View on Vancouver on October 1, 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)When I was traveling with the World of Fantasy Players theater group, we had some good tour planners and agents who usually seemed to manage to book us on a steady schedule while allowing for some time off in some nice places to be. I don't know if it was intentional or serendipitous, but it was fine by me and the young people I had touring with me.
In the summer of 1986 we were doing our annual tour up the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. This is a beautiful region of lakes surrounded by scenic mountains and popular with tourists. Our tour of this region always culminated with the city of Prince George which was several hundred miles north.
This particular year our agent managed to book us in the scenic town of Squamish about 40 miles north of Vancouver, BC. The trip from Prince George to Squamish was a hair-raising adventure which I won't go in length to tell here other than it involved what I believed to be a short cut that led us through many miles of mountains on gravel roads in a steady downpour. Thankfully we arrived in Squamish without mishap and in rather good time.
But I digress for this story about Vancouver. Actually there's no big story other than in 1986 the World's Fair was taking place in Vancouver and we conveniently had a few days off. My wife and I and our young daughter spent one day at the fair as did the tour members. It was raining--I guess it rains a lot in Vancouver.
The rain actually may have been an advantage as it kept the crowds down which meant lines to the attractions were not very long. Susan and I had attended the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1982 and it was a much different story there--big crowds and long lines. That visit had been the day after we had gotten married. We wanted to see the World's Fair that was so close to my Tennessee home and we knew that this would be our only chance to visit since we were going to be on the road with the show all year. One day at the World's Fair--two World's Fairs --was all we got, but at least we got to go.
I don't remember if it was then or another time that we went to the Historic Gastown District of Vancouver but I remember being there and eating in a restaurant. In fact I find it a bit amazing that in those years I went to two World's Fairs, several major cities, a number of national parks, and I couldn't tell you how many other attractions and I don't remember much about a lot of them. And yet I can recall details of some of the most absurd events, certain show venues, and quiet little podunks that most travelers would never bother to go to.
The memory can be an odd trickster. I've been to Vancouver, BC, It seemed like a nice place, but I can't tell you much about it. Someday I'd like to go to Vancouver and actually remember it.
