After shopping at Hudson Bay Company for some "official" Olympic wear (slim pickins) we met Kathleen for dinner at a small Thai restaurant (ThangThai). Wow, the food was delicious. We ordered one appetizer and four entrees and stuffed ourselves, not quite finishing all the tasty dishes. In the bathroom, though, I swear the building was rocking. Mom and Betsy experienced it, too. I mentioned it to Kathleen, and she said the technical term is "mal de debarquement" which you can see means sickness (mal) of disembarkment wherein you feel like you are still on the boat. I had it in Denmark after sleeping a boat nightly. It happens on land, more often in confined spaces where you are not in motion. Riding in a car, for example, would not bring it on. Back at the hotel, walking in the halls, I had it bad, felt like I was walking the halls of the ship. To tell the truth, I think it's kind of cool.
After dinner we went back to Kathleen's high rise where she has a beautiful view of Cypress Mountain where the arials, moguls and short runs were skiied at the Olympics. Also, the harbor and Stanley Park, a very large public park just two minutes away from her apartment. Kathleen works for the U.S. state department and has a very nice home. She has lived all over the world and collected really nice art and furnishings. This is how I kind of imagined I would live one day in my dreams.
Betsy and Kathleen
We then took a short walk in Stanley Park. It is either the biggest, or very close to it, park in the world. The perimeter is 6 miles. Needless to say, we didn't walk that. Vancouver has the "English Garden" thing going on, along with lots of rain which makes for some very beautiful vegetation.
Afterwards we stopped by the Olympic torch site. Well, one of them. The one Gretzky had trouble lighting was actually indoors at another location, but he did light this second one in downtown Vancouver himself so that people could drive by. They are working to make it a permanent fixture so it can be lit for more special occasions. In the background, you might see the new convention center with it's grass roof.
Then it was back to our hotel to sleep and drive back to Seattle. I was disappointed to see so many homeless (or at least down and out) people on the street after dusk. Hastings Street was just teaming. I will leave you with one last photo. A view of Kathleen's apartment building and downtown from Stanley Park.
4 comments:
You won't think Mal de Debarquement was cool if it lasted for years and years on end. And, for the record, car travel, boat travel, plane travel, and train travel all can cause MdDS.
I was on a freighter from New Orleans to Lima, Peru, eons ago, Susan, through the Panama Canal. I'll never forget it (all 10 days). I do remember that we got off twice before we reached Lima and both times I felt the sidewalk swaying the entire time. HA! I know the feeling. :)
Vancouver is one of my very favorite cities in the world. probably my next favorite right after San Francisco. I remember walking by your friend's neighborhood when we were there in 2001 or was it '04...and thinking what a BEAUTIFUL part of the city that was, overlooking the bay, the park and the mountains.
I had forgotten about Mal de Debarquement but i agree w/ you, it is kinda cool in a very odd sense.
PS: go into your template to change the links on your sidebar. the newest blogger templates make it really easy where you can just click and paste the url in. Or you can go into the template html code, scroll down close to the bottom, and look for the links to your sidebar there and just change the http link there. that way is more complicated cuz u have to filter thru all the gobblygook html code.
No, that doesn't sound fun, anonymous.
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