Two dozen realistic possibilities for your romantic lead to meet new people in one summer week in Vancouver

Two dozen realistic possibilities for your romantic lead to meet new people in one summer week in Vancouver:

1. On the SkyTrain or bus when it breaks down, and you have to walk with others to an unfamiliar bus stop.
2. The new cashier at a familiar store.
3. The helpful shelf-stocker at an unfamiliar store.
4. The swimmer who runs into you while swimming in the ocean; or paddle-boarder, windsurfer, kayaker, canoe paddler, etc.
5. The helpful lifeguard who warns you not to backstroke into a log.
6. The widow/er at the community centre drawing class.
7. The cute one whose bike chain has come loose, and you stop to help.
8. The person who comments on your dog, equipment, bicycle, fountain pen, outfit, etc. when you are at the beach.
9. The handsome officer who handles a drunken neighbour.
10. Your elderly relative's new tenant.
11. On the sidewalk outside a store, running into an old friend of your ex, who happens to be single now.
12. Volunteering for a race event or competition (swimming, triathlon, beach volleyball, etc.)
13. The Vancouver Folk Festival (literally hundreds of opportunities!); even the beach outside the Fest.
14. The person who happens to have bought an extra glass of wine at intermission at Bard on the Beach.
15. Outdoor workers at a site where a house is being renovated, and you are picking up unused apples from the yard of a boarded-up house.
16. A neighbour who wonders why you walk barefoot or bicycle in the rain or forage for weeds.
17. Your friend's cousin.
18. Someone seen through rows of blueberries at a you-pick farm.
19. A poet who shares your table at the bistro during an open mike poetry reading.
20. Someone gardening in a garden you go by and admire, or someone admiring your own gardening efforts.
21. The Fireworks! Boating, bicycling, beach-going ... Admiring officers on horseback.
22. Walking the labyrinth in Renfrew Ravine Park.
23. Hiking to Quarry Rock in Deep Cove.
24. Birding at Hastings Park early Saturday morning. 

And many more variations of these possibilities! Use your imagination.

Don't forget the usual touristy places: the Quay (Lonsdale or New Westminster), Granville Island, bars and sidewalk bistros, the PNE and horse races, etc.

No excuse for your fictional characters to be lonely. Go out and do some "research" people-watching.

Jennifer Getsinger
July 23, 2014