Sunday, today, we were up early. We’d decided to take off north towards Canada early and Chris needed to be at work at 8:30 AM so we gave him a ride in and then took off from there at Green Lake.
The ride north on Interstate 5 was, like all rides on U.S. Interstates, fast efficient and rather boring.
We drove up past Everett and onto Marysville where we stopped at the huge Tulalip Premium Outlets area just beside their casino and hotel. It was a 40 minutes before the shops opened at 10 AM so we found our way to the Starbucks in the complex which was open and set ourselves up with coffees and our small computers at a table. This is something we’ve done once or twice daily for these last 30+ days as we’ve travelled. The free WiFi that Starbucks offers is of huge benefit to travelers.
The stores opened after a bit and we shopped for an hour or so. Colette noted a few things she’d like to get but her shopping style is to look at things, go off and think about it all for a day or two and then make the buy, if she’s still motivated. I’m much more an impulse buyer when I’m shopping (which I don’t do much of) and I swooped on a Body Armor jacket that I liked for $54 and carried it away with me.
Back on the road north. The weather alternating between rain, mist, overcast and bursts of sunlight. The temperature down near freezing. Pretty country. I’ve always liked this lost little corner of the U.S. between Seattle and the Canadian border. I was telling Colette that Bellingham is a really nice city up there that most Americans outside of Washington State probably don’t know exists.
We stopped in Bellingham at an “Applebees” Restaurant. I wanted to show Colette what a U.S. corporate restaurant chain store looked like.
In fact, it was a good experience once we got past the fact that Colette and our waiter couldn’t seem to understand each other over the barrier of her accent which caused some good laughter. We each had a chicken something with low calories and were both well satisfied with our meals.
And away again, up the road ever northward. Finally we came to the border crossing and drove up. I passed our passports over and moments later, after a few perfunctory questions, we were over the border and into a new country.
Colette laughed as she’d had on a cap and dark glasses and said nothings during the questions. She could have been anyone sitting next to me at the border station. Quite a different experience entering Canada than it is from entering the USA.
We had a bit of an adventure finding the Days Inn on but we did and got settled in. It’s not a great place and, if we had it all to do again, I think I’d opt for someplace else but it’s functional. And the rates aren’t bad.
Then we decided to to take the car into the downtown area and do an initial exploration. It’s been 30 years since I’ve been here other than for a quick pass through and it amazes me how much the city has grown and changed.
We drove Broadway, where I used to work very near for two years, and I could hardly recognize anything. All the old Victorian homes have given way to three and four story apartment and condominium complexes.
Memory is an interesting thing, though. After we roamed a bit, the layout of the city and many other memories began to come back to me. It was like the pieces of a long lost puzzle slowly restoring themselves into a pattern.
We crossed the False Creek inlet over into the central downtown and the West End area by crossing on a bridge over Granville Island and then rooted around downtown until I got on the correct road to cross the Lion’s Gate Bridge into North Vancouver and up and over it we went then. Now, we drove east exploring and got as far as the Lonsdale Quay area. We also went uphill trying to get a nice view of the city from the north shore but we didn’t have much luck with that.
Finally, we were hungry so I stopped at a shopping area with a nice bookstore and some restaurants nearby and we settled on one. We sat at the bar and I had a beer and some Calamari and Colette had a bottled water and a wrap of some sort. It was nice and I enjoyed it.
But, when we got ready to leave, the bar fellow forgot (?) to bring me my credit card back. It felt suspicious to me the way it went down. I had to wait several minutes before I could ask him for it back and I didn’t like the vibe I got from him when I did – like he knew he’d not given it back and was waiting to see if I’d notice. All just impressions, I know, and it could have ben an honest mistake – but I didn’t think so.
So, on the way out, I had a waitress point out to me who the manager was and told him what had happened as a ‘heads up’ and suggested he should watch and see if there’s pattern here with folks losing their cards.
Losing a card like this can be bad news. It may be hours or even days before you notice and you may be unsure where you left it. We’ve all had that experience. In the meantime, the fellows off buying whatever he can anonymously and tosses the card after a day or so. Bad news.
We drove home and got in after another most excellent day. Tomorrow, we’re going to ditch the car and go see the city using their transport system.
dennis