canadian border

today we drove to vancouver, a bit of a late start. it rained so that gave it an authentic northwestern experience. when we got close to the border, we made a pit stop. trying to get back on the road, we came across a sign "detour to canada". something about it was funny to me but i didn't have a chance to take a picture. we crossed the border and the canadian guard's questions made us want to laugh.

"how do you know each other?"
"she's my niece and she's my niece."
"do you have any weapons? .... mace?"
"no, just our wit."

view from the vancouver lookout

we are let through and proceed to vancouver. immediately my phone gets a text message from my provider about making international calls, haha. it's raining and we don't know where to go or what to see. we are not yet at the city centre and park to look around. we ate at "red door", a pan-asian restaurant. i browsed the internet on my phone for things to do. most suggestions were for gardens and it's not the weather for it. the other suggestions were for museums but they were crappy museums. (mining? no thanks.) i decided on the vancouver lookout at harbour centre, though the weather is much too shitty to actually see anything. i just wanted some inkling of what this city is like. i browsed the tourist brochures to get an idea of what i'm missing out on. i will definitely have to come back when the weather is better to do the outdoorsy things.

peace arch at the canadian border

we went to the gift shop for a few mementos to prove we went to canada. then it was time to drive home. everything went well except for the huge holdup at the border. after 30 minutes of not moving, 3 of us exited the vehicle and headed to the duty free shop to use the "washroom" (i'm utilizing my new canadian lexicon). then it was back to wait in the car until we finally went through. on the american side we picked up some subway sandwiches for dinner and saw a bad accident on the freeway but i don't think anyone was seriously hurt, just the cars. once home, we continued watching "true blood", which they got us hooked on last night. it's an hbo series about vampires and it's easy to get sucked into.