After a lovely and long sleep in the really comfy and convenient hotel, we wake to a torrential downpour, that doesn’t really look like it is going to subside.  Bummer.  Oh well, Plan B!!!  We can’t check into the apartment until 4pm, so instead of going to North Vancouver right away to hike, we’ll just head over to the Museum of Anthropology on the University of BC campus to spend some time out of the rain before making our way to North Vancouver.  Reorganizing our bags for daytrip use, we gather up our belongings, check out and wander through the terminal looking for the shuttle that will take us to the Sixt rental location.  We find the shuttle pick up area, and after a chilly 20 minute wait, the shuttle appears.  We’re the only passengers and have a lovely time chatting with the driver who moved from the Philippines 2 years ago with his wife. The weather here has been really rainy and he says today has been brutal already (and it is only 10:30am!  Poor thing). 

After a 20-minute drive, he deposits us outside the Sixt office, which is located in the Radisson Blu!  Ok, this is funny, because this is the original hotel we had booked.  But knowing we were getting in so late at night, and not knowing the situation with baggage and passport control (which as I’ve mentioned, was record-fast!), and not knowing where we’d have to go to get to the Sixt office (we thought we’d have to shuttle back to the airport then take another shuttle to the office), we changed the reservation to stay at the airport.  Ah well, now we know!

Once there, we’re in the car in no time and the agent is adorable, showing us exactly where to return the car in the city and letting us take a picture of his phone with all the info.  And then we’re off, heading out of the airport and skirting the south side of the Vancouver peninsula on Marine Drive – wow – it is just gorgeous here.  And everything is for sale!  Everything.  There are even more For Sale signs here than in Asheville!  Crazy.  It takes a good 40 minutes to get to the museum, where we go easily find the garage across the street, but no parking spaces.  What?  This place is huge, and there aren’t any spaces? Hmmm.  We circle out of the garage and head to the museum, which has a teeny parking lot, again without any available spaces.  Sigh. Ok, well, it’s back to the garage and just circle we suppose.  This time we go down a couple of levels instead of up, and lo and behold there are tons of spots!  Cool.  Now we have to figure out how to pay!  It’s all done by machine and license plate, so actually it is simple.  We’re on our way across the street to the museum in no time.

And what a place this is!  It is huge (and crowded, btw), with tons and tons of different indigenous displays.  We start out in the totem pole area where we can view original house posts – depicting human ancestors, one holding a head, one holding a serpent.  It is fascinating to see the real thing, and then an illustration of how they were used in the early 1900s.  There are tons of different house posts and poles – and weird little boats for gifts or something.  Really amazing – but also really, really crowded, so much so that it is hard to see the explanations.

So we move onto another area that has more indigenous artifacts, actually from all around the world, not just Canada and the Northwest.  We start out in the Canadian area, looking at these amazing headdresses and masks.  Some are so scary (including that really creepy dog-like thing staring at us), and some are so artistic.  All are colorful and have a specific meaning for the tribe and the wearer.

There are examples of Mexican and Central American Trees of Life, those gorgeous colorful trees thought to join the sky, earth and underworld together.  Asian pottery.  Buddha statues.  You name the area of the world, there are spiritual examples of every culture here.  Totally interesting.

There is a whole room dedicated to one statue:  The Raven and the First Men.  A sculpture by Haida artist Bill Reid that depicts the Haida creation myth where the trickster Raven coaxes little creatures out of their shell to become the first humans – the first Haidas.  It is gorgeous, made from a single block of yellow cedar with so much detail in all different angles.

Next we visit the “To be seen, to be heard” exhibit, which is a huge room with large scale photographs and a film that has interviews with indigenous tribe members and tells the story of how they remain true to their cultures and their celebrations.  We sat there for a long time watching – very compelling message, essentially how The First Nation ensured they were seen and heard in public spaces so they and their culture were not erased. 

Then back to the original totem room, where we now have room to roam and wander through all the amazing carvings and sculptures, including more of the weird boat things which are actually for giving feasts – they are what food and gifts are placed in when feeding guests during ceremonies.  Fascinating!  And a great way to spend a few hours out of the rain.

By the time we are done with all the exhibits, it is time to head out to North Vancouver.  We take the Stanley Park route, crossing through the park we hope to hike through one day if the weather cooperates, then driving through North Vancouver to the Lynn Valley area where there are restaurants, a mall and a couple of grocery stores for our apartment supplies.  Since it is close to 3pm, we decide to have a late lunch first before shopping, stopping in at Romers, a great little local bar/pub with a happy hour that starts at 3!  Perfect.  Ordering our beer and wine (the ones we want aren’t included in happy hour), we wait a few minutes before ordering our happy hour food – fried cauliflower, i.e., cauliflower wings, and fish tacos.  A feast!  Both are excellent and a perfect late day meal for us.  This place is adorable, and we are definitely the only non-locals, totally our hang out if we lived here!

Then it is off to shop, hitting the liquor store, the mall, which is really small, and the Save-On foods where we get our supplies for the apartment, including dinner for the evening of Ham and cheese sandwiches.  Hey – we just ate a big meal late in the day – snacking tonight will be perfect!

And then it is off to the Secret Garden Treehouse apartment in the basement of Noo Noo’s house.  Google Maps gets us there without any issues, and Noo Noo is waiting for us at her door to show us in and around.  The door is unlocked, so we head down while she takes care of her dog, then she comes through to show us around.  She is the best – so sweet and accommodating and interesting to talk with, such a fun lady.  And then she leaves us to get settled, which we do, by immediately heading out to the “treehouse” – a sweet little cabin at the end of a raised boardwalk overlooking the Burrard Inlet way in the distance.  This place is the best!

We settle in, get organized and generally relax and plan for our next few days exploring North Vancouver and surrounds.