The Tall, Bronze, and Laughing Madmen of English Bay

I did not expect to be back in Vancouver so soon, a mere 3.5 years since our week-long Alaska cruise (chronicled here) that sailed from Canada Place. Of course, I loved Vancouver on my first visit - the walkable downtown, hip Yaletown, the dramatic setting (island surrounded by mountain ranges and water), the greenish modern condo buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows - the list goes on and on.

Remarkably, the Winter Olympics didn't really whet my appetite for a return visit. That's because while I find most fast-paced winter sports exciting and envy the graceful athletes going about their business, I'm totally inept at them, and would rather skip the slopes and head straight to the lodge for some apres-ski (or "no ski") hot chocolate.

View of downtown Vancouver from Granville Island

Anyway, I did make it back to Vancouver, since O. and I thought it'd make a great city pairing with Seattle on our Pacific Northwest road trip. In addition to its own merits, O. wanted to cross the border into Canada to garner the first immigration stamp on his heretofore unblemished machine-readable, chip-embedded passport, a plan that failed miserably as the border agent waived us to continue onwards after only perfunctory inquiries and nary a glance at our blue-covered documents.

Cod, salmon and flounder lunch at Tony's on Granville Island

We decided to take the "hop on, hop off" trolley for a couple days sightseeing, hitting such classic, not-to-be-missed attractions as Granville Island, Stanley Park, and Chinatown. Ok, the latter is somewhat missable, but the first two definitely are not. I loved Granville Island the first time around, and more so this time. The food at the public market and restaurants is fresh (if somewhat pricey), the views of downtown are amazing, and the general vibe is that of relaxed enjoyment.

In the mood for some exercise, the next day I walked along the seawall from the hotel to Stanley Park. It took me a bit longer than expected, what with all the stops for photos of Granville Island, the beaches on English Bay, and surrounding scenery. As I went away from the seawall towards Robson St. for lunch, I stumbled upon a small park where a group of fourteen tall, bronze statues were huddled together in a circle, with their faces contorted in different states of hysterical laughter.

Ecstatic, playful, overjoyed. Megamillions jackpot winner. Those adjectives came to mind as I scanned each bronze face, and I wondered, what do these statues represent? A small plaque provided the answers: The sculptures were part of the Vancouver Biennale public art exhibition with assorted artworks placed strategically in outdoor spaces all over town.

The laughing madmen, as I took to calling them, are officially called "A-maze-ing Laughter", by the Chinese artist Yue Minjun, and depicts his own iconic laughing image, with gaping grins and closed eyes in a state of hysterical laughter". And if you cynical types thought they looked TOO happy to be true, the plaque continues on to say, "The laughter appears to be convulsive, intense, and manic, but also insincere and forced".

Regardless, the laughing statues' hilarity proved infectious, and lifted my mood throughout the day. Made me doubly glad I was back in Vancouver.