hanging out in Vancouver with Van and with the drinks gang

Let's wrap up the Vancouver trip.  No travel for me for two weeks, and it feels right to get this most recent bit of travel put to bed, so to speak.

Conrad, as I mentioned, didn't come with us on the trip, so it was just me and Van

grabbing a few quick minutes in the United Club

at LAX before boarding for Vancouver.  An upgrade for me, but not for Van, alas.  Ah well.  We made it there at the same time anyway!  

It was early/mid-afternoon when we got to our hotel, not a lot of time to unpack and freshen up before heading on down to catch the Aquabus

over to Granville Island to meet Marie,

Rachel,

Allison, and Catriona for dinner at Dockside Restaurant.  We sat outside and enjoyed a fine early evening, catching up.  Fish and chips for me and a few others. 

Then we wandered across the island to The Improv Centre for a show. 

That was fun.  It wasn't too mature for Catriona, and the troupe did a great job of it.  A nice night for us all to get together before the big wedding day the next day.  Van and I caught the Aquabus back across False Creek and headed back to the hotel on what was a truly lovely night out in the big city.

Friday morning, after my walk and our coffees, Van and I moseyed down to the club to meet Allison and Catriona for lunch on the patio.  No urgency to our time there - a leisurely lunch (soba noodles and shrimp for me)

with a glass of wine and a fine view.  After that, though, it was time to get ready for and then head to the wedding.  And that was Friday in the city.

Saturday morning I was up early and out for a walk on my own before meeting my friend, Bryan, for more of a walk. 

We headed to the West End to a coffee shop and grabbed a light breakfast.  A lot of gab, more walking back.  It was great to see a non-wedding friend on a weekend devoted to that event.  Van eventually got himself going,

and we headed to meet up with Chris and Allister and others at a bar-ish place set up in the Plaza of Nations.  It was nice enough, but there was a Brazilian Fest set up all around our venue, and the constant live music was hard to have conversation over.  Van and I stayed an hour, by which point other friends and family were arriving.  We ceded our table space, headed into Chinatown to a store that specializes in barware, then walked back to the hotel.

Saturday dinner was an early one - it was the only reservation I could get for what was supposed to be three of us - at Nightingale.  I've enjoyed the food there in the past and was happy to go back.  We walked over and were promptly seated upstairs. 

I ordered their special martini,

Van had his own cocktail, and we shared some plates.

Roasted cauliflower with turmeric vinaigrette.

Buttermilk fried chicken.

Japanese sweet potato with mushroom XO and chive creme fraiche. 

A pasta with peas and mint.

Meatballs.

Carrot cake.

I think I like the cauliflower the most, but all of it was quite good.  Van wanted dessert wine as a nice treat with the cake, so we ordered the 375mL bottle and enjoyed that together.  After that, it was back to the hotel and a relatively early night.

Sunday morning I did a nice walk, first stopping at the Starbucks across the street. 

Our flight was at noon, and before we knew it, we were packed, checked out, on the Canada Line to YVR, through customs and such, arguing with the lounge people about access (I was right, they were wrong, they let Van in in the end), and then upgraded and boarded. 

A comfortable flight home for us at the end of a very pleasant trip north. 

Ireland trip day five: Armagh

 This, friends, will be the big one.  Four - count 'em, FOUR - libraries in one day.  Our day trip to Armagh - let's do this!

I will confess, I didn't care for the look of Belfast the day before under dreary skies.  As with many other cities and towns and villages, Belfast is not at its best when the weather is dull.  Sorry, Belfast.  You looked a little better at sunrise

and as we drove out of the city and to Armagh.

Armagh, as I understand it, is the ecclesiastical capital of the island, both for the Anglican and Catholic Church.  The primacy is based there in each case.  Two cathedrals, two archbishops.  And that's all based on St. Patrick, it seems.  The town is otherwise a modest size.  It may have been a more important town because of its religious significance in centuries past, but that's no longer the case.

But it is a pretty town, and as you have seen from a past post, I did climb up to and pop into the Catholic cathedral on my lunch break. 

And it is a town of libraries.  First up for us, the Cultural Heritage Service Library, Armagh. 

First off, dig that funky ceiling in the non-public area. 

But really, good to meet with the staff there and learn about their operations.  I have struggled to equate it to a United States library landscape, and maybe it's like a regional office of state agency.  Maybe.  No matter.  A small public area

but extensive space for storage of materials

and materials passing through. 

Yes, they also had some old stuff. 

It was a nice visit to start the day.

First visit done, it was into the center of town to the Armagh City Library. 

A handsome building houses the library, but it's not all library.  And here was what I liked:  it was a working library,

and what we saw and our conversation was all about that, not about a beautiful historic building and not about cool special collections.  Sorry, I hate that I probably sound bitchy about the special things we saw, but I was just delighted to interact with colleagues from the libraries over there. 

And look at the fun programs that they have. 

While we were there, there was an activity group having tea and biscuits (the British kind that are really just hard cookies).  And look, a dyslexia-friendly collection,

which was a cool thing to see and something I'd never heard of before.  I haven't worked in public libraries in decades, and maybe a lot of other places are doing what Armagh City Library is doing, but I thought what I saw a pretty cool example of what public libraries can do for their communities, and I was intrigued to hear that the book clubs for older teenagers had more enthusiastic engagement than for younger teenagers and pre-teens.

Lunchtime!  I had a sandwich thing that I probably should have eaten only half of. 

I did my jaunt to the cathedral, we reconvened outside the library in the center of town.

After lunch we headed to the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Memorial Library & Archive. 

How interesting that the URL for the library is a .ie address and not a .co.uk.  A sleek, modern structure,

and one that lets in too much sunlight to allow for materials to be on constant display within. 

I was ever so blinded and drowsy sitting right where the sunlight hit me post-lunch!  Roddy was a good host,

and it was interesting to learn about the collection strengths, including sports.  That detail from a painting? 

That's a depiction of Irish road bowling.  It's a real thing.  That alone was enough to keep a number of us captivated.

The final visit was to the Armagh Robinson Library. 

Situated up by the Anglican cathedral -

the dean of the cathedral is the Keeper of the library and lives in quarters in the same building, a short walk to work. 

The Robinson was where we saw an abundance of cool old stuff. 

Hello indignant marginalia by Jonathan Swift!

And, with gloves on, actually got to handle them!  And go upstairs

to the upper level. 

It was more than books, though - book binding tools

and wax molds. 

Our host (I am terrible with names, forgive me colleagues on the island) was charming. 

The visit ended with our four hosts from the day coming together to talk about how their collections overlap in places and complement each other in places, and what that means for cooperation, especially in working with researchers.

The visits done, we made the drive back to the city to have dinner in the hotel restaurant.  My first fish and chips of the trip. 

Not bad, but I wish the mushy peas had had a bit of salt added.  But all in all, not bad.

To bed.  Our library visits for the tour were complete.  We had more cultural attractions to see, but that was it for libraries for us.