Happy Graduation Trip

Three days ago we headed off for a surprise trip that Oren had planned as a graduation present. Despite my pestering him with questions almost hourly, he managed to keep it a surprise until breakfast Thursday morning. "Get your passport - we're going to Canada!" If only he knew which drawer my passport was in, I could have been left wondering all the way up I-5. As it was, he let me know - we were heading to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the night.

So we took off - a brief shot up the highway toward Seattle under a cloudy sky. We stopped to eat at a charming just-off-the-highway place that agreed to make a vegetarian burrito even though there was no such option on the menu. A few hours later we crossed the border. A very buzzcutted guard in highly reflective glasses asked who we were, where we were going, and how we knew each other. "How long are you planning to stay?" he asked, hardly moving his head or his mouth. I told him it was just for the night. "Awfully short stay for such a long drive, isn't it?" Well, not everyone would do it. But it sounded fun to us.


Vancouver is beautiful. It's like an enormous Portland or a greener Seattle. Lots of tall apartment buildings, mist and mountains in the background, bike lanes, community gardens, islets and straits and bridges all over the place.

We checked into our little hotel, found the cheapest place we could leave the car overnight, and headed out to explore the city. As is usually the case, our plan was guided by maps of 'neighborhoods,' which always oddly seems so synonymous with 'stores.' We walked through the historic old city, Chinatown, the chicer (chicker?) hipster areas and down to the water. We exchanged some money, half expecting them to reject our dollars altogether. (On the contrary - it's still in our favor up there!)

The next morning we got up and headed out to Granville Island - a sweet little not-an-island-at-all (more of a spit) which still required crossing a bridge to get to - which is a nice collection of artists' shops, toy stores, theaters, industrial design school, and public market - Vancouver's version of Faneuil Hall or Pike Place. I was in heaven - and Oren was kindly willing to go along - so we spent a nice morning and part of the afternoon poking through fruit stalls, kitchen stores and artists' workshops.

The afternoon was rainy and gray as we walked the long way back through town to our car. Trenchfoot seemed a long way off, but when I took of my socks and shoes it looked like I'd been in a bath for hours!

We felt (that border guard was right) as though we had driven a long way up just to turn around and head home again, but the worsening rain made a hike on Stanley Island sound less than wonderful. And since the forecast was the same for the next day, we headed south. And neither of us anticipated what we would bump into on the way home!