On a visit to Victoria, I naturally checked out the hotels.

A view from the rooftop of the Cht Vctr:

The comfy, completely accessible guests' terrace at the Dlt has one of the finest views of the inner harbor (why didn't I photograph that?):

And in the attic of the Mprss I found this employees' toilet!:

Couldn't get into a single hotel pool, though.

Out biking along the south edge of Vancouver on a Sunday afternoon in June, an open fence and no one around brought me to this rooftop, where I ate a sandwich.

And just recently, returning from the ferry in Tsawwassen, I stopped in Central Surrey, where I found the fence and a stairwell door to this brand-new condo sitting wide open. All the interior doors were considerately taped unclosable, too.

The photos begin to all look much the same; but that moment of first climbing out of a drab, dusty, airless, anonymous stairwell you've been trudging up for ten minutes, onto a breezy rooftop at sunset, with a view for miles around, is always magical.

There are days when I feel like a wimp: passing by an open door, unlocked gate, or unsecure fence, telling myself that, if the door is open, it must mean there's someone nearby.

Then there are days, like a Monday evening last May in 'Rotown, when, amazed and grateful, I stroll right in to that condominium construction site through a welcoming gap in its fencing -- expecting at any moment to be shouted at, but hearing nothing but the sounds of my own footsteps up the forty-plus flights of stairs to the rooftop. 

I've been inside the new Brtnwd Twn Cntr, and up the first of its towers, three times.



Twice I entered through unlocked doors in the service corridors of the old mall (including a door directly adjacent to the mall's security office), and once, legitimately, I visited with a friend working on-site (I didn't mention to him my other visits).

My last visit was in November.

The times I dropped by self-invited, it was late afternoon Sunday, and there was no one around.

 

Well, I did spot this security guard, sitting vigilant at his window:

See him?

The views from the top were pretty extraordinary.

And zoomed in:

In November, after a visit to my dentist in 'Rotown, I wandered over to Dunblane Avenue to check out one of the latest highrise condos. As luck would have it, the front doors were propped open for some new residents who were moving in. A little uneasily (I don't really like trespassing in apartment buildings; it's a bit too close to entering someone's home), I strode into the lobby, where I waited with others a few moments for an elevator, then dove instead into a stairwell.

I climbed to the top and found some views.