Vancouver Library Opens

The new downtown Vancouver Library opened today. Months ago the people in charge set the opening for July 17^th, thinking we were sure to have lovely weather. They arranged for a few awnings to be erected, just in case the awesome heat we are known to have (about three days a year) were to happen on that day.

Opening of Vancouver, Washington downtown Library

Instead people who showed up for the opening ceremonies huddled under massive amounts of umbrellas and dumped water off the chairs under the awnings and sat on the dampness. The rain didn’t stop me. I clapped after all the speeches, cheered the ribbon cutting, listened to an fabulous children’s drum and chime band, and rushed into the line to be among the first hundred people to visit the five-story, window lined, Wi-Fi connected, coffee-shopped public library. I thumped past the community room, the check out stands and jumped on the elevator, whirring past the second floor administration area, the third floor children’s books, the fourth floor non-fiction section and strolled off on the fifth floor, housing fiction and an outside deck with a view of downtown Vancouver, the Columbia River, and Portland, Oregon in the distance.

I found the tables I’ll go to on the fifth floor; the one with the outlets and the view, and the one with no view for those days I don’t want distraction. When I meet a member of my critique group, there are little glass enclosed circles on the fourth floor where we can read out loud our troublesome passages. I checked out the coffee shop, and located the washrooms. It is all scoped out.

I’m ready. I voted it in, and I wrote out the checks for the extra tax dollars for the last five years. I declare it a smashing success. Money well spent. And it is mine.

Bravo, Vancouver.

Fifth Floor Deck with trees, overlooking the Columbia River