[Monday, 22 July]
This blog seems to be taken over by video lately. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
In the spirit of adventure that really isn’t, I hopped in the car and drove up to Vancouver for the day.
The video tells the tale, but the summary is:
It’s always a nice drive. Mostly cloudy but the sun came out as I entered Vancouver. The primary purpose was to meet with a colleague who I’ve only ever known online, but secondary goals included donuts, pizza, tea buying and just walking around one of North America’s nicest cities.
In retrospect, I should have parked at the airport and taken the SkyTrain in to town. Everything I wanted to do was close enough to it. But I was in the car so I stopped for my doughnut at the Lucky’s/49th Parallel in Mt. Pleasant. Then drove into downtown, parked and left the car. Lunch was predictably pizza. After lunch I wandered down to the waterfront, bought tea at Murchies and stopped for a hot chocolate at Mink. It was, to be honest, a pretty touristy day.
I wandered the seawall for a while, before heading back to the car and driving over to Olympic Village to meet my colleague. We had a great conversation. I departed about 9pm, for a long, late trip home. I’d never crossed the border so late and it was a bit different when most things are closed down, but still relatively painless. Put on the cruise control and proceeded with only a gas stop at my usual Reservation Land gas station for tax-free fuel. Made it home to the cats just after midnight.