[col-sect][column]Took Bianca for a surprise harbour plane tour of Vancouver a few weeks ago for her birthday. Beautiful tour. It was a windy day which added a little special something to the adventure of being in a small plane; the thing was bouncing all over the place. Exciting.

Once you’re up in the air, the first reality about Vancouver that hits you straight in the face is how remote this city is. Remote. Totally remote. When you spend all your time in the Lower Mainland, it doesn’t readily occur to you that your comfortable existence is the small exception of civilisation on the edge of a massive rain forest. Two minutes into the flight though, it’s pretty clear. [/column][column]The contrast is sharp. The seaplane takes off from Burrard Inlet, just off the downtown peninsula; we flew over West Van (cushy forest suburb), and then Horseshoe Bay (still civilisation), then bam, it drops off: Bowen Island, (with a smattering of houses on its coast), and then… you’re flying over the middle of nowhere. Just like that. In just a few minutes there’s nothing but water, mountains and forest. Nothing. Being in the sky looking down gives you a little perspective on life in this town in that Vancouver, geographically, is incredibly small, and virtually isolated. From up there, the ins and outs of the local political and social culture seems fairly insignificant. From up there, nature governs.

Selected iPhone photos from the tour:[/column][/col-sect]

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