If Completed The World Will End: Basílica del Voto Nacional

The best thing about visiting countries with a strong or large Catholic community is the churches. It's incredible! I love Neo-gothic Ecuadorian architecture! Below are some of our photos from the Basílica del Voto Nacional (Basical of the National Vow). The Basílica was proposed in 1883 but is technically unfinished because if were ever to be finish that would spell the end of the world. Really! It is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the Americas.

Typcal of Neogothic architecture are gargoyles and grotesques peering below at the huddled masses. The carvings were representatibe of all the different biomes of Ecuador. Below are alpacas from the Andes.

Our favorites of all the exquistely done sculpture are the ones below. These are gargoyles representing various unique wildlife from the Galapagos. The birds below are a Blue-footed Booby and an Albatross. There are also iguanas and tortoises as well.

The Noses of BC: An Art Retrospective

Kathryn has a long standing tradition of putting up with my nonsense, and part of that tradition involves letting me take pictures of her patting the noses of anything vaguely nose-pattable that we come across in our travels. Here's a selection of my favorites since we moved to BC. First off we have a statue of some otters in Victoria with eminently pattable noses.
There's a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver not far from the library which inexplicably has a giant statue of a cow in front of it. This creates a prime opportunity for nonsensical nose patting.
And rounding out the set, this native spirit carving resides at the back of the art gallery and was crying out for some attention this summer.
There's a giraffe sanctuary and possibly a tame rhino coming up in Africa, so look forward to more nose stroking in the coming months :)

Weird Vancouver Artwork

Every city in the world has a selection of truly bizarre sculptures scattered throughout them, and Vancouver is no different. As either art grants or company tax write offs or commemorations, this town is littered with artwork; some of it original, some of it pretentious and some of it just weird and unexpected.

Like this 1/2 scale cast of a supply shack that used to be on the banks on Burrard Inlet. Its made out of aluminum right down to replica barnacles and clams. And of course its on stilts to keep it out of the water like the original was... and then also on the sidewalk.
And how could a city commemorate anything if they didn't celebrate the turn of the century bartenders that made it all possible? Gastown is home to this somewhat vandalized statue of 'Gassy Jack' who is famous for starting a pub there and marrying his 12 year old niece after his wife died.And this bit of Buck Rogers weirdness is a replica of one displayed in 1936 to celebrate the 50th birthday of Vancouver as envisioned by the Sheet Metal Workers union. Because Vancouver is nothing if not a 50s style sci-fi rocket.

A Space Odyssey

One of the great things about guests is they give you an excuse to visit all the neat tourist places that you never get around to otherwise. With my parents providing a handy excuse we finally got to check out the McMillan Space Centre which shares a building with the Vancouver Museum and knows how to start things off right.
Thats right, a giant statue of a crab shooting water... perhaps the most awesome thing ever. They even have a plaque explaining it so that anyone that doesn't buy the notion of "Giant metal crabs are fantastic" can have an artsy rationalization.
Once inside it was imperative that I expand my collection of pictures of "Kathryn In Big Hats." There were also some neat displays about space, rockets, shuttle tiles and the like as well as a ride where you get to deliver science fiction madness to Mars, very much like the Star Tours ride at Disneyland.
The price of admission also includes planetarium shows which run every hour or so and are pretty fantastic. I also think that everyone can agree that in the robot uprising, the battle between the crab out front and the projector will be epic.

Ferry to Gibsons

Early in the spring, Kathryn's capoeira group went to the nearby town of Gibsons for some classes, and one day I tagged along. Its a neat little town on the lower mainland which is only accessible by boat since the mountains are too heavy and the town to small to justify a road.

While the group was having their class I wandered down to the waterfront and had a poke around during low tide, sneaking into old boat repair shops and skulking around the pier. I found it particularly neat that there were groups of mussels growing on a fallen tree which were submerged when the tide was in and airborne when the tide was out.

Some relative of Kathryn's (I forget which) apparently once ran a coffee shop out there, but we were unable to identify any particular buildings having never been there while the shop was in action, though there is a Grandma's Pub.