Description 51 - Beyond the Blue Horizon

I wander through Vancouver, land of "verdant-ness" and floatplanes, and consider the arrogance of Canada's biggest cities - like my own. Includes music by Allison Crowe, moss on the 37th floor, a silver shack on stilts and the inevitable connection between Stargate and Creative Anachronism.

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Associated links
Why I was in Vancouver
Tourism Vancouver
Vancouver-Alaska cruises
Grouse Mountain
Vancouver 2010
Triple A radio
Allison Crowe: official, myspace, maplemusic, and at publicbroadcasting.ca!
Blue Horizon Hotel
Blenz Coffee
Great Lakes Medieval Faire
Some Vancouver locations for Stargate SG-1
Gateworld!
Coal Harbour
Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre

Cut an awful lot out of this one, particularly more details on the CRTC stuff and the mysteries of trying to start a commercial radio station in this country (which may help explain why some of us are podcasting), but I suspect there'll be other chances to discuss that. Then there are other wonders of Vancouver cut out like DaVinci's Inquest, The Beachcombers, Capers Community Markets and the best strip clubs in the world.

Then there was the preponderance of Dutch restaurants in Vancouver. The city is known for its great Indian, Chinese and Japanese cuisine (especially sushi, imho). But Dutch??? In my wanderings, I'd discovered there's this chain of restaurants called De Dutch Pannekoek House, which seems to be what Chez Cora is in Quebec - a happy, homey place specializing in breakfast, brunch and lunch. It turns out a Pannekoek is a big freaking pancake you often serve with other food on top, although De Dutch does say on their website "we're not just Pannekoeken!" (well, thank God for that!). If I had walked past one of these places while they were open (almost all of them close after lunch), I swear I would have taken the iRiver in there and really dug in. But I had to content myself with gawking in windows and posted menus, still marvelling, "Dutch? Why Dutch?"

It turns out 50 years ago, some Dutch guy wanted out of the Dutch Army. So he emigrated to Vancouver. After working odd jobs and recovering from a car accident, he found work in the restaurant business, eventually got known for a place called "The Frying Dutchman" then took a shot at this Pannekoek thing in 1975. Now they have 17 of these things in the area.

So there you go. One immigrant comes to Canada and gives a city something you're sure as heck not going to find in Toronto or Montreal. At least not yet.