The weather out here in West North America is defined as that state of the world between the periods of rain. It's a pleasant surprise when the Sun decides to peek her head out from behind the everlasting gray skies and blesses Canadia with some of her most divine beams (please take some time to recite that last line a couple of times, until you got the intonation right; meaning flowery and baroque (*)). But when it does, it causes a massive displacement of large segments of the local population... to the Vancouver Beaches.
Vancouver as seen from Jerico Beach
There's nothing typical Canadian about a beach trip though, the Canadian Beach Experience is pretty much the same as in the rest of the Western world. Elderly people hang out in full attire, hat, jacket and whatever else may guard you from the possible ravages of the elemental conditions. Parents drag their kids to the shorelines to make those amazing shapeless architectures (and each of those creations is without any question high grade photographable material). And any other age category strips down to the bare minimum, to show off his or her curves to gain the attention of the other sex.
The safety of the people who feel like swimming, is guarded by experienced life guards in the well known red outfit. In case one would decide to drown, these people will wheel up their classical live saving devices off the beach, and row towards the rescue in a speedy fashion. Given the antiquity of both device and operator, my guess is that this measure serves other purposes than the good old fashioned rescue. The mission statement of this life saving operation will probably linger somewhere between “good intentions” and making sure “the bodies don't clutter up the boat-routes further out”.
David Hasselhoff's dad and his faithfull boat look after the swimmers
Vancouver has an abundance of sandy coast lines, and many of them are named and identified as a “beach”. A quick look at any Vancouver map provides us with a host of colourfull names like Locarno Beach, Jerico Beach, Kitsalano Beach, Sunset Beach, Iona Beach to name a few. The Sunset Beach in particular offers a breathtaking sunset on a regular basis (I leave it to Captain Obvious to draw any conclusions with regards to the name).
One particular interesting part on Sunset Beach is the Inukshuk on the west point. It's a stone landmark used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic and means "something which acts for or performs the function of a person.". [Wikipedia] You'll probably going to see it somewhat more around 2010, as it's the official logo of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
the Inukshuk
Another interesting sight is the abundance of palm trees along the boulevard of Sunset beach. Given the right time of the day and light, one can easily forget this is Canada and not some subtropical destination. In case one does get slightly misplaced ideas, just wait a day ... Soon enough the skies will cloud up again, to bring another one of those refreshing rainy episodes. Thus putting both of ones feet firmly on the puddled Canadian ground. As the Candians say: one hairy dry moose doesn't mean the summer is here yet, eh ?
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