Wordless Wednesday featuring Camila (Brainiac Edition)

Vancouver Recap

Since I just returned from Vancouver and the trip is still fresh in my mind, I thought doing a little recap here might be helpful. You know, for the sake of posterity. Trouble is, my calender tells me that my Canadian sojourn was almost three weeks ago! How is that possible? Time and space have obviously come undone! Oh well, guess I'll post a few pictures and a bit of a travelogue anyway...

View from the 33rd Floor

Vancouver really is one of my favorite cities. The people are so nice, the food is so good, it's beautiful... The list goes on. This time we stayed at the Empire Landmark on Robson. On the 33rd floor! The view was amazing. A friend told us over dinner that it was Vancouver's first skyscraper. 

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Speaking of views, we finally visited the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a 450 foot long bridge which spans a 230 foot deep gorge. The park also has tall bridges suspended between huge trees. Definitely not an attraction for those with a fear of heights! But quite lovely and a lot of fun... And full of cute tiny squirrels which moved so fast that I could never capture any in a photo. I later read that they were actually a type of flying squirrel, which explained the neat ripple of extra skin and fur along their flanks. 

Banana Slug?

The next day promised rain, but we didn't mind. Rain is quite exotic if you live in SoCal! Plus, it brings out the slugs. I love the slugs that live in the Pacific Northwest. I have no idea if they are a bother if you actually have to live with them on a day to day basis, but they are very cool to see. And huge! Most of the ones we spotted were at least as long as my hand. Gabriel made fun of me because we ended up with more slug photos than anything else. What can I say? Giant slugs have personality!

On our last day we attended the Vancouver ComiCon, where Gabriel was a guest. Leonard, our host, made it a wonderful experience. He even brought us vegan dim sum for lunch! Our table was next to talented writer Greg Rucka's, and it was truly a pleasure chatting with him and his charming daughter. It was also great to meet some of the Vancouver comics community, including Ed Brisson. If you can find a copy of his Murder Book I suggest you pick it up. And to top it all off, I finally got to meet one of my favorite etsy people, Emmarts, also known as Fluur! I have admired her work for a couple of years now, and am always happy to run into her in the virtual etsy world, but getting to meet her in person was a real treat. Turns out, she's even nicer in person. And I can't thank her enough for gifting me with one of her beautiful abstracts. 

So maybe I didn't just return from Vancouver. But hopefully time and space will rearrange themselves in such a way that we will be able to return there before too long.

Yes, I'm a fan of the giant slug.

Wordless Wednesday featuring Franz (3rd Edition)

Wordless Wednesday featuring a Very Large Slug

Wordless Wednesday featuring Camila and Emmett

Vancouver!

Who can resist an excuse to visit Vancouver? Certainly not me! The last time I was there I tripped over a Canada goose in the park, ate authentic Indian food, discovered an amazing beach, and found a hot dog vendor on the street who actually sold veggie dogs from his cart!



Gabriel is going to be a special guest at the Vancouver Comicon this Sunday, September 12. That's the same weekend as our anniversary, so of course I'll be there too. We'll have two full days of doing fun Vancouver-type things (spotting orcas! Hiking in a northern rain forest! Buying books!) before settling in at the Con on Sunday. Gabriel will be doing sketches and selling sketch books, we'll have copies of our graphic novel Heathentown, and we'll be very happy to meet you if you stop by.

I was excited to see that writer Greg Rucka will also be there. I recently read his Batwoman trade and really enjoyed it. So if you're in Vancouver this weekend, come to the Con and say hello! If you're not in Vancouver this weekend, I bet you wish you were!

Wordless Wednesday featuring an Imperious Coyote