We crossed the US:Canada border at Blaine, taking the WA-543 Truck Route as it has shorter wait times. It's a drive through Border - like a drive through McDonald's! - queued for 30 minutes - pulled up at the booth - Border Guard checked and stamped our Passports - showed a keen interest in Pablo's provenance - inspected at our Car Insurance documents - gave us the green light and through we drove - simples! All over in 35 minutes!!
'Welcome to Beautiful British Columbia' said the sign on BC 15. Beautiful it is - and raining today! No problem for David - he popped on his US Navy Seals Digi Camouflage Gore-Tex Coat (you probably won't find him in the photos). Thanks Federal Army & Navy Surplus of Seattle - you kept me dry!
Back in 1985 we met a Canadian guy, Andrew, in Sydney, Australia. David and Andrew worked together on the NSW Interstate Trains. He now lives in Coquitlam (near Vancouver) with his partner Anna. Time for the Big Reunion!!
Andrew and Anna kindly invited us to stay with them in their swish Apartment, and Pablo got to make new friends in the basement Car Park! They showed us round the lovely city of Vancouver and we drank and dined at all the top spots - including Japadogs from a street food stall - Hot-dogs with a Japanese twist - the next big thing? Whizzing about on the bathtub sized ferries for lunch at Mahony & Sons and a tour of False Creek was fun too!
A&A had to work (Work? What's that all about!?) so we had a couple of days exploring by ourselves.
Day 1 we explored their laundry and washed our campground grimy clothes in a proper washing machine.
Day 2 was more intrepid - we took the SkyTrain Millenium Line to downtown Vancouver and hiked the Seawall Trail at Stanley Park. Turned out to be a 16 kilometer (10 mile) hike! We saw plenty:
- 9 First Nation Totem Poles at Brockton Point
- the 9 o'clock Gun
- Empress of Japan Figurehead
- Siwash Rock
- a Naked Lady reclining on a Rocky Outcrop
- a Sea Otter doing a Poo!
- and a Tribe of Raccoons hungry for Snacks!!
After all that excitement our aching feet took us home to A&A's place where we flopped, exhausted on their sofa and watched a movie. Would love to tell you what it was, but I was too busy snoring to remember!
Next morning we bade Andrew and Anna farewell as they left for Work, and promised to meet again sooner than 33 years hence!!
