Watching Boats

When my sons were small, we spent many hours on the edge of construction sites, watching the work in progress. 
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They never seemed to tire of dusty 
dump trucks and lean, lofty cranes that dwarfed all alongside them.

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While I think they have mostly gotten over their fascination with heavy machinery, I'm not sure my husband has. For yesterday's outing, he suggested a trip to North Vancouver's  Lonsdale Quay, a bit of a distance from our Surrey home. As drives are what we do, I happily agreed.

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He had been intrigued by a photo in the weekend paper of a massive ship-transporting vessel heading out to a scrap yard in China. This ship is, incredibly, loaded with a full-size log barge, an equally huge log ship and eight old tugs perched on top of those.

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The Development Way will take 25 days getting to China, where it will then lower a floating deck under the water and lift the ships up to release them in place. Wouldn't that be a process to watch?

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We were thoroughly intrigued when the tide eventually pulled the ship around to let us see the full scale of how wide this load really is.

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Of course, I took many  pictures of the waterfront, having a

personal fondness  for shiny red tugs and orange container cranes.

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 I was pleased to be able to include cormorants in some photos, since I see them infrequently, as well as our well-known Convention Centre  and ever-present ferries and freighters.

Since my eye is drawn more to details than the big picture, the fountains, murals and mosaic floors of the market competed for my camera time. 

Even the clean lines of the inner building seemed lovely to me.

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Alas...my eternal quest for the perfect seagull picture

 came no closer as I got this fellow on our way out

...one day I'll be satisfied with a shot!

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