Sometimes I think I use urban exploration as what Alan Watts calls a way of liberation -- a way to see through and outgrow some of society's vapid conventions.

At other times, I think I'm just looking for quiet places I can have to myself.

Cemeteries are good places for that. They are like huge manicured parks that hardly anyone ever visits.

The Sea See Burial Park in Burnaby, south of Imperial and west of Patterson, has become one of my favorite places to go for a walk or to sit and mull.

The mausoleums are cool and silent as churches, stately and ornate as museums.

There are many styles of monuments, and they are spruced up by plastic flowers, photos, Christmas cards, poems, or objects beloved of the deceased.

Some families have private sumptuous alcoves:

Outdoors, there are a variety of graves. My favorites are the little enclosed memorial gardens, some of which are pre-purchased, and not yet occupied:

Even the occupied ones provide a pleasant spot for the weary explorer to pause and contemplate his or her mortality, or just enjoy a beer in the cool of the evening.

If you feel the need to trespass on the living, there are a groundskeeper's locker room and equipment storage area under one of the mausoleums, as well as some cluttered fire stairwells. The small chapel has a few back rooms like this one.

Happy exploring, and memento mori!