Where the locals go

• Author: WHG
• Accommodation: Vancouver

Vancouver has lots of, pardon the expression, tourist attractions.  For those who prefer to explore where the natives go, Yaletown, a neighborhood near downtown, has lots of possibilities.  What it also has is the potential for elasticizing its boundaries beyond what is, to begin with, a rather amorphous set of metes and bounds.

Furthermore it has something for many different tastes:

• Walking.  The Sea Wall along False Creek that lies at the southern edge of Yaletown that itself lies on the southern edge of downtown. To the east this can lead to Edgewater Casino with slot machines, poker tables and all the usual bells and whistles.  To the west the often flower lined path goes all the way to Stanley Park, which is a destination all to itself.  Stanley Park has gardens, forests, a walking and bicycle loop around the park bordering Burnaby Inlet and English Bay — both large and deep enough for ocean-going shipping. There is also a miniature railroad for children and, not the least, The Vancouver Aquarium.  Stanley Park is not in Yaletown, but it’s close enough to it for those into long walks. Of course a car is quicker and easier.
• Shopping.  A trek up Davie Street in Yaletown leads to clutch of cross streets — Mainland, Hamilton, Homer — that house in turn a clutch of specialty shops.  One of my favorites is a cluttered emporium, Chintz & Co., that has, or at least had when we visited, all kinds of sophisticated cocktail paper napkins.  The one no one else liked but I insisted on bringing home had a picture of a svelte, sophisticated but obviously bored-with-her-husband lady with the legend:  “She could no longer pretend that he was not an idiot.” Shops here are known like this one for home d