Sherlock and Streetcars

I belong to a movie club. My boyfriend calls it the wine-drinking club. It consists only of 3 members: Myself, Dahn and Michael. Occasionally other are invited, sometimes only two of us are available. Lately, we haven’t been able to set a date for all 3 of us to meet up, so on this past Thursday when it looked like we all actually might be free, I was very excited. Unfortunately, my excitement was premature as Dahn wasn’t able to make it after all. Oh well… I hadn’t seen Michael in ages and was eager to visit with him. First, I stopped by his new loft that he just purchased, (it’s gorgeous, btw). When I got there, we checked the movie listings and decided to catch the Canada Line up to Oakridge to see Sherlock Holmes. Michael lives in Yaletown, (we all do actually), right across the street from the new Yaletown Station. We hopped on a train and were all the way up at 41st & Cambie in a matter of minutes. The movie was fantastic! Great entertainment, lots of popcorn and licorice, and Robert Downey Jr. is just soooo sexy!

The original Movie Club, Dahn, Michael and me!

After the movie and while on the train home, we discussed the new streetcar line, called the Olympic Line, that opened that day. Well maybe not discussed; debated is more like it. Michael swore that the streetcar had been running all summer and I stated that it was brand new. Anyway, to end the argument, we decided to get off the train at the Athletes Village station and check out this new streetcar. It was 10:30 at night, the place was pretty deserted and we weren’t even sure if it was still running. After waiting for maybe 5 minutes, we heard the familiar streetcar “ding” and there she was. Gorgeous was the first word I thought. Gorgeous and Big, and New and Clean. I was in love right away. We jumped on with at the most 4 other people. Apparently earlier in the day when the streetcars were making there debut, there was a ceremony with lots of keeners waiting in line, (I saw on the news that 1 guy actually had been waiting since 4:30am), and there was a wait to ride them. I learned that day that if you wait until 10:30 at night to take public transit, it’s usually not that busy. We rode the car to Granville Island, stayed on it, and rode it back to the Canada Line. Total time was about 7 minutes, but we laughed, (I would actually say giggled, but Michael might not think that sounds too manly) the whole way. There were other people on the train that were doing the exact same thing as us; laughing, taking pictures and just testing it out.
The street cars are on loan from Brussels, Belgium to the city, and are only supposed to run until the end of the Olympics, but it’s my understanding that if there’s enough interest, they could be kept running permanently, (maybe not those particular trains), and the route could even be expanded all the way to Stanley Park. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride on the Olympic Line and hope that the City decides to keep them on.

Me on the Olympic Line!

Michael on the Olympic Line!