What to do with the kids on another rainy day? Or a walk after brunch?
A local easy-to-walk-to place to enjoy and discover is the Vancouver Maritime Museum. Lots of boats and maritime stuff to occupy kids.
Kits Point residents were recently invited by Executive Director Joost Schokkenbroek for a reception and tour. Schokkenbroek hails from the great National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam and invited the neighbourhood because he “wants to reach out globally, starting with connecting with the local community.”
To this end the Museum holds events such as talks from sailors and authors who venture over, through and under the oceans, and maritime themed art exhibits. Check out their site for current events. Maybe something will attract you. And you can rent rooms for events or weddings – with a water view.
The Museum is dedicated to telling the stories of the Pacific Northwest and Arctic. If you want to see Canada’s North, you should buy a raffle ticket with the Grand Prize of One Ocean Expeditions High Arctic Explorer Trip for 2.
For those of you who lived around West 4th Avenue during the hippie heyday, the new exhibit Making Waves will bring us back to the start of Greenpeace and show where it is going today. As usual, Vancouverites were well ahead of the world in active environmentalism. The Museum sets sails for important stories of the environment, including rising sea level.
Remember your grade school history lesson about the St. Roch? You may recall that it was the first ship to sail in both directions through the Northwest Passage. The St. Roch National Historic Site is the Museum’s feature exhibit.
After looking inside the building, you can go outside to view the boats at Heritage Harbour. From there you can hop on a REAL boat to continue your maritime adventure by taking the Granville Island Ferry to somewhere around False Creek.
And if you need a last minute gift at sometime, but don’t have time or energy to tackle a store: the small, local gift shop has unique ideas and quick for you.
As a second generation Vancouverite, I am now discovering my heritage. And I encourage others to do so. No matter where I travel and live in the world, like many of us from this city, we need to be near the sea. I recently moved to Kits Point and start most days by walking along the waterfront around the Maritime Museum.
We can all benefit from supporting these local little gems in Kitsilano. If you aren’t interested in visiting here anytime soon, you can join as a member for a very reasonable price.
Vancouver Maritime Museum, 1905 Ogden Avenue, vanmaritime.com
Photo: Kwong Yee Cheng
Last modified: November 21, 2018
