beaches now

Okay, okay, just for you guys I went to three of Vancouver's beaches (yes, there are more...we're jerks over here) in the last two days to attempt to recreate the historical photos in the post I put up a day ago. 

At the top is English Bay now, 90 years later. You can just barely see the Sylvia Hotel (which is the building in the old photo) behind the big trees. That's where many of our wedding guests are staying while they're here in Van. Next is Kits Beach. It's kind of about hook-ups and volleyball there, but it's also not too far from our house, so we tend to hit this beach the most often. You can see that Kits point is no longer forest and that the West End across the water, um, exists. There were about 103 years between photos. 

Finally, maybe my favourite Vancouver beach, though I don't get there nearly enough. Right in Stanley Park, Third Beach is way less busy than the others and so so so beautiful. Here it is, without all of the woody debris, 121 years after the photo I previously posted was taken. You can see all of the West Van/British Properties/North Van development and just barely (probably easier if you're familiar with Vancouver and Stanley Park) see Siwash Rock at the end of the treed bluff. Of course, a few years ago this hillside would have been way more heavily forested, but a huge windstorm took down a lot of old trees in the park. FYI: Stanley Park is bigger than Central Park in NYC and is a magical place.

This was pretty fun to do. I hope to soon find even more reasons to go to even more beaches. Do you have any pictures of beautiful places in your part of the world? Where do you go to relax in your city?

UPDATE: Jeff and I've been looking at those Kits Beach photos and we think that Kits Point maybe doesn't even exist, and that what we're really seeing is the forest that is now the West End. A lot of Kits Point/Vanier Park is fill from downtown building excavations. This city sure has changed!