Monday, April 30, 2012

Signs of Summer

Endless days of overcast, rain and mist are what locals here call "winter" (something I have yet to comprehend having grown up with 8 months of annual bone-chilling -30'C Prairie winters).  So when a day of sunshine breaks out in Vancouver, the whole city comes to a halt as people pour out of their homes and offices to enjoy the signs of spring.

Vancouver is a rich city in that it offers an abundance of outdoor activities in every corner of every neighborhood.  I decided to break out the bocce ball set and enjoy the sunshine with friends at a local park at George Wainborn Park, a urban park at the edge of the Yaletown area of downtown Vancouver.  En route, I experienced city sidewalks full of lively, happy people and the Seawall was bursting at the seams with pedestrians and cyclists.  I spent the day like most others under the sun absorbing all the Vitamin D we'd missed out on during the winter months of overcast.  

Now that I have escaped the harsh Prairie winters and live in a city that experiences one of the country's mildest winters, the lack of sunshine makes me actually envious of those frigid Manitoban winters - but only for a moment, when I shiver myself back to my awesome new reality.