kris mcneil photography

7 on 7 is a photographic blog circle of friends posting 7 photos on the 7th of the month. Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and walk through our circle with us. It will do your heart and soul some good.

So I missed May since we were in the midst of my younger son graduating from college (YAY), packing him up, and driving all his stuff home across several states (booooo).

We celebrated graduation and our 30th wedding anniversary with a quick trip to Vancouver, BC. It was just a few days, but I cannot wait to go back. Such a intriguing city.

Our first stop was the Museum of Vancouver. Here we saw beautiful First Nations pieces and also pieces from the early days of the colonial era. 

We did a whale watching tour in the afternoon.

On day two we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery. The piece below is called Background Vancouver by Taki Bluesinger, Michael de Coursy, Gerry Gilbert and  Glenn Lewis. It is a map grid done in photographs. The art link will take you to an interactive version of this piece where you can see the images in more detail. This was one of my favorite pieces. 

In the afternoon we rented bikes and rode around Stanley Park. The views were just fantastic. At one turn we came upon this street art by IHeart (IHateStencils on IG). This isn’t Banksy, though I thought it might be! I’m not the only one to make that mistake and even Banksy him/herself posted in 2014 that this wasn’t his/her art. The piece is called “Nobody Likes Me”. 

On day three we went to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on the UBC campus. We saw all types of cataloged life there including a blue whale which hangs impressively in the entrance. The photo below is of my recent graduate. Even in a room with hundreds of things to photograph, he’s still one of my favorite subjects.

On the third day we also visited the Museum of Anthropology. Oh my goodness, there were countless wondrous things to see here. They had a special exhibit full of all kinds of puppets from all over the world from marionettes to shadow puppets and even a puppet show from Vietnam that is designed to be performed over water. 

Our last stop was at the VanDusen Botanical Garden. Nothing makes me slow down like a garden. I think maybe my traveling companions would have preferred I didn’t slow down quite so much here, but it was definitely worth the extra time. I could have done my entire post about just the gardens. Sigh. 

And then it was time to go home. Thank you Vancouver for a glorious three days! We’ll be back to hike the Grouse Grind and see the suspension bridges and and visit Chinatown and explore more of Granville Island than just the brewery …..

Please continue around our circle because seven of us have posts for you this month! There are so many good things to see! Up next is the ever talented Renee Stengel who has a post about her breathtaking underwater photography portraits. They’re just brilliant. 

See you in July!!