hot time in the old town tonight...

on good friday, goober and i decided to explore new westminster. new westminster was actually the first capital of b.c. and is one of the few areas of the lower mainland that not only has history but recognizes it. it's very heritage oriented.

first stop, fraser cemetery.







we visited raymond burr.







the first policeman in new westminster.










good ole gassy jack. gotta love the fact that gastown is named after a saloon owner. one of the interesting things about this grave, is that it was unmarked until the 100th anniversary of his death.


terry hughes. terry hughes has a park named after him in new west. he died saving some kids who fell into the fraser river. i tried to find out more about him but there isn't much out there.


after that, goober and i heading to columbia street to meet up with a friend for more exploring.

here is a view of the patullo bridge, which crosses the fraser and hook new west up with surrey. you can also see where the skytrain crosses as well.


on columbia street is the raymond burr theatre. i'm not sure if it still has events going on it.

columbia street used to be very scary in a main and hastings kinda of way. but now it's starting to get all gentrified. even the salvation army there is fancy now.

there used to be this cool ole cafe which i think was called the pacific cafe on columbia. they had individual jukeboxes at the tables. we used to go and eat grilled cheese sandwiches there. it's long gone of course.

possibly the ugliest dress i have ever seen.










off we headed to sapperton landing. it's a really nice walk along the fraser river.

goober not happy. he's anxious to get going! there is no time for reading signs. there are trees and bushes to be peed on.

he's wearing his halloween leash because a few days earlier, he decided to go for a run, thru the muddy hills of hume park, dragging his leash behind him. i have yet been able to get the leash clean enough for human touch.


along the pathway, there is all these awesome tiles with fish. loads of crazy fish, and wacky colours. here is just a small sampling.




we then went to visit terry hughes park.






time for a pit stop at dairy queen. did you know that hot fudge comes in plastic pouches? i would have thought bottles or cans for easy pouring but no. a big ole plastic bag that seemed to be incredibly awkward to work with.

next we headed to city hall. there is a really nice friendship garden there that was given to the city by their sister city in japan.

goober went mental in the park. we think it was the ducks. which he never cared about before. but he took off like a maniac and we had to go running after him. we spied him above the pond, eyeing the ducks and the water with a look that said, "look out below!" i have never yelled "no" so loud before. there was no way i wanted to drive home a wet, smelly algae covered dog. thank god, for once in his life, he listened to me and just took off again. we finally caught up with him and continued thru the garden. we even managed to cross the stone steps without anyone falling in.

i just like the way these stones around city hall looked.

all in all, it was a good day and we will need to go back and explore some more.