Ben & Nat's Wedding Part II

The Walk Part II: SW Marine Drive

After I walked my way across all the busy scary streets connecting the Vancouver airport to the rest of the city I felt a lot more relaxed and I was finally able to enjoy my walk. I had to find a street called SW Marine Drive and walk 12 kilometers north. I started to get pretty excited about the walk there too because I kept seeing signs that said this was a "scenic drive".

I rounded the corner and realized that there were no sidewalks for me to walk on. There was a bit of a shoulder to this road, but every place that wasn't actually a driving lane was turned into a parking spot by the local residents. I figured though that once I walked a bit I'd find a sidewalk, so I trekked on.

I was beginning to wonder when the 'scenic' part of the trip would begin. There were multiple signs up to this point advertising the scenic nature of this drive, but I saw nothing but cars, trucks and hedges. As far as the eye could see, the road was lined with the tallest hedges I've ever seen. I got the feeling that there were a lot of nice houses and maybe a view of the ocean right nearby, but I was about 30 feet too short to see it all.


This is the view from scenic SW Marine Drive. Some of the best and tallest hedges I've ever seen!


I was enjoying the walk quite a lot. Everything was green and there was plenty of shade. Then with no warning at all it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle, and then it quickly became a torrent. I was prepared though - I had brought some rain gear. I dashed onto a side street and found an outdoor pool. It was closed, but it had a bathroom so I snuck in and changed out of my soaked clothes. By the time I came out five minutes later it was a beautiful sunny day again. There was barely a cloud in the sky - you'd never know it had just stopped raining. The only evidence of rain was on the ground, where large puddles had formed everywhere. In the short walk back to SW Marine Dr I was getting really warm. I was roasting in that jacket but even though the rain had stopped I still had to wear the raincoat because the vehicles were spraying water all over. After 20 minutes the road widened and there was finally a sidewalk. I was no longer walking in the shadow of 30 foot hedges and the sun baked down mercilessly. I was now separated from the traffic by a couple of meters so I thankfully took off my raincoat. I could feel the heat escaping as I unzipped. The cool air felt so nice. I stopped, shook dry the coat, wrapped it in plastic, and put it into a pocket in my backpack. As soon as I had it perfectly stowed away it started pouring again. The thought of cool rain made me happy - but for some reason there were no clouds! I had all the wetness of rain plus all the baking heat of the sun. My choice was to either be cool and uncomfortably wet with no raincoat, or dry and uncomfortably hot with it. I knew the rain in Vancouver was frequent , but I had no idea it conspired against innocent visitors like me!