23 April 2025 – My mind has created a very clear plan for the morning.

Follow the Quebec Street bioswale — not a ditch! a rainwater gathering/purifying system! — to Science World, down there at False Creek…

do the interview; walk my usual “Cambie Loop” to and over the bridge; and then zigzag eastward back home.

I do the interview. (The Mystery Interview. Be patient, a post will follow.) I start walking west along the False Creek Seawall.

All according to plan.

Suddenly, where Carrall St. butts into the Seawall, my feet execute a sharp right-turn. They don’t even inform my mind, let alone ask permission. They just take mind (and the rest of me) hostage, and execute their own plan.

Away we go. I find myself walking north on Carrall.

I decide not to argue: this could be interesting! The route offers a tidy cross-town slice past Andy Livingstone Park, through Chinatown, on into the Downtown East Side (DTES) and Gastown, all the way to Water Street with Burrard Inlet just beyond.

Poignant, powerful street art at West Pender, by the impressive street artist and DTES resident/advocate, Smokey D.

“It’s by Smokey D,” I hear two street kids say to each other, their voices full of respect. The City agrees. In tribute to his concern for others and use of his skills to inform and empower others, in 2023 Vancouver proclaimed March 11 — his birthday — to be Smokey D Day.

Another downtown symbol at Water and Cambie streets, this one much happier in mood: Raymond Saunders’ 1977 Steam Clock, still puffing steam and, in another 10 minutes, due to mark 12-noon with the opening bars of O Canada.

By now my mind fully supports what my feet set in motion: this is a promising route! I even manage to rediscover the Silvestre café and reacquaint myself with its Peruvian menu — another mug of Chicha Morada (purple corn drink) but this time, a Chicharron sandwich (pork belly) rather than an Alfajor dessert.

At Richards Street, my feet graciously allow my mind some say in what happens next. Continue west another block or two? Or turn south right here? Right here, says my mind, and my feet pivot accordingly.

Yet more patriotic fervour in the Macleod’s window at Richards & West Pender…

and appropriately vintage in style, as befits this rare, used and antiquarian bookstore.

I cross Dunsmuir, where signage informs me that this next stretch of Richards is part of the City’s “blue-green rainwater system.”

The last panel of the sign is an illustration of the pavers involved in the system. The caption asks, “Do they remind you of water flowing towards the tree?”

I step out into the street, check the pavers.

Yes, they do.

Another happy rediscovery, a place I can never find on purpose. I just have to, literally, walk into it…

the joyous, multi-level Rainbow Park at Richards & Smithe.

Getting closer to False Creek with every step!

On past Emery Barnes Park at Davie, and then across Pacific Blvd., right to the tumbling fountains of George Wainborn Park, which slopes down to the Creek.

Eastward along the False Creek Seawall, past a swimming dog (and ball-tossing owner)…

and then I’m beneath the towering girders at the David Lam ferry dock. Each girder base is incised with a different story of time & place.

This one commemorates the Great Fire of 1886…

when, on June 17, an authorized clearing fire on CPR property blazed out of control and destroyed the infant city, whose wooden structures were no match for the wind and flames. In the words of one survivor: “The city did not burn, it simply melted before the fiery blast.”

And then I walk some more, on past the Cambie Bridge, on along to Coopers Mews, with its symbolic barrels on high. At this point, mind, feet and the rest of me all agree on our course of action.

We follow the Mews to Pacific Blvd., and catch a bus for home.