Two Travelin' (Flat) Terriers - Part 3: Starring Miss Sunshade the SUPERDALE and Jaffa

We were going to continue our trip narrative with scenes from Stanley Park and Gastown -- but something much more exciting happened! We Flat Boyz were honored to spend the afternoon with two of the most prestigious residents of this beautiful city: none other than the much loved Miss Sunshade the Superdale and her nephew, Jaffa. ( http://sunshadethesuperdale.blogspot.com )

And, of course, their lovely mom, Elaine.

Get this: Miss Sunshade and Jaffa have their own taxi service!!! (You may have seen their new personal vehicle in a recent blog when they took it to the breeder for grooming.)


We drove to one of Vancouver's many interesting places -- Granville Island -- a formerly industrial area that is now home to lots of shops, boating facilities, and a huge public market with fresh local vegetables, meats, cheeses -- you name it -- all displayed in artistic fashion.

Since this was first time we had ever met representatives of the breed known as the King (and of course in this instance, the Queen) of the Terriers, we were a little shy. Miss SUPERDALE herself was not convinced that she wanted to have anything to do with our flat selves -- but Jaffa was intrigued.

WTF was his first reaction; but then, being a quick study, he realized no, not WTF. WFT!!!After a while, Sunshade did finally consent to letting us approach...She allowed us time for a quick glance over her shoulder...

And a quick sniff... But then it was treat time.Our Mom seems to have hidden her face while talking to our new pals. Is it so that Jake and Just Harry don't get concerned that she might be trading up the terrier line???

But you can see why she might have fallen in love with these two dear Vancouverites and their mom!! Miss Sunshade the SUPERDALE: Jaffaman:

And their kind, fun, artistic, delightful Mom, Elaine:At lunch, Mom and Elaine spent hours chatting about everything under the sun -- and confirmed what we all know: there are no strangers among our Dogs with Blogs humans!!!

Flat Jake and Flat Just Harry

Two Travelin' (Flat) Terriers - Part 2

The first part of this episode of Two Travelin' (Flat) Terriers is brought to you by me, none other than the internationally renowned H.C. Bird, Jake and Just Harry's heron-cam. It seems that, after their journey across the continent and their multiple trips up and down 30 floors of their hotel for you know what, Flat Jake and Flat Just Harry were too tired to go trippin' around the city.

Just as well because, while I flew over to give directions, the humans walked and walked and walked. They were intrigued by the many beautiful skyscrapers -- and their reflections of other skyscrapers -- that give Downtown Vancouver its distinctive look.

They walked down to Canada Place, home of one of the most striking cruise terminals in the world. This is the view of the other side of the Burrad Inlet, where the ships cruise out to sea.Two ships were in Port. One was being refurbished for the start of the Alaska cruise season; the other was getting ready to sail in the afternoon. We watched the ship being provisioned: pallets of food and beverages and all kinds of other supplies were being loaded.These are the sails thay give the cruise terminal its special identity.From Canada Place, they walked to Gastown, but that story will be for the next episode. Rather, Flat Jake and Flat Just Harry insisted that we show you a few teasers from the next day's adventures, when they got to go along. So they are taking over the rest of this episode while I go snag some of the yummy Dungeness crabs that are found in this part of the world...

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We saw this lonesome lady sitting on a bench near Stanley Park.So we sat down next to her to cheer her up a bit. Somebody had already left a flower in her hand. And then, as we entered Stanley Park, GUESS WHO WE SAW!!!!! Mom shouted WIRE FOX TERRIER!!! And his human, taken aback at first, brought him over to meet us. His name: Chris, aka Christopher Robin. We told him about all our wirey pals...He didn't say very much -- but his owner and our humans chatted for quite some time - comparing notes and stories and agreeing that we're kind of a fun breed! (We knew that.) As we said this is just a teaser. More about what we did in Stanley Park later.

And just so you know we haven't been starving on our trip, here are a few more teasers:

We went to Chinatown and saw all kinds of interesting foodables in the markets.

And we had delicious tea and noodles with green onions, ginger, and shredded pork in a small restaurant...

Much later, we got to meet Jason, the charming bartender in the hotel bar...

And shared onion soup, a crab cake, and an indeterminate number of martinis with the humans...

Woof!!!

Tomorrow Dogdad has to get serious and attend the conference that brought us here; but we'll go back and show you more of what we've discovered in this delightful city!!!

Flat Jake and Flat Just Harry and our pal, H.C. Bird

Two Travelin' (Flat) Terriers

What fun!!! We dropped our full selves off at camp -- and we were off for the first time in our flat lives!!! Destination Vancouver -- diagonally across the continent!

We gave H.C. Bird instructions as to where to meet us -- and there he was, right on schedule as we walked to our gate.

Miami International Airport has lots of international flights -- and has just expanded one of its concourses -- so we had a long walk to our gate. But soon we were in our seats for the first leg of our flight...

We changed planes in Dulles/Fort Worth...And got ready to fly over some beautiful scenery as we sped northwestward.

Dogdad spent some time working on one of his projects and was very happy that we were there to help! (As we always do, right?) .

At last we reached Vancouver. The airport is filled with beautiful sculptures from Canada's many indigenous First Peoples (you may have seen some of them if you watched the Olympics last February). Mom is crazy about their art, so she was excited to see this initial glimpse of it!

Below is a blurry photo of a famous sculpture by Bill Reid. Called The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, it's a jade boat filled with human and animals -- Wolf, Bear, Raven -- spirits of the Haida nation. You'll see a better photo of it when we leave, because it's in the departure lounge of the airport. But if you're curious in the meantime, here's a link to a site that describes the sculpture. http://www.billreidfoundation.org/banknote/spirit.htm (The sculpture is also on a denomination of Canadian money.)And finally, here we are at our hotel. Thirty floors up, another first for us!!!

More photos -- with and without us -- tomorrow!!!

Jake and Just Harry's Flat Selves -- with participation by H.C Bird, our Heron--Cam

Barkalot Bafana Bafana

Thanks to Maxmom, who's shared lots of the excitement about the FIFA World Cup coming to South Africa in a few days, we've adopted new names to celebrate the South African team. They're called Bafana Bafana -- which means boys in the Nguni people's language. Boys = Boyz, right? So for the duration of the Cup competitions, just call us the Barkalot Bafana Bafana. Thanks Maxmom!!!


Now, remember in my last post I said that I was at my post and on the alert for the Hurry Cane season? Well, what has my goofy brother bafana been doing in the meantime???? He did wake long enough for us to pose in our red bandanananas. No surprise, the ones we're wearing are our St. Louis Cardinal bandanananas.

Just so you all know, our flat selves are going to Vancouver tomorrow -- with H.C. Bird as our reporter. (Our full selves will be enjoying another stint at camp, where they like us, they really like us, and I can keep an eye on the weather.) Before we go though, one look at a few of the flowers that are doing nicely despite the scorching (90 plus) temps

Kalanchoe:

A new mussenda bloom:

And what can only be called a miracle of plant mind over plant matter. Ten years ago our Dogdad's grandmom passed away at 107!! His company sent him a spathiphyllum -- peace lily -- to express their condolences. We kept it inside at first. Then we left it in a pot outside, but kind of neglected it for several years. Last year, finally, we planted it in the ground, for which it was extremely grateful. And then -- yesterday -- we saw a single white bract, which is the way this plant flowers. The first in 10 years! We were awed at this example of perseverance amidst serious botanical adversity!

And that's the word from this Bafana!!

Jake

June 1 Message from Jake the Weatherdog

Hello Everybody!!

Sad to say, it's that time of the year again: Hurry Cane Season starts today -- and runs, at no hurry at all, through the end of November.

This year, the predictions are for a very busy season. The Atlantic and Gulf waters are warm and El Nino, who helps keep storms away, has dissipated. Also the effects of bad weather in the Gulf with the oil spill are unknown. Already the first storm of the season -- Agatha -- no relation to the wirey lass who lives in Boston with her brother -- has left a deadly first impression in Guatemala and other countries in Central America. So I thought it important to let everyone know that I AM BACK AT MY POST AND ON THE ALERT!!!

Mom and Dogdad have three trips planned for this summer and are taking our flat selves -- so we've been hoping things will remain quiet -- otherwise plans may have to be scrapped.

In the meantime, it's warm and sunny -- and the beautiful Royal Poincianas, otherwise known as flamboyants, are in bloom

They appear at the end of May, and linger for a month or so.

Jake