wild Vancouver (no, not the nightlife, sorry)

Last weekend, it wasn’t all just wild baby-shower fun. While I usually head back on an early-ish ferry on Sundays so that I have some time to unwind and get ready for the working week in “my own space,” i.e. our home on the island, I’ve been minding that Pater and I have to cut our weekend time short for that to happen. So I decided that getting back home before 8 p.m. would still give me enough time to get organized for Monday, which meant we had ’til 3-ish to hang out together in some quintessentially perfect fall weather. You know, those boring blue skies, the colourful leaves, the crisp chill air. We walked to Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park — a jewel in an already spectacularly well-endowed city. That view above is a fifteen-minute walk from our apartment, fifteen minutes from Robson Street shopping, from Tiffany, Hermès, Holt Renfrew, Guess, Banana Republic, Club Monaco, etc., etc., In the view below, you can see the highrises of the West End, a densely-populated yet surprisingly neighbourly and livable area. This Mute Swan seems to think so.

And this Hooded Merganser.

Indulge me, if you will. I love the way the water muddles the fall colours together in the sun.

We had a lovely walk from here to Lumbermen’s Arch and around the Brockton Point Lighthouse. Then we walked up to Denman Street for Chinese food, wandered along Robson to check out a leather jacket I’ve been eyeing at Aritzia (not as great on as it was on the rack, sadly), then back to the apartment with lots of time to relax before heading for the ferry. I’m going to try to take advantage of Sunday like that more often — not as calming and restful, perhaps, as having a quiet afternoon to myself back on the island, but rejuvenating nonetheless, and extra time with Pater, a very good thing.