Walk 28: Vancouver Fort, downtown & waterfront (5.5 miles)

This walk started at historic Fort Vancouver, went downtown, then ducked under the I-5 bridge along the waterfront looking across to Oregon, and back again to the Fort.

As I passed the Fort parade grounds it felt like I was entering into a time long past:




As I headed into town, I ducked into a coffee shop, where they had some cool art on display, including this metal sculpture named Baroon the Dragon (only $2,500!)



As I proceeded on, I passed through Propstra Square, which features a fantastic and large glockenspiel (!)



Right before the underpass of the I-5 bridge was this moving tribute wall painted with images of war:



As I finished walking along its length, a train passed by...



Next was a squiggly trail leading over the pedestrian bridge of the Confluence Project which led to a re-creation of early Vancouver residences. What I loved about that bridge was there was no practical reason to make the path squiggly, just aesthetics:




Looking back along the waterfront, I saw the I-5 Bridge, which is really quite spectacular in its length and complexity (and which carries an average of 135,000 vehicles a day).



As I came to the end of the waterfront portion, there were two rather majestic metal sculptures: The first a Native American woman looking out to the Columbia River; the second a woman of large stature walking amongst some landmarks of Vancouver. I would've missed both of these if I hadn't walked a little extra length to the end of the waterfront path:





All in all a good walk: Lots of landmarks to see, varied terrain and decent length. Vancouver seems to have changed for the better since I lived there in the 80's!