Eh, Canada...

Oh, you big lug of a country to the north.... I keep expecting you to live up to my expectations of a hip European-influenced burg, and yet you keep telling me yer really like Bob and Doug McKenzie, ya hosers.

Vancouver is very pretty from a distance and rather mundane up close. I think if you put Wichita on a peninsula with stunning mountains behind it, people would talk favorably of the local scene, and the great food and would expect you to ignore they were talking about Wichita.  The guidebooks would say, 'Make sure to check out the Super Safeway under the bridge with no readily accessible public transportation and poor signage - it's a market!'  And there you would have Vancouver's celebrated Granville "Island" market, with its overpriced stalls of faux gourmet items and seasonal local produce, like Chilean avocados and Hawaiian pineapples.

Of the guidebook recommended neighborhoods to visit, Gastown was both sketchy and touristy, Yaletown was college kids drinking swill and Chinatown was nice, but not anywhere near as vibrant as Chinatowns in NYC or San Francisco.  The southern neighborhoods were not mentioned by our guidebook.  They were clean and probably worth living in if you had to live in Vancouver.

I can easily cherry-pick Vancouver to death to prove my point, but that's no fun.  Beautiful mountains, fun outdoor activities, great seafood, decent Asian fare, friendly people.  Hell, even the hordes of homeless addicts seem relatively nice.  On the way back from the Grouse Grind yesterday we stopped for lunch and our waiter/the restaurant bartender, answered my questions on why Vancouver had so many addicts.  According to him, other Canadian cities ship their homeless to Vancouver because of the temperate climates.  Now, if this is official policy, it does not meet the standard of a quick Google search, but let's just grant that the homeless don't want to freeze to death and Vancouver is not a bad place to beg on the street.  The downtown homeless are mostly young and maybe they think it's a fun life with no responsibilities.

I think we had some faux-bos at the concert last night.  Three smelly kids in front of us seriously partying on Ecstasy, looking like three-toed sloths attempting to dance, while some guys behind us lit up a joint and one old guy occasionally popped up in the crowd dancing like he had palsy and bumping into people.  Once we got past the Joni Mitchell wannabe opening act (who sang one ballad in Polish?), Josh was excellent, providing a very entertaining show.

Anyway, now it's time to pack up and head back to Seattle and then tomorrow we head to Maui.