Vancouver Voyager: MOO Juice and stuff

I started out today on a mission. I was going to walk to the Avalon Dairy on Wales Street. The directions I got off of Google Maps got me all turned around so I asked a few people for directions. I tried following those but I still couldn't find the place. And after two and a half hours of walking and realizing I still had to walk home, I gave up on my search. But I will tell you about the dairy.

In 1906 Jeremiah Crowley - originally from Western Bay Newfoundland - purchased a house on Wale Street which happened to come with six cows and Avalon Dairy had begun. According to the website there is a farmhouse that was built in 1908 that is still there.

I switch between cow's milk and soy but when I drink cow's milk I like Avalon. I like the taste, the price and the fact that although an extra dollar is charged for the glass bottle, I can wash out the empty bottle, return it and get my dollar back. Makes me feel like I am doing more to help the environment. The company has been around for 104 years now and here's hoping for another century plus.

Okay you may now think that I have lost my marbles. What is interesting about a street? Why would I take two photos of what looks to be an ordinary paved road? I'll tell you - this isn't just any paved road. This is Kingsway.

Kingsway is important because it follows the original Wagon Road built by the Royal Engineers. The engineers started the road at the waterfront in Gastown and then the route travelled east to British Columbia's then capital New Westminster.

As Vancouver became more established Wagon Road became Westminster Road later Westminster Street. In 1913 it was renamed Kingsway. Due to the age of this route Vancouver had not laid out its street grid when the trail was first built. Ergo the street is on a diagonal. It follows the gentlest incline up the spine of the Burrard Peninsula. During the Great Depression the government had workers widen Kingsway as a make work project. Now it has six lanes along most of it.

Interesting fact: The Canadian Poet Michael Turner based his book of poetry Kingsway on Kingsway Street and Vancouver illustrator Bambi Edlund has the illustration an Ode to Kingsway in her drawing project.

This Buddhist temple at the corner of Victoria Drive and East Broadway isn't that old. In fact the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Society was established in 1994. Yet this building is as much of a fixture at this corner as the Rio Theatre on Broadway and that has been there since 1938 .

The original Tung Lin Kok Yuen is a Buddhist nunnery and educational institution located in Hong Kong. It was started by Lady Clara Ho Tung (nee Chen Lin Kok) when her husband, Sir Robert Ho Tung, gave her $100,000 for their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1931. She wanted to put the money to good use and help those in need in her chaotic country.

Our Tung Lin Kok Yuen is a building of over twenty thousand square feet consisting of two main sections. In one section there are four seperate halls that are used for a multitude of functions, a vegetarian kitchen, a retail shop, library, offices and living quarters. The other side has two different halls, meditation rooms and a garden.