#2 Skip It: Cirque du Soleil
Actually, my recommendation is not so much to skip a Cirque production, as it is to visit the charming city of New Westminster. On any day of the week, at any time of the day, there are death-defying acrobatic feats to watch, and at times steer clear of, whether walking, cycling or driving your car.
New Westminster, the place I call home, is an old city with a proud heritage. It has a couple of claims to fame: For starters, it's the oldest city in western Canada, and it was the capital of British Columbia between 1858 and 1866.
Locals refer to the city as "New West." Its hilly location is where two branches of the Fraser River meet. In 1859, New West was the mainland berth for the fleet of sternwheelers that sailed the waters between Victoria and Yale, the starting point of the Cariboo Wagon Road -- a time in history known as the Gold Rush years.
Alas, I digress. Getting back to an event worth watching, whether from the balcony of Peggy's condominium or from a street-level vantage point near Tenth Street and Royal Avenue -- something I refer to as "grocery cart madness." Picture this:
It's 7:30 a.m. Peggy has left her condo's parkade for the hilly drive to the office. As she approaches the above-mentioned intersection, she spots a fast-approaching apparition from two blocks up. Flying down the hill, with his skinny body shroud in a tattered hoodie and well-worn track pants, a fellow on the back-end of a grocery cart descends the hill at an alarming speed, all the while balancing a plethora of bulging garbage bags that hang tentatively on either side of his cart.
As he hurtles toward the intersection, I marvel at his dexterity; his bravery; and his ability to not flip his "borrowed" contraption. There are no safety nets, no ropes, no cables -- just man and his over-burdened chariot en route to the recycling depot.No doubt the Cirque du Soleil has better costumes and, for sure, glitzier advertising -- but ya gotta love the raw talent of the Cirque du New West acrobats.
Their acts are random and reckless and never-ending. They perform 24 / 7. To be sure, the novelty of their midnight-to-five-a.m. gigs has worn off for me, and I no longer get up to watch as they navigate the hill outside my bedroom window. Instead, I turn over, and count the seconds before I fall asleep to the rattling din of a nocturnal grocery cart.
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