day of the Dead, and sorta translated/echoed in various forms in different countries via media and global cultural exchange. So this is a post for the Vancouverites that are close enough to experience the following;
The Dunbar Haunted House - It started as a house in the Dunbar neighbourhood, an enthusiastic homeowner did his house up impressively and was quite a spectacle. It grew from there and only the name reflects it's history - this year it's in a warehouse in Marpole. They have a great collection of gruesome latex masks and mannequins grouped in themed displays - and between 7-midnight use real actors in costume to pop out at visitors, so I crept through carefully taking it all in, and predicting which is the 'real' one. The theme was Terror Through History, my personal creepy highlights were the Inquisition, the Plague, and the environmental/medical mutant nightmare of the suggested future. The lineup (it's popular, so get there early) is broken into groups of 3-4 to give you a friend or two to experience it with, but not enough to feel rushed like driven cattle. The only hiccup is when a group moves too slow or too fast and the surprise is ruined before the actors return to their hiding spots. Fantastic show, worth the $10 entry that goes to charity. Please note this is the last year for it, so see it while you can!
Trick Or Eat - A great excuse for adults to get dressed up in costume and go door-to-door like a little kid again! You know you're an adult when you have all the money and freedom to eat as much candy as you want at anytime, and yet you just crave an honest salad or piece of fruit. You know you don't _need_ the candy, you need real food, so that's what we're collecting is donations for the Food Bank. I participated last year with a group that was well connected and organized and I had a fun time, things ran smoothly and we hung out at the organizer's house afterward. This year is a bit trickier as I don't have that same group and thus had difficulty getting connected to strangers, since they assume everyone is linked via facebook. As Halloween is not yet upon us to know how this will turn out, I will do my part and hope for the best. I'd recommend this is a great idea if you can organize a group
of friends you know well who have your contact information easily.
Parade of Lost Souls - Held at Britannia Community Center is where the hipsters and funky artists get together for art installations and performances. I attended only as an afterthought after other daytime plans, so perhaps I missed most of it with the parade at 7pm, but at 9pm they were still making music on found percussion surfaces (tin cans, washtubs, cow bells, anything you can hit with a stick). There were fire dancers, and the highlight for me was a Thriller dance on every few minutes - the Michael Jackson lead was spot-on. Come in costume, it's a family event, community pride.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Thanksgiving in the Cariboo Chilcotin.
Had a great time with good company, but the most memorable part for me was the drive - to, from, and around the Fraser canyon and the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast (though we didn't hit the Coast part). Leaving the lush Pacific rainforest and exotic sakura trees in Vancouver, we find a different land in the interior canyons and plateau. The green gave way to bright candy yellow birches along lakes and ponds. The grasses were pale green, shocking yellow, tawny brown, dead-stick grey, and a silvery blonde that shone brilliantly in the direct sun, a contrast to the black cows grazing in the fields. This is ranch country.
A daytrip to Junction Sheep Range Provincial Park; we didn't see any animals but the land was beautiful, and we were lucky to have a perfect blue sky. Desert sagebrush and a few stubborn Douglas firs held the hillsides stable, more blonde grass covered the distant benches like velvet, and the slopes carved and fell into hoodoos and cliffs the ribbon road wove around.
A new scene around every hairpin turn, the soil itself a dull powder grey but sculpted into such forms as to make play of the strong desert light and shadow. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have to trek all the way to Alberta to see hoodoos (though I will - another trip for another time). The Chilcotin River was turquoise here, fringed with yellow birches, standing out like a shock against the grey.
This is but a sample of my photos shown here, I don't take photos as often as some folks do but felt like capturing the moment. 'Twas a nice moment. I'll revisit there someday, but know that one can never truly go back.
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." - Heraclitus
We took the highway northeast to make good time, but chose the back roads to return home. Good thing we had a map and GPS, and a fella who's been there before...
Alkali Lake is a native reserve community, we didn't see anyone there, and even the horses and dogs were quiet. Peacefully quiet. It was so quiet it was _silent_, rare even for nature. One duck quacked. One crow cawed. The lake was mirror still and would've made a perfect picnic spot had it been further along our journey, but we still had a long way to go...
...of long looping stretches of gravel road, steep hill climbs and descents, golden velvet grassy benches (with the occasional tree), and barely any other cars around for miles. We had run out of cow pastures awhile ago, though there were still fences lining the road perhaps for open range grazing...? Not a cow to be seen. Just a vast expanse of dry hot land, populated with whatever organisms can eek out an existence here.
We meandered back to the Fraser canyon, the colors fading back into the muted grey and pale sage green, the river itself muddy brown. Looking back we could see the distance travelled over hours, was just over there on the horizon. We stopped on a little bridge that seemed to go nowhere other than the small community of Gang Ranch and its little airport.
Clearly I did neither, and instead we carried on down the road in search of a picnic spot for a late lunch, on through miles till it was decided that any patch of desert will do. Sandwiches, meat+cheese+crackers, trail mix and a fresh apple each. In the time it took to have lunch only one car passed. Again the silence. Thankfully no rattlesnakes.
We had spent most of the day weaving around this desert canyon travelling not very far or fast, so while we continued on the gravel backroads we dawdled less. We were losing daylight too. The land changed as we headed south - patches of young trees in formerly logged areas or under power lines, mixed forest, buildings, cows - and climbed in elevation where *gasp!* there was snow on the ground. Getting cold, time to put the top up on the convertible. Crept up a 14% grade logging road, all hairpin turns and blind corners, and thankfully no logging truck hurtling towards us in the opposite direction. Thankful for pavement finally in Pavilion. Reached the highway in Lillooet around the same time the fading daylight made photography not worthwhile, early sunset in a steep-walled canyon. Carried into more familiar mountainous land along Duffy Rd, the evergreen forest even darker in dusk. Lost the last light of day shining pink off the snowy peak just beyond Pemberton. Someday we'll take the trip up again in daylight, though I was thankful enough for the warm car to get us home safely.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
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