I haven't posted in awhile. I usually don't post about vacation while we're on vacation. And this time I didn't even bring the laptop so I couldn't even post about other things. This resulted in my longest gap between posts in over four years! Anybody miss me?
Last fall, we all got passports for the first time in our lives. We were going to that foreign land, Canada. In preparation, as seen above, we got Canadian money. It's much more colorful than American money, and feels much more like play money than ours. They also don't use much paper money lower than a five, instead using two dollar and one dollar coins. Pennies are non-existent, with everything rounded up or down to the nearest nickel/
Our first four days of our vacation were going to be spent in Vancouver, in the province of British Columbia. I had been in Canada before (much easier when you lived in Michigan, and at that time, you didn't a passport to get in), but never west of Sault Ste Marie. Passing through customs wasn't too involved. You had to answer some questions at a computer terminal. Most were fairly easy, but for our overly cautious family, we debated on the question of bringing food into Canada, whether the two packets of almonds we got on the plane counted. After several moments of indecision, we finally answered no. So we snuck about two ounces of almonds into Canada.
We did not stay in traditional hotels on our trip. Instead we did this new think called airbnbs, or vrbnbs, or, uh, staying in the extra rooms of somebody's house or condo. In Vancouver, we were fortunate enough to stay in the basement rooms of somebody's house. This is a picture of Alison relaxing in this cozy place. It felt so much more homey and friendly than a hotel, and cost less to boot (compared to downtown hotel suites).
This is the patio just outside our room, I can't emphasize this enough - even though the temperature reached highs in the mid-eighties - THERE WERE NO GNATS. I repeat - THERE WERE NO GNATS. I think I was in love.
We took multiple free tours of different sections of Vancouver. We saw this building, designed by indigenous Canadians, that has a sweat lodge on top of it.
Alison and Benjamin pose in the Chinese Gardens that are in the center of Chinatown.
We took a harbor ride, and I took a picture of the city from the boat. I took many other pictures from the boat, but the turned out pretty bad. Ansel Adams I am not.
The "free"tours were the trip highlight. You left a tip at the end, if you could. The tour guides were friendly and informative, honest and open about the history of Vancouver, both the good and the bad. It has inspired me as to how heritage tours at the Okefenokee Heritage Center might be conducted. It seems like fun, and I think it would be something I could be good at.
We did make it clear to a couple of our tour guides, that no, we did not vote for him. As I explained to one of them, I did everything in my power to stop him, but to my shame and humiliation, I failed.
Had the Senate passed their tax cut to the wealthy disguised as a health care bill, we might still be in Vancouver right now.
No gnats, friendly people, Justin Trudeau, and universal health care.
O Canada!
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