| Today I flew to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Air Canada is still requiring masks to be worn on their flights. Just a few days ago Canada’s Covid arrival restrictions were softened, so my arrival was easier than I had expected. I had my ArriveCAN receipt in hand, my vaccination records (showing my booster 2 weeks ago) and I sailed through Immigration. Yay! Filling out the forms online the day before was a little confusing, because the online system had not caught up with the relaxation of the entry rules, and when I called the airline they were so slammed that they wouldn’t even put me on hold. Their phone system just said “We’re too busy to handle your call” and hung up on me. But hey, I made it, so that is the bottom line. This evening I spent walking around Granville Island with my new quilter friend Pat from Victoria. It was so wonderful to be out on the water’s edge, sunlight sparkling on the rippling waves. Vancouver is one of my favorite cities, because of the close interface between Nature and humanity. The mountains, the forest and the water are never far away. The air today was fresh and clean, compared to the smoky skies in Colorado. The sky was blue and it was 60 degrees, compared to 99 degrees the day before in Colorado. As we walked around Granville Island I was delighted to see this large painted bear. (center of the photo collage above.) You may recall that I recently painted a bear for a Chautauqua fundraiser. Now I am part of this worldwide club of artists who have painted/embellished large animal sculptures for public art. I look at these public artworks with a new appreciation. One of the joys of travel is that quilters live everywhere, and it is so easy to connect with our tribe. I ‘met’ Pat just a couple days ago via email, and tonight we had dinner and shared our respective quilting stories. She is volunteering at the Quilts for Survivors booth, which is an organization that gifts quilts to First Nation survivors of the notorious boarding schools, where indigenous children were removed from their families and put into residential schools. The ongoing quest for Truth and Healing is expressed in this panel by Karen Erickson for Northcott. On Wednesday I am going to take photos at a couple local botanical gardens, and then will attend the award ceremony in the evening. If any of you are attending Quilt Canada this week, I hope to see you while walking the show on Thursday. If you see me please do stop and say hello! Sharing your love of fabric, Luana and Paul See Luana’s Flickr Photo Pages for travel images, watch our videos, or follow us on Facebook. Visit eQuilter’s Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter pages for Color and Design ideas. Quilt/Travel/Sponsor Calendar: June 15-18 – Quilt Canada, Vancouver BC July 22-26 – Sacred Threads Weekend, Dulles/Wash DC August 4 – Long Beach Quilt Festival Aug 17-20 – Festival of Quilts – Birmingham UK Sept 21-24 – SAQA Conference – San Diego CA October 2022 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Manitoba Canada |
