There’s no getting bored when there are so many activities available.

I expected August to be a fairly quiet month, but we’re nowhere near to feeling laissez-faire about Vancouver yet, so in addition to spending lots of time with family, we’ve been watching the event scene.

In the end, it turned out that we’ve been having so much fun that I needed to split the month in half for our journal.

Basil & Bears

August began with cooking and bears, although neither of those things really involved me.

On our first “Maple Ridge Monday” of the month, we arrived at son#2’s house just after noon to find our Italian daughter-in-law in the process of peeling 5 pounds of steaming hot freshly boiled potatoes preparatory to making homemade gnocchi! Freshly-made pesto from their own basil plants (plus pine nuts and garlic) was already on the kitchen counter.

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Our son and DIL did all the hard work, but I did get to shape a few of the pillows.

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While the gnocchi were resting, Ted joined our son and #2 grandson for an outing to Minnekahda Regional Park in Coquitlam to photograph black bears. Ted has ordered a new Sony RX10 Mark V camera, and our middle grandson has expressed an interest in following in his dad and granddad’s footsteps into photography as a hobby. He’s been hinting pretty broadly that when Gramps gets the new camera he’d like the current one… and “after all” his 12th birthday IS coming up.

The camera is a bit heavy, especially when compared to a cellphone, and photographing bears in the wild is a pretty challenging first assignment, but neither discouraged him.

He’ll need to learn about framing his subjects, and depth of field, and all the technical stuff – eventually – but I think he can be pretty proud of these first attempts! Gramps was certainly impressed.

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Since #2 was occupied with Gramps, grandson#3 and I went blackberry picking along the park paths near their house. The sheer “ouch” of that activity reminded me of why the common British name for those plants seems so much more appropriate. “Brambles” sounds prickly in a way that “blackberry” just doesn’t.

We all returned to the house for dinner, which featured the gnocchi but also included fresh Caprese salad and a sweet finish of zucchini cake.

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While the other adults had after-dinner coffees, grandson #1 and I strolled to the Kanaka Creek fish fence area to see if we could see any black bears of our own. A family of them frequent the farm that borders the river, but neither we nor all the other hopeful bear-watchers managed to spy any on this particular evening.

The Big Screen

The next day Ted and I had a movie and pizza date: The Odyssey (which we agreed was epic in both spectacle and length, clocking in at just under 3 hours with the Cineplex pre-show commercials factored in), and our “regular” pepperoni, pineapple, and jalapeño pie from FreshSlice.

I remember reading (in English translation) The Odyssey, The Iliad, and The Aeneid in high school, during a brief Grade 10 obsession with all things Ancient Greek and Roman, and being enthralled. While the movie we saw was in many ways spectacular, I’d still maintain that the advice below applies perfectly.

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Glorious Red Uniforms & Majestic Horses

The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Musical Ride came to the Maple Ridge Country Fairgrounds this month, replete with officers in their iconic Red Serge dress uniforms and brown Stetsons, riding the force’s strikingly beautiful solid black Hanoverian horses.

British Columbia is home to “E” Division of the RCMP, which provides both federal and provincial services throughout the province, plus contract policing for all but a few municipalities. E Division is Canada’s largest RCMP division, with 144 local detachments, comprised of about 7,100 sworn members alongside around 1,700 civilian members and public service employees.

We see the RCMP in their blue day-to-day uniforms patrolling on foot and in their white vehicles all the time, and we occasionally – like during FIFA or the Pride Parade – also see them on horseback, but the pomp of the Musical Ride is something quite special.

The last time I saw it was at Fort Henry in Kingston Ontario, when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Our son and his family had never seen it.

Prior to the performance, as the mounts got their final grooming, including maple leaves stencils onto their hindquarters, we got to visit with the horses and the officers riding them. At that point, the riders were still in plain blue casual gear.

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We enjoyed barbecue and ice cream from the food trucks, and then – thanks to Gramps – snagged centre ring bleacher seats for the show.

First, there was a short demonstration by Lucy, from the RCMP canine unit.

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Next the True North Cowgirls Drill Team from Langley BC took to the ring, with each horse bedazzled with red glitter on its hindquarters.

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And then it was time for the main attraction, which was also the first outing for Ted’s new camera.

The RCMP Musical Ride officially began in the 1920s, so it really is an iconic piece of Canadiana.

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In the end, the show itself may have been less spectacular than I’d imagined based on old memories, but it was impressive nonetheless, and a great way to spend a perfect summer evening.

On the topic of perfect summer evenings, Ted has also been aiming his new camera at the bees in our garden.

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Touring a Vancouver Landmark

Ted and I have been to several performances at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre , but never taken the opportunity to actually tour the venue and learn about its history, so when Ted suggested we book tickets to do just that I was definitely interested.

We met our guide in the lobby of the theatre on Granville Street. The lobby with its dual staircases is made to seem much wider than its actual 25 feet through the use of height, light, and mirrors. Granville Street was once Vancouver’s version of Broadway, with property taxes on Granville frontages being among the highest in the city. The canny builder of the Orpheum built the almost 3000 seat theatre on much cheaper Seymour Street, and connected it via a walkway over a back alley to the lobby on Granville.

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The Orpheum, like the Wurlitzer, was built in 1927. It’s Vancouver’s version of The Pantages/Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, which dates to 1920 and underwent similar transitions.

The Orpheum began life as Vancouver’s biggest vaudeville house, transitioned into a movie palace, and since 1975 has been a concert hall and home to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Those changes required extensive renovations, but its interior still features much of the original antique décor, sweeping staircases, Romanesque and Gothic arches, and a domed auditorium complete with ceiling mural and giant crystal chandelier.

The mural is not original to 1927. It was commissioned for the 1974 restoration, and features orchestra members, architects, and benefactors of that era.

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The stage is “clamshell” style, creating fabulous acoustics.

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The accessory areas of the theatre (lobbies, bars, etc) meant for patrons are opulent. Our guide described the mixture of architectural styles as “Vegas chic”, intended simply to feel generically palatial.

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A highlight of the theatre is its 1927 Wurlitzer organ, which Ted and I have enjoyed experiencing on Silent Movie Mondays at The Orpheum.

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The organs’s pipes are hidden behind these ornate screens on either side of the stage.

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We were not allowed to go behind or below the stage, but we were able to to visit the projection booth with its four huge Xenon spotlights.

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The two central spotlights can be moved out of the way on Silent Movie nights, when massive rolls of film are loaded horizontally into a special projector that is very different from the vertical projectors that would originally have been used here.

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From the projection booth we climbed even higher to the scaffolding above the domed ceiling, from where we could see the winch that raises and lowers the chandelier to allow it to be cleaned.

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Part of the theatre houses the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. There were several familiar faces among the head shots displayed, including Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, Diana Krall, Bruno Gerussi, Michael J Fox, Valdy, Jeff Hyslop, and Yvonne De Carlo, plus many, many more.

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Interestingly, when we were walking through staff areas headed to the projection room, we came upon the poster displays that predated the current glitzy Hall of Fame. I think I preferred them!

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The tour made for a fun couple of hours.

That brings us to mid-month, with some really neat music, theatre, and food events still to come.

We’re doing our best to make our stationary time as busy as our travel time. This month, we’re (almost) succeeding!