Keeping in touch

Ros and I walked on the Point Grey waterfront on Tuesday. She's visiting Vancouver from Mexico for the summer. 

Ros and I usually have to visit by Skype, so it was a treat to be on the same beach at the same time.

Usually, Ros is in Mexico and I'm in Vancouver when we talk. Sometimes I get glimpses of her desert garden on the Skype screen, while she sees my basement office wall with its black-and-white family photos.

On Tuesday, we were in the same place at the same time with the same views.

From the Boathouse restaurant at Kitsilano Beach, we could see parents shuffling kids along the sand, beachgoers propped against logs, and further off, the freighters riding the ocean waves. Later, we sat on a big old log ourselves, solid and rounded under our bums. Then we took the single-file path between the blackberry bushes to get to the blue-green waves bouncing in along the Point Grey waterfront. There were shells and seabirds in the tidal pools, and views of sailboats, Stanley Park and West Vancouver beyond. Families set up umbrellas under the cliffs to watch the show.

Ros and I talked family, friendships, relationships and aging, and at one point, because the day was so beautiful and the conversation so real, she hugged me. "I'm glad we can keep talking, even when I'm so far away," she said.

But we agreed that this -- the smell of the ocean, the cool of the breeze, the crash of the waves, the real-time hug -- was so much better.

Our visit began with lunch at the Boathouse restaurant on Kits Beach.  

We followed lunch by sitting on a big log to talk and look out over the ocean.

A single-file trail leads from Kits Beach to the Point Grey waterfront.

The rocks and views from the shore. Ahead are Stanley Park and the North Shore mountains.