Today’s the first real day that’s felt like fall to me. It’s crisp, bright, and the leaves on the trees range from red to orange to yellow to green. I’ve also started walking down the sidewalk in a zig-zag to make sure to step on the crunchiest of the fallen leaves! Fall is my favourite time in Vancouver, and this brief window of cool sunny days and beautiful colour doesn’t last long, so here are the five ways I’ll be enjoying it. What’s your favourite thing about fall?
Improv in action, Vancouver International Improv Festival, 2008
I have a lot of friends who love improv; several of them have actually performed in amateur groups. It’s different from scripted comedy or theatre, more alive and vital in a way, which is part of what makes it such a treat to watch: the shows change night to night, and the energy flows from on stage to the audience and back again.
Back for its 10th season at Yaletown’s Roundhouse Theatre, the Vancouver International Improv Festival is a treat for improv lovers, with 20 shows over five days, featuring talent from Vancouver and around the world. And for those who want to get in on the fun, there are beginner workshops, too.
The Vancouver International Improv Festival runs September 29 – October 3. Nightly passes are $20; Festival pass is $40.
Seasons in the Park's fabulous view of downtown Vancouver
We’ve got the looks, that’s a given—not many cities are blessed with Vancouver’s combination of ocean, mountains, parks, and city scape. We also have some of the best restaurants in the world.
So what could be better than a marriage of the two, dining on delicious food with a drop-dead gorgeous backdrop enhancing every bite?
What’s better than a Vancouver restaurant with a view?
True, most restaurants with a view can be pricey, but, since this is the Pacific Northwest, that doesn’t necessarily mean fancy. (They’re as fancy as you want them to be.) You can certainly go in your walking-around-town clothes, which is nice, since these restaurants are the perfect ending to a day spent shopping on Robson, exploring Granville Island, playing in the park or strolling on the beach.
Carole Itter, Raw Egg Costume, 1974
If you enjoyed seeing Vancouver’s swinging hippie past in the Hippies Overrun Vancouver, 1967 video clip, then you’ll love the amazing online archive and art exhibition Vancouver Art in the Sixties: Ruins in Process.
Co-sponsored by Vancouver’s Belkin Art Gallery and grunt gallery, this huge, online, multi-media collection presents “still and moving images, ephemera, essays and interviews [that] explore the diverse artistic practices of Vancouver art in the 1960s and early 1970s.”
Check out the site if you love art and history, or remember Vancouver in the sixties (or wish you could).
Received a tweet from a friend of a friend in the UK yesterday morning asking me to recommend some guidebooks to Vancouver so he can prepare for an upcoming visit.
Thing is, I just can’t.
I generally don’t rely on guidebooks when I travel to new places. After too many experiences of showing up at a street market that isn’t around any more, a river cruise that’s actually located in another county, or (most recently) a hostel that’s been closed for 18 months, I’ve decided that guidebooks are a bit too unreliable for my travel tastes.
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Inside Vancouver is a multi-author blog, written by Vancouverites about Vancouver. Our goal is to give an insider’s view of Vancouver, to provide information, stories and opinions from the locals’ perspective about this great city.
