Granville Island
A very, very long time ago I actually worked for Granville Island, as a janitor (and self-taught forklift driver!) in the Public Market. It was a fun job, working with a wild and varied group of people who had no interest in being janitors.
Today we're camped out for a week in a Co-op housing complex right under the Granville bridge. Our front door leads almost directly to the spot that you see above. We've moved out of the apartment that we've sub-let for the past year, and are cat-sitting two lovely felines named Louise and Lloyd. It's very nice living with cats again.
What's best though is being within easy walking distance of everything that Granville Island has to offer. Instead of driving down and battling for a parking place we can just step out of the back door and walk, literally, two minutes to our gym at the False Creek Community Centre.
That walk takes us over the bike and pedestrian paths, and past the amazing water parks full of children. It's lively, and not overwhelmed by traffic, and people are just happy and enjoying their day.
Granville Island is somewhere that really needs to be experienced on foot. Yes, this time of year it will be crowded with tourists and locals, and yes, the buskers are still not worthy of the excessive amplification that they all us these days. Dan the Man never needed speakers!
Take your time. Stop and enjoy the cement trucks. Look in all the little stores, and explore the many alleys and back routes. And eat, whether an ice cream cone, or a horribly over-priced seafood dinner.
But watch out! Last week, I had a seagull land on my shoulder and grab a raisin scone right out of my hand!
Don't just hit the Public Market - though the quality of what's sold there is far above what Save-On or Meinhardt has to offer - wander and look. Really take your time and explore. It's worth it. Yesterday we spent an hour just circling around looking at the many restaurants. Other days we've checked the shops, and of course Opus Art Supplies.
And I haven't even considered all the theatre companies - we've just been too busy planning our move to Cambridge.
The thing that I've learned this year is that working at the Market is the worst way to learn anything about Granville Island. I've seen and enjoyed more of it this summer than I did while working there for a couple of years. It is an amazing creation, and what's more, a creation that somehow the Government of Canada hasn't ruined, and hasn't sold off to some scummy private developer.
It really is the model for how such things should be created and managed.
And, lest we forget, the Granville Island Brewery is still making some very nice beer.
