2009-05-23 49 -123

Sat 23 May 2009 in Vancouver: 49.7318719, -123.6302679 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Designated Alternate

On the occasion of Mouse Over Day and imminent departure of one of our beloved graticule members on a week long hiatus (unless she's really lucky) from geohashing, we declared an official alternate at Canada Place. This location is highly transit accessible, has food, scenery, floatplanes, cruise ships, buskers, and as the American Society of Neuroradiology 2009 Annual Meeting just ended, we were prepared for an unusually large turnout as there are 473,532 square feet of highly flexible function space available. (Apparently, they warp space and time here!)

Time

The meet time is 1 p.m., and we may move elsewhere downtown for other activities.

Participants

• Robyn attended with T-Rex but forgot her flag
• Wade grateful that there was no flag
• Elbie and her friend Simon
• Rhonda and Rhonda's mom, with their cruise luggage
• Xore
• SueB Managed to convince myself I didn't need to work. I'll be there.

Expedition

Rhonda & Rhonda's Mom

Won't have Internet access for a while but looked cool, collected and happy, so must have had a good expedition.

Robyn & Wade

This was going to be one of the easiest Vancouver meetups ever, so it didn't need a lot of preparation.

• Coordinates in GPS (even though they were in no way needed to reach the meeting point) - CHECK
• Dinosaur strapped to back of bike - CHECK
• Geohashing chalk - CHECK

We jumped on our bicycles and rode along the Windsor, 10th Avenue, and Ontario bike routes towards downtown. Ontario Street ended in a detour through a construction site, but I think they may have given up on constructing anything, as it's been there for years. The construction site detour brought us out into the middle of a crowd of people. It seemed to be a canoe festival, with a team of canoeists wearing hula skirts, a team wearing leopard spots, teams dressed as chefs, pirates, hospital workers and monsters. We threaded our way through the crowd and continued around the end of False Creek (once a prime oolichan fishing ground) to Homer Street, where the bike lane took us all the way to the waterfront and from there we were at the front of Canada Place in a jiffy. Wade checked his watch, and jinxed us by thinking, "Two and a half minutes -- no problem!"

Canada Place is a hotel, convention centre and cruise ship terminal jutting out from the downtown core into the harbour. It is designed to look just like a cruise ship itself, with a prow and decks with railings, and sails. If you look at the satellite view you might think it was a big ship moored there. We had selected the alternate on the prow of the street level deck, so we could roll right up to it without going inside the building or up and down stairs.

But as we rolled up to the side, here is our story in pictures.

• 

  We followed a maze of yellow tape, ending at this construction zone.

• We asked a bellhop if there was another way to access the prow of the convention centre, and he directed us through the inside of the hotel.
• When we asked him where the bike racks were, he said there weren't any. "Where are you going?" he asked. "To see someone off at the cruise ship dock." It was pretty much ''the'' most legitimate reason possible for being there, but he couldn't help.
• 

  About ten metres from the bellhop, we spotted this bike rack. Then we saw it was short-term courier parking only.

• 

  They anticipated Robyn deciding to just lock her bike to the railings.

• 

  The sign directed us to public bike racks downstairs.

• 

  But Robyn found that unsecured bike rack unsuitable.

• 

  So we carried the bikes upstairs, looking for the "promenade level" racks.

Up three flights of stairs, down a few, around a corner and look, there was the round thing from the satellite view and there was Rhonda and Rhonda's mom. Another successful adventure!

At Canada Place

All assembled we were a Vancouver record-setting gathering of eight geohashers, although maybe it doesn't count, being a designated alternate. We hadn't brought card games, because it was windy, and we didn't want to lose cards. We didn't bring Twister, because we just played that on Wednesday. We didn't play frisbee because we'd lose the flying disc over the sides of the deck into the sea. No one was enthusiastic for tag, so we just stood around and chatted and admired the scenery. We could use some suggestions for games that can be played outdoors where it is wet or windy and without a lot of space, without endangering passers by.

Simon was a newcomer to geohashing. He asked the obvious question, "Why is there a dinosaur over there?"

"He's my geohashing mascot -- hashscot," explained Robyn, "I just put him on the coordinates."

"Does he have a name?" asked Simon perceptively.

"T-Rex," admitted Robyn, acknowledging its genericism.

"T-Rex marks the spot," explained Sue.

I'm sure Simon became enlightened.

• 

  We also saw floatplanes, kayaks, seagulls and barges.

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  Eight smiling geohashers were almost too many to fit in the frame. See file information for everyone's names.

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  Elbie explaining her photography trick for chalk marks. It helps to have someone stand next to it and cast a shadow.

• 

  Even though it was an alternate, we had to show that we got there.

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  Elbie and Rhonda flanking Vancouver's famous sulphur pile.

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  It's a lot bigger than Rhonda's kayak. And the onboard bars aren't energy bars.

• 

  Robyn got a haircut immediately after posing for this photo.

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  And received a free, no obligation hula lesson on the way home. Really.

Photos

Pending.

Ribbons

The Vancouver Graticule earned the 2009 Mouse Over Day achievement by organizing an official alternate meetup in the (49, -123) graticule on the Saturday following May 21st 2009.