[Adapted from email sent 9:36 a.m.]

Saturday, July 30

The last time I went to Vancouver, B.C., it was 2018—four years ago, when I traveled by myself to visit my friend Ivan for the weekend during the three months he was living there. Wildfire smoke was rampant that weekend, so when Ivan and I took a bus from his neighborhood to Queen Elizabeth Park, which I had recently learned has these stunning panoramic views of the city, I was disappointed to find the views significantly obscured by smoke.

The view this time was . . . not perfect. But a lot better!

When I last went to Vancouver, B.C. with Shobhit, it was 2017—five years ago, for our anniversary trip that year.

I suggested we stop at Queen Elizabeth Park on the way to Downtown Vancouver where our hotel was, as I figured he would enjoy the park in its own right, and the air quality would be better than when I was there with Ivan. I was mostly right on both counts! Plus, we started our visit to the park with a packed lunch at Dancing Waters Fountain, which is right by the Bloedel Conservatory, which I still haven't explored inside because there's an entry fee and I'm cheap.

And here I am getting in on the action at Queen Elizabeth Park's Love in the Rain sculpture. Like the many bridge railings around the world where lovers lock padlocks with their initials, often to the chagrin of local officials, this piece was designed expressly for people to lock their padlocks to it—complete with a key receptacle.

Queen Elizabeth Park also has carefully landscaped "Quarry Gardens," smaller in scale but similar to Butchart Gardens in Victoria.

Sunset at English Bay Beach, location of the Spain submission for the annual "Celebration of Light," a competition between three nations for the best fireworks show. Canada is always one of the participants, but each year the other two nations change; this year, they had Japan on Saturday, July 23; Canada on Wednesday, July 27; and then Spain on Saturday, July 30.

I only this year figured out that the timing of both this festival and Vancouver Pride are dependent on "B.C. Day," an official provincial holiday celebrating local heritage. This holiday always lands on the first Monday of August, with the Vancouver Pride Parade always occuring the Sunday prior, the day before; and with the final Celebration of Light fireworks display occuring the previous Saturday. This means that, most years, the Saturday and Sunday events are on the first Saturday and Sunday of August—with the occasional exception of when the first Monday of August is August 1, as it was in this year, in which case the Celebration of Light and the Pride Parade are on the last Saturday and Sunday of July, respectively. Anyway, the simple way to remember the timing of all these events is, just to know when the first Monday of August is.

English Bay Beach was already closed off to any more people, having filled to capacity, when Shobhit and I found a viewing spot behind a fence at around 8:40, eighty minutes before the 10:00 start time. We did get a view of a beautiful sunset in the meantime, and somewhat to my shock, I managed to get this shot with the crescent moon fairly well visible using just my phone's camera.

Trigger warning! This was the shape of the crowd at the moment the spectacular fireworks display ended—after going on for fully 25 minutes, and featuring at least four different moments like what we're used to being the "finale" at our Fourth of July fireworks shows. I have never seen better fireworks shows anywhere, and even walking back to our hotel in this crowd was festive and fun.

Sunday, July 31

The last time we went to Vancouver specifically four Vancouver Pride, it was 2008—fourteen years ago. This was actually my twelfth visit to Vancouver overall, and Shobhit's eighth. I had come for Pride once before meeting Shobhit, in 1999, so I've now been there for Vancouver Pride six times, and Shobhit five times: we went together for Vancouver Pride in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008.

This was the first time we stayed at a hotel that was right on the parade route—something we didn't even realize when we booked the place. It was kind of a steal, because the place is the opposite of fancy, with three floors, no elevators, and on Hotels.com we were told our room had a bathtub but not a shower. The room was quite small, but we were delighted to discover upon arrival that the bathroom had a shower after all.

Shobhit and I staked our spot on the curb right in front of our hotel's entrance nearly two hours before the parade was scheduled to start at noon. And I must say, having a spot where you can go right inside to use a private bathroom or make yourself a drink whenever you want is something I highly recommend. I did wait to take this shot until around 11:40, so there would be more of a crowd present for the photo, close to what there was for the duration of the parade. That empty lawn chair near the center was my seat, and Shobhit is there sitting right next to it to the left.

There were some elements of Vancouver Pride that gave it a similar feel to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade we saw in early 2020, although this parade is much smaller—most notably, the tendency to put queer Indigenous or First Nations contingents at the front. I'm finding that, while the practice of acknowledging whose land we are on is increasingly common everywhere, including in the U.S., it seems that outside the U.S., activist groups seem to be more inclined to put Indigenous peoples in front. In the instance of this particular photo: Tsliel-Waututh Nation, "People of the Inlet," whose territory includes Burrard Inlet and the waters draining into it. Burrard Inlet is a fjord that comprises an eastern arm of the Strait of Georgia, which is the body of water between Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia; the inlet itself is surprisingly long, beginning with the north shore of Vancouver proper and stretching a maximum length of 27 miles inland. It actually stretches nearly twenty miles due east, but at about 15 miles in, another arm of it stretches a further 12 miles or so north.

I loved seeing new uses for the "Progress Pride" flag, such as on this fire engine for Vancouver Fire Rescue Services.

This may have been my favorite float in the Pride Parade—by the Canadian Coast Guard. Is it possible to have a queer lighthouse? I think it is!

Okay, so let's take a moment to compare Vancouver Pride to Seattle Pride. First of all, Seattle's Pride Parade is massive by comparison—which is not really that big a surprise if you get into the details of city comparisons: Vancouver may be much more densely populated (especially downtown) and far more cosmopolitan, not to mention far better at urban planning, which gives it a feeling of greater sophistication. But! Seattle proper is 15% larger in population than Vancouver proper, but far more importantly—by global standards this is the only comparison that matters—metropolitan Seattle is 54% larger than metropolitan Vancouver (roughly 4 million versus 2.6 million). Given the concentric circles of regional areas from which people come to a given city center, these numbers explain the size differences in Pride Parades and festivals.

But, you know what? Vancouver's Pride Parade is far more manageable. I will always love Seatte Pride to the ends of the earth, but four hours is a bit much. Vancouver limits its contingent number to about 150, which is smart. Not only that, but the Barclay Hotel, where we stayed, is conveniently located right next to the staging area, meaning we were literally on the first block the parade route marches down. Their parade starts at noon, and you know what time it was when the parade ended? 1:40! What bliss! Granted, I already mentioned that we staked our spot on the sidewalk two hours early so we were still there technically for three and a half hours but whatever. (I do the same at Seattle Pride which means I'm typically on the sidewalk for that between five and six hours.)

Okay so should I say something about the above photo? Shobhit and I went back into the hotel to rest for a bit after the parade, then walked over to the Sunset Beach Festival, passing this art installation, Engagement, along the way. No doubt there's a shit ton of engagement photos taken there.

Side note! We also discovered at this festival that they were giving out free monkeypox vaccines, and our not being Canadian citizens did not disqualify us! We kind of barely met the qualification criteria otherwise, but we both got the shot, which made us very happy. It felt like an incredibly lucky break for us, something that happens to me a lot. I lead a charmed life!

Later in the evening we ventured out again to get some dinner, and wound up at a place on Davie Street—Vancouver's main drag for queer and queer-friendly businesses, restaurants and clubs—called Davie Dosa Company. Shobhit, ever on-brand, complained about it not being salty or spicy enough (the owner, who was a handsome Indian man, said he couldn't make the food spicy "for this neighborhood"), but I thought all of it was excellent. Go there if you're ever in Vancouver! Also, I loved this stencil in the window behind Shobhit's seat, of which I was finally able to get a full photo when he got up to use the bathroom.

A delightful discovery: the floral display organization Fleurs de Villes ("Flowers of Cities"), which had done a holiday display in Seattle last December at Pacific Place, had several of their so-called "floral chandeliers" scattered around downtown for Vancouver Pride. If we'd had more time, I'd have gone out of my way to find more of them. Instead, I only got shots of four of the roughly fifteen displays they apparently had around town; this shot above was my favorite shot I got, just happening to see it atop a local bus stop shelter as we walked past.

Shobhit and I did a lot of walking on Sunday, three different times taking on average around two-mile walks. After dinner at Davie Dosa Company, we meandered across town generally in the direction of our hotel, and then we saw the water on the north side of the Downtown Peninsula (itself just over two square miles in area—that's not counting Stanley Park at the north end of it, which is itself just over 1.5 square miles) so we decided, what the hell, we'll walk all the way over to that side. That's how we found ourselves at Jack Poole Plaza at dusk, right next to the Vancouver Convention Center. The site also includes this "Olympic Legacy," with its Cauldron that had been lit during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Walking from Jack Poole Plaza over to Bute Street, I just thought this view over Coal Harbour Park at dusk made a nice shot.

Monday, August 1

My new favorite Vancouver skyscraper! Originally slated to be finished in 2018, I got my first photo of it under construction that year (with that apocalyptically smoky background), but it wasn't finished in the end until 2020. I was eager to get photos of it finished during this visit, and wound up taking another eight shots of it this past weekend alone (that I kept, anyway)—because its shape changes depending on which side you're looking at. It's called Vancouver House, and its triangular base is shaped to accommodate the constraints of space on the plot of land right next to the Granville Street Bridge, then twists up 510 feet and 52 floors to a more conventional square shape at its top, creating an overall shape that appears to defy gravity. It's easily now one of the most distinctive buildings in the Vancouver skyline.

I had already taken three shots of it when walking right past the building on Sunday, but this is one of the five shots I took from the car as we drove across Granville Bridge on our way back out of town Monday morning,