I grew up in a small town, on an Island, getting off-of which was rather an event.  In actuality, that hasn’t really changed– While there are several airports and ferry routes, it does remain an Island, and, to paraphrase/murder a meme, one does not simply drive to the mainland.

I remember as a child, getting the Ferry was a biggish event.  We would go over for the PNE (Pacific National Exposition), or pass through on the way to the Okanagan- a yearly road trip.  A few times, to catch a train to Manitoba. 1986 saw a number of trips to the mainland to attend Expo ’86 in Vancouver (do they even still have those “World Fairs”? Or is that another thing the Internet has killed?). But in all those years, I’ve never spent a lot of time in the communities that surround Vancouver-proper, which include West Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Coquitlam, Surrey, Langly, Delta, and Richmond. Recently, I’ve had occasion to visit the burrough of Richmond a few times. I wrote of one such visit to a quaint neighbourhood in Richmond in my companion blog, The Uncoordinated Coordinator — Field Trip!

Attached are a few images that underscore my new-found affection for this big city — the only image I couldn’t capture was my surprise and delight in taking a bus ride to Steveston and hearing each rider thank the bus driver as they disembarked.  That is surely not a Big City attitude…

The skyline of Richmond is kind of neat– old and new buildings, and a surprising amount of Greenspace. This hotel was fairly near Minaru park.

There is one Terminus of the Skytrain line that ends/starts in Richmond. I happened to get on very near the front of the car, and got a nice view for the ride

This picture captures my mixed feelings… kind of like how the Clash sang: “Should I stay or should I go now?”

Mary’s British Home is a must-stop for me. The only way to get my toffee fix, and I enjoy chatting to the owner.