Pacific Northwest: Day 2

My sis and brother-in-law are keeping us crazy busy! So even though this is our fourth day of vacation, I’m only caught up on blogging through the second day of the trip. Which is alright because it’s vacation, and that means there are no deadlines, right? Right.

Day 2 took us to the wild and foreign lands of…duhn duhn dunh…Canada! We had a minor scare as we approached the Peace Arch border crossing between Blaine, WA and Surrey, British Columbia. The scare came in the form of my sister shouting “SHIT! I LEFT MY WALLET AT HOME!” It would have been okay since Bellingham was only 20 minutes behind us, but we had already entered the border crossing lines going into Canada and to turn around meant getting into the HUGE line of Canadians waiting to cross into the US. All was well though, when she exclaimed “WAIT! CHECK THE GLOVE COMPARTMENT!” And there was our golden ticket, the wallet with her enhanced driver’s license and our pass into and out of Canada. Phew. On to the next adventure.

The mountains in this corner of the country are incredible. I’ve seen some of the Appalachian mountains. When we were in Boise we drove up into some cool mountains. Down in Tuscon we visted Mount Lemmon. And on last summer’s road trip from Arizona to Minneapolis Mom and I drove through part of the Rockies. But the mountains up here are freaking mind-blowing, snow-capped, intraversable bohemoths. They inspire an urge to run to REI, buy a Mountaineering for Dummies book, blow a life savings on survival equipment and start marching up the side of Mount Baker.

Mount Baker as seen from the I-5 Slater Road exit in northern Washington.

In Vancouver we visited the Capilano Suspension Bridge, a park consisting of treetop canopy bridges, a bridge built into the face of one of the cliffs, several trails and the namesake 446′ suspension bridge over the Capilano River. It was great – like a jungle gym for big kids. The trees were enormous, and there were ferns everywhere. We all agreed that we’d pay extra if they’d have an Ewok Night at Capilano.

After the bridge walks we drove back toward downtown Vancouver. We lunched at an independent cafe attached to the Inn Cogneato (yes, really) which served amazing middle eastern food, and then drove over another suspension bridge – this one slightly more modern and sturdy than the Capilano – called the Lions Gate. We stopped at Stanley Park to take some pictures of the bridge and Burrard Inlet, the body of water that the Lions Gate crosses.

Finally we entered downtown Vancouver proper. We stopped to walk down Davie Street, the commercial area of Vancouver’s gay neighborhood. It was a neighborhood. There were a lot of rainbow flags. It was quite the happening place – tons of stores, restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

A view down Davie Street

The ride home was uneventful, but the line to get across the border was reaaallllly long. We had to cut the car engine, and the Hubby actually got out of the car and walked around in the grass while we waited. Sis took pictures.

The Peace Arch as seen from the Canadian side of the board.

But we eventually made it home and cooked a lovely meal on the grill – salmon, scallops, asparagus and fresh sweet corn. Yum! The night ended with us being wiped out and brain dead in front of the TV. Good day.

Pacific Northwest: Day 2
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