More long-range photography...

If you could afford one of these miniature 'hotels' on the sunny side of Snob Hill, would you want it cheek-to-cheek with the neighbors on each side of you, just like they do downtown where the poor folks live? I wouldn't, but many do, as you can see. And I apologize for the quality of the photo, but it is about three miles away from my humble abode down here among the peasants, and I hasten to add that I like that just fine. I wouldn't feel comfortable "up there" trying to be a somebody, and paying $45,000 for a membership in the Hollyburn Country Club. I'd much rather be down here among my immigrant neighbors in the 'real world' where I've spent my life quite enjoyably.

This is in that same neighborhood, but further down the slope. Twenty-some years ago, some city planner or forward-thinking architect (or both) got the idea of building connected condos up the slope of the mountain, and at the time, there was a lot of talk about a cablecar lift or sloping elevator system to link the various levels to regular transportation down below, nearer the highway and city streets. I never heard how that all came out, and I suspect that part of it quietly died on the vine. People, especially those who can afford that neighborhood, do insist on having their own wheels and keeping those quite close to home. People like the former president and co-owner of Vancouver Wharves, the bulk shipping terminal on the waterfront here, where I worked for a few years after retiring from my previous career. He and his wife sold their place on the hillside and retired to Vancouver Island after he sold the business  in the early nineties. They built a lovely place on Vancouver Island on a much larger property. After he sold the business, I decided to retire again for the second time myself, because it just wasn't the same working for the new owners. And all that has changed ownership yet again since then. The only thing constant in life is change, like someone once said.

This tree is much closer to home, and so when the sun came out, I took its picture while I was getting those others. With all these trees, you wouldn't know you're in the midst of a heavily populated suburb just a couple of miles from the center of downtown Vancouver, our country's third-largest-populated region.