Thank you and farewell to Vancouver

As immigrants, we are grateful to this city that gave us a safe heaven for so many years. There are so many things that we love about Vancouver. Here is a most incomplete list of our stars of Vancouver, in no apparent order:

*Following the seasons at the Kitsilano Community garden
*Going to Connie’s on 4th for her daily lunch special. No place else can one have Chinese food while listening to Julio Iglesias
*Hiking up into snowy Mount Seymour backcountry, seeing the city from above, then sliding down again
*The ever so tasty buffet at Athiti and the sweet Indian family running it
*Biking along Spanish Banks to watch the sun go down
*Our beloved neighbor Charlene who has the biggest of hearts, will always offer a helping hand and who bakes the worlds best rum cakes! (just ask anyone who has tasted them..)
*The amazing hot and sour soup at Lin’s on Broadway off Granville, and while I am at it, their Szechuan green beans
*’Our’ bench at Kits beach, overlooking the bay, the bathers, and the West Coast jogging outfit trendsetters with their canine companions
*Arlene, the ever-smiling wheat-free, gluten-free baker at Main and Broadway, appropriately called Mygoodness
*The rock we like to sit at at low tide, on that narrow dirt path leading from Kits pool to, well, wherever it is…
*Watching grey herons pick for a fishy morsel; tall, pre-historical, awkward in take-off, yet graceful in flight
*The Bill Reid Gallery and his amazing Haida art
*Taking the hat-box ferry from the Maritime museum pier to Granville Island, especially on a windy day when nobody else ventures out
*Zul, Spence and the boys at Market meats, their jovial conversations, great service and BBQ tastings
*Reading a book on the only semi-dry patch of grass in Delamont Park
*Walking across the bridge to Chinatown for Dim Sun, matinee at Tinseltown, and then back again
*Running into Oskar’s daycare teachers a decade after he left, them still remembering him
*The critters of the Vanocuver Aquarium, where Jaime used to volunteer
*Malaysian papaya salad at the Banana Leaf
*’Green walks’ in the UBC endowment lands
*Seeing the snow-capped mountains of the North Shore after weeks and months of rain
*Our humble garden, an orphanage for unwanted plants from film-shoots and kind neighbours
*Walking down Broadway for the sole purpose of getting an East is East Chai, a secret Afghani recipe that I never managed to lure out of the staff

A couple 0f things we wont miss:
*People wearing Lululemon tights to do anything but yoga
*The rain

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