New Home for Coast Mountain

Well, looks like Coast Mountain on 4th/Yew will be leaving in September and has recently acquired the former home of Canadian Tire on 1st and Burrard. When I asked at the store recently, the manager mentioned their 15 year lease having expired and the rent going up 300%! It was definitely time to find new digs, and the new location will be a Vancouver flagship store for Coast. Only question remains, what will fill the space at the prime location of 4th and Yew?

I haven't blogged too much lately on this space; as you can imagine, Facebook has all but sucked any free time I have these days! It is quite an addictive little pastime, one of the few online activities that I allow myself. Weather is too gorgeous and there are too many things pulling me away from my iMac these days. Oh yeah, I just won an electric scooter, I'll post my experiences with that one soon! Summer just keeps getting better!

Back From the Interior

Well, a lot can be said about British Columbia: its nature, wildlife, mountains, lakes and coastline. After having spent 10 days touring from Vancouver to Banff, Alberta, I can honestly say that there's no town quite like Vancouver that comes close in comparison. The Kootenay town of Nelson was lovely and compares a bit to Santa Cruz, California. Most towns, with the exception of Kamloops, are much smaller in size.

There were two advantages to travelling in early May: no crowds, and snow on the Rockies. The downside was finding many national parks close to the mountains still closed due to snow cover! Personal favourite was Revelstoke, with its tiny downtown core, wonderful café (Modern Bakeshop and Café) and proximity to some great skiing at Revelstoke Mountain!

I for one am happy to be in Vancouver, getting ready to enjoy the summer that a (small yet active) city of this size can offer…and am definitely going to explore the new False Creek bridge just open this week.

The Playoff Race

It just keeps getting tighter and tighter. After tonight's heavy 4-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, it's anyone's guess as to whether or not the Canucks will make it in. Tomorrow there's another road game against Phoenix Coyotes, the team that beat the Ducks in overtime last night. Ooh, and then there's the Dallas Stars game to get through on Saturday. Makes you wonder if the Canucks are really wanting this playoff thing to happen. Fingers crossed all around for a stronger outcome tomorrow night at the Great One's arena.

Go 'nucks Go!

Video Store comes to West Kits!

Finally, the indy video store we've been waiting for in this neck of Kits, on the 2900 block of West 4th. Last week (on Valentine's Day to be precise), Grindhouse Video opened its doors in the same building that the ill-fated East-coast based automated video chain used to occupy.

They're in a at great time, what with Starbuck's about to open at the corner of 4th and Bayswater, and the spankin' new Kits apartments above it (Black Swan) nearing completion. Kind of like a baby brother to Videomatica, they've got the cult/foreign/horror/x/new releases sections pretty well-covered, given their boutique-size dwelling. Owners are very friendly and keen on getting to know their local customers. As well, just a stone's throw from the 84 express bus stop headed towards UBC. Hopefully these guys will stick around much longer and add to their ever-expanding titles. We've had too many video store misfits over the last little while here (Luna Video, next door to Jolly's Bistro, is now closed, and will not be reopening as another video store).

Anyway, props to a new shop that's not baby/nail salon/raw pet food-related, but good old-fashioned escapism!

Way to Go, Timmy's!

The most ironic Tim Horton's location has got to be the latest opening at Fir and Broadway, right below Fitness Essentials! Just like having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other! Have the donut and THEN workout, or the other way around? Had a good laugh on this one!

Rent a Car to Chip vs. Leaving the Tree in the Alley

Ah, what to do, what do to! After having rented a CAN car to pick out a Christmas tree this year, we're now faced with either renting again to bring the tree down to Kits Beach for chipping, or leave it in the alleyway for someone to somehow remove. Too bad that the recycling 'green' box days won't accept it in the garbage anymore. Already I've seen a few trees in nearby alleyways starting to pile up against garages and large community rubbish bins. Then again, I suppose that those who can pick up the tree in the first place (with a vehicle) can also dispose of it down at the beach or other part of the city.

The environmental impact is about equal I would say. As you wait in line at the tree chipping place and let your car idle, in order to properly recycle the tree, how is that going to help matters? If the truck came around on a given day and took the trees in one go and had it recycled properly, wouldn't that mean a lot less cars on the road?

Happy New Year's, everyone! I see on the kitsilano.ca blog site that many new shops are ready to come to West 4th, and sadly, some shops have gone out of business (Hope Unlimited for one). In the less than three years we've lived in this neighbourhood, we've seen so many shops come and go on West 4th - what a turnaround!

St. Paul's Hospital Lighting

Just back from a lovely early evening celebration on Burrard Street. Here's a video of the hospital lighting that took place on Friday evening just before 7. Photos as well!

Shore Bird Invasion!

Has anyone been down to Kits Beach over the last couple of days? There's an abundance of shore birds hanging right near the stairway down to the water. And thousands, I might add! Here's a few photos taken this morning (in the rain), of the lovely Goldeneyes and Surf Scoters (looking like a distant relative of the puffin, with their unique large orange and yellow beaks)!

Shooting in our Hood

4th and Trafalgar, site of Quattro's on 4th, is a bit too close for comfort for a shooting. Strangely enough, Ad was sound asleep on Saturday night when it all happened. As I'd been away down in Orange County, I knew about it first via internet (was just poking around the Vancouver Sun website to see if our strike had ended by some chance). The restaurant is undergoing renovation this week and I suppose in a stroke of excellent timing, this gives their staff some needed recovery time.

Two people dead in THIS area? Scary times.

Lost in Space

Haven't written much here lately. Why, you may ask? I too have entered the vortex that is Facebook last month, and since then, have been writing friends, lost contacts, potential clients, you name it, over at that end of the e-way. This Facebook is certainly growing by leaps and bounds, and the Vancouver network is already up to over 386,000 members as I write this.

Pretty basic, the younger you are, the more online friends you'll probably have. A high percentage of my online buds are under 35. The over-40 crowd is seemingly either busy with family/career, or just not hooked up as of yet. It's quite the time-filler, heading over in the morning and seeing what everyone's up to in their own way (video, Wall, photo albums, status). I'd heard rumours that the company was facing being shut down due to an ownership issue of the actual product, but that was already a few weeks past.

As for Vancouver news, well, the BIG STRIKE of 07 is still glaring us right in the face. Garbage keeps piling up in the alleyways, the gorgeous outdoor pool here in Kits sits closed and filled with seagulls (such a shame on a day like today, with a mild breeze and temperatures around 25C). The library book that I'd reserved is in eternal transit hell, as the strike started one day prior to the book being ready at Kits Library. Wondering if I'll see that book at all this season! More importantly, when will the madness end??!?

Greetings from a sunny Kitsilano balcony,

Ariane C

Here's the Scoop

Now it's finally been revealed to me what is coming to the former Book Warehouse location on West 4th: a Reitman's clothing store, opening end of August. The news came to me via one of the workers inside busy tearing down what was left of Scoop, open just long enough to irritate, in between the Book's closing and this new retail wonder in our hood.

a weekend of garage sales

We finally took the chance and had our yard sale over the long Canada Day weekend. Weather this year has been too iffy and we'd already had to cancel the sale once last month. Funny to have a woman arrive at 10 am, wanting to make a 3 dollar purchase and offering to pay with a 100 dollar bill! What are people thinking? It's hard enough for a restaurant or shop to cough out change at the start of a day, let alone someone selling off bits and pieces of their closet with coins in their pockets as change! Anyway, it went off without a hitch and by 2, we were ready to donate the rest to our favourite local charity shop in town.

Even more fun was had the following day (Monday) when our neighbours at the end of the street had their sale. The same characters came through and lo and behold, that same lady trying to pay for purchases with that same 100 dollar bill! We have a café right on the corner; I can't imagine how hard it would have been for this lady to have gotten change ahead of time?

Has anyone else tried their hand at getting Chris Cornell tickets via the Molson Golden cell phone blitz? My phone's been ringing daily with the chance to arrive early at a (daily changing) Granville Street bar, in order to get the CHANCE to win a pair! I'm thinking it's a thinly-veiled attempt for the Molson folks to get the kids out the door to drink, in hopes of a win. These tickets can not be purchased. The text message system is the only way to get to the particular bar and claim your chance of winning. I'm wondering how badly I wanna see this guy!

Happy belated Canada Day to my Northern friends and readers : )

Spot the Prawn

Only three more weeks to get your hands on these lovely, locally (Sechelt, Sunshine Coast) caught spot prawns. Find the boat on the dock, just opposite Go Fish; they're still coming in every afternoon until end of June, at which time they'll have the frozen version for sale.

What's the Scoop?

Just wondering if anyone else living close to the West 4th corridor has any idea as to what's on the horizon for the former Book Warehouse space, now being occupied by Scoop. The shop had had signs up from the start, promising to be around for three weeks. Well folks, it's been well over that time and we're jonesing for a nice new shop to open its doors! What will it be? Another doggie deli? A nail salon? Great eatery? Yoga shop? How about an indy video rental shop, a la Videomatica? Always a curiousity of mine, trying to figure out the next new neighbour on the block.

I'd recently visited the Book Warehouse's new space on West Broadway, now occupying less than half of their old shop space, and they too were given no indication from the landlord as to what was coming there. Hopefully it won't prove to be an ongoing shlock shop kind of rent-a-space thing. This is prime real estate for the Kits 4th Ave. scene; should be something worthy!!

Speaking of worthy, not to wear my fellow Canucks fans down, but those Ducks really did perform this playoff series, and won a very well-deserved Cup last night! It was truly Teemu time - he's the oldest player in this past final series. Congrats to Scott Niedermayer who won the Conn Smythe MVP Award, and now may California wake up and smell the marvelous world of hockey. Finally.

Spot On

Hope all local Vancouverites have the chance to check out this weekend's Spot Prawn Festival! If you think the lineup at GoFish is bad on weekends, today was just insane! Here, a link to festival info.

Photos: the two little dark pinkish spots to the right of that chef's thumbnail are the trademark 'spots' of the Spot Prawn (click on photo to enlarge for detail).

Chefs, from L-R: John Bishop of Bishop's on 4th, Vikram Vij of Vij's on Granville, and Robert Clark of C.

O.W.L. Visit and Centennial Beachlife

This weekend is the Annual Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL)'s Open House. For one weekend, the public gets an up-close view of the many raptors, owls, eagles, hawks and vultures taken in from the wild, sheltered and brought back to life. The owls looked quite disturbed in their daytime sleep, having humans gawking at them all day. Apparently at night, similar species come to visit their own and even breed in the area! It was quite amazing to get so close to a Red-winged Hawk and Bald Eagle. The Snowy Owls were beautiful as well as the long-eared and short-eared Owls. There was also a fundraiser Garage Sale and Kiwanis on hand to cook up some BBQ lunch in a trailer on the grounds.

The weather was so gorgeous, we continued with our day to a nearby nursery, selling plants for one month only at wholesale. We picked up a couple of plants and headed South to Tsawwassen, making a lunch stop and enjoying our first Timmy's iced cappucino of the season. We then headed over to Centennial Beach, at the end of Boundary Bay Regional Park. Lots of shell life and beautiful driftwood hugging the bay, with views out to all surrounding mountain ranges, and just over the landscape to the right, the USA.

Tasty Tomato

I've been enjoying Kitsilano Typepad's newest and grooviest restaurant opening alerts for some time now. They may or may not have yet seen the newest great add to come to our 'hood, Tomato Fresh Food Café, opening this summer, taking over Mark's Fiasco on Bayswater near Broadway!

Can't wait for THIS wonderful place to make its presence known in Kits.

Stroller Jogging

Kitspace is back from a restful visit to the Pacific Rim of the world…

Now it's been a while since I've been at the beach during midday, but today my eyes greeted me with quite the sight: about 15 women with strollers jogging along Kits Seawall near the pool! All at once they came jogging on by in a large group, all in sunglasses and workout gear. Go moms! Something for CZarina perhaps?

Worth the Plug

A great little piece of theatre is out at the moment, Hippies and Bolsheviks. The play takes place in 60's Kitsilano, with West 4th being the focal point of the hood. I didn't know until seeing the play that the street was infamously referred to as Rainbow Road back in the day. The play is on for a few weeks, first on Granville Island at Performance Works, then moving East to Burnaby's Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. The play starts off post-Led Zeppelin show in a hippy Kits apartment, and it takes off from there!

As hockey season starts to head into its last few weeks, we're all busy wondering if the Canucks will continue to hold onto a high enough spot on the totem pole to (continue to) make it into playoffs! Bertuzzi traded to the Red Wings? Smyth now moved East to the Islanders??!! Watching an Oilers game won't be the same again methinks…

Ariane C

Passengers

As I cycled early this morning along Spanish Banks, I came upon the crashed airplane movie set that I'd only heard about in recent days. The crew were actually busy dismantling it, and as I had a camera with me, I took the opportunity to get up close and personal with a plane crash.

What's being filmed? An upcoming drama called "Passengers" starring Anne Hathaway of "The Devil Wears Prada", and "Princess Diaries", amongst others. She's also starting to film Get Smart and will star as Agent 99!

So here, my faraway readers (at least those residing outside Vancouver) are a few snaps of the scene. It'll be interesting to see them shoot the film's upcoming train crash scenes (rumoured to start filming soon in one of the North Van CN yards). According to a production staff woman I spoke with there, filming at CN railyards is a logistical nightmare.

Amazingly enough, the rain still hasn't arrived. It's made for an early start out today and at 3 in the afternoon, it's already starting to feel like closer to dinner time. Tonight's the big (Anaheim) Ducks vs. (Vancouver) Canucks game. Can't wait.