Third try, finally got inside the old Plz Fv Hndrd hotel. No roof access, and not much to see beside bare floors, skeletal walls, some tools, and Tim Hortons cups -- although my exploration was somewhat curbed by the onsite security. I think I was playing cat-and-mouse with him/her in the stairwells at one point -- though they didn't call out, so maybe they didn't hear me.

Not much going in North Vancouver by way of hotel pools, but I did do a few lengths here:

I got into the card-locked change-room by pressing the handicap access button. First time that's ever worked!

I rounded out my afternoon with a stroll around Ln's Gt Hospital. There are some nice subbasements, giving access in one spot to the newest $62-million building, which is nearing completion.

Public-area furniture still fresh in its plastic.

Hospital beds too.

While still in the parking garage and looking for a stairwell up, I ignored a couple of women, hoping they'd ignore me. But then someone else called out to them, "Can I help you?" They were looking for their dog, so they claimed. They were informed that this parking lot wasn't open yet. I just kept walking, without looking back. Their presence at that exact moment probably saved me from the dreaded "Can I help you."

I finally resigned myself to using the elevator. I got off on the fourth floor as two construction or hospital personnel got on. They didn't even glance at me! I had the place mostly to myself. With my sights set on the roof, I tried another couple of stairwell doors, but they were card-locked. Finally in a third stairwell I found a twenty-foot ladder leading up to a roof-hatch. I climbed it, shakily opened the hatch, and peered out onto the roof. Climbing up over the lip of the hatch was going to be hard, but I knew the hardest part would be getting back onto the ladder from the roof. I talked myself into doing it.

Happily, there was on the roof an open door leading into one of the locked stairwells, which I was able to take down.

Some views from the roof:

There is this condo construction in my neighborhood that I have been watching for a year. There's usually a security guard (maybe always), and the rental fence is always closed up at night. It looks like the building is now as tall as it will be, so I feel time is running out for the crane. All I really have to do to enjoy the view (with or without the crane-climb) is wander in late one afternoon in a reflective vest and hardhat, or brazenly open the fence some Sunday afternoon. But I haven't been able to nerve myself to do either. There's perhaps a good chance of getting caught, but I doubt that this would be a big deal. (Most security guards I encounter politely apologize for not being able to let me look around.) A recent evening, winds had knocked down some fencing, and several people were repairing it. I thought: the perfect time to climb over the fence on the opposite side of the building! But I didn't go; I talked myself out of it. I decided that I'm overvaluing the target because I see it every day. But perhaps I'm just not that much of a ninja.