across106thstreet

The 106thstreeters met up this past September in one of our favorite cities, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As Vancouver is one of the first cities we traveled to together way back when, this city holds a lot of meaning for us. Plus, it’s a *bleeping* fantastic city! Great neighborhoods, good public transportation, superior restaurants, cozy bars, nice people, solid urban planning, all nestled between mountain and sea. Gorgeous city. While this 106thstreeter honed her archivist/preservation of cultural heritage skills at the UNESCO conference, The Memory of the World in the Digital Age: Digitization and Preservation, the other spent his days riding bikes, hopping water taxis, and hoofing it between parks, neighborhoods, morning cafes and afternoon bars all before we met up to head out into the Vancouver evening.

Of course, even getting to Vancouver is a beautiful thing, as the flight from Orange County, CA to Vancouver takes you over the Pacific Northwest’s glory, the Cascades. When planning a flight over this region, a window seat is recommended.

Mount St. Helens, window seat view. P. Glowinski, 2012.

One of the 106hthstreeters favorite nights ever was spent with hundreds of UNESCO conference attendees, whom I’m guessing represented at least six continents, at the conference dinner held at the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. If you couldn’t enjoy the company of a microcosm of the world who are dedicated to preserving the world’s cultural heritage (not necessarily an easy or assured thing) dining on and drinking local food, wine, and beer together in the midst of the absolute splendor of Vancouver, then you must be spoiled because it was amazing (yes, Dick Cavett, I’m confident I’m using the “A” word appropriately in this instance…by the way, I think you’re pretty damn awesome).