Illegitimate Sun

Vancouver starts here.

I’m sitting in the kitchen of the Lee household, typing away, as Amy plays the piano behind me.

I’m in Canadaland. For those of you who wonder, yes it’s raining and chilly.

The trip up here was filled with the prerequisite annoyances. Air travel’s convenience is only matched by the petty hardships you have to endure to utilize it.

My flight was booked as a direct flight from St. Louis to Seattle. Of course, the airlines version of a direct flight left an hour and a half late, routed me through Dallas, had me changing planes, and dumped me in Seattle at 2:00 AM.

The Lee family had generously offered to pick me up at the airport and drive me up to Vancouver. Through the rain and darkness we drove, only to be harassed by customs officers at the Canadian border.

It turns out that crossing the border once at 9PM and returning at 4AM with a random American makes a mountie little suspicious. Luckily, I had my passport (Amy reminded me to bring it) and we were able scoot on through after they ran my record.

My record still stands, these countries keep letting me in unmolested. That’s Joshua – 9, unsuspecting border guards – 0.

Coincidentally, my passport expires the day after I return to the states. Eerily, when I was 20, I knew I’d need some extra time in the summer of ’05 and filed accordingly.

Also, the border crossing was called the Peace Arch, but all the guards wore bulletproof vests. The irony did not escape us.

At 5 AM I was able to crash at the lovely Lee household and rose at noon to a brunch with the family.

Already little differences are standing out. The roofs on all the houses here have small eaves. It’s not a big change, but it makes all the houses look a little smaller when driving by. I’m reminded of driving in Ireland and realizing that all the houses had no eaves. They’re houses; they shouldn’t look different or odd, but they are.

Also, everything’s in metric. Finally a sane country that uses a base-10 system. (Take that Erik!)

We’re taking it easy today. Already we’ve watched a movie and I helped Amy’s dad set up a new wireless controller that I bought for his xbox.

Tomorrow, after catching up on more sleep, we begin touring in full.

Signing off, eh.

Joshua

PS. Amy wants me to mention that there is some blue sky over head now. Take that, naysayers!