Misheru

Sorry this is late in coming, but here are some thoughts from my journal: After a call to Marti to ensure the Canadian border patrol that I really was not trying to flee the country with his child, Ben and I entered Canada. I just have to say — I liked it. What a nice country. It was clean, people were friendly, and we stayed in a great hotel in Vancouver for cheap. Vancouver, as we saw it with the morning sun coming up over the city, is absolutely gorgeous. There are numerous tall apartment buildings of a rather different architecture, and the sea, beaches, boats and all that come along are there at the edge of the city. We went through the center of the city, looking for an atm, before realizing the parking meters were computerized and actually took credit/debit cards…we walked along a couple of beaches and enjoyed Stanley Park, a beautiful park in the middle of the city, to the extreme. We went over a gigantic bridge, called Lion’s bridge or something similar, and the view of the mountains was absolutely breathtaking. They seemed as tall as the mountains of Moria, if I may borrow Tolkien, and far taller than the Bitterroot Mountains of southern Idaho that are a chain from the Rocky Mountains. I could not photograph the feeling of those mountains rising up before me as I crossed the bridge — I knew I couldn’t and did not try (it was also illegal to stop). We did return over the bridge, which was less exciting, to Stanley Park, and enjoyed the view, if somewhat rainy, while enjoying lunch in a nice restaurant that overlooked the bay. The first picture is Ben in the center of Vancouver, then us in Stanley Park followed by the place we had dinner, the view from it, the fire engine in the park, and Ben at the playground there.

The title is a quote from my friend Julie. Spokavegas was… smaller than I remembered. More Republican. More WASP. It was lonelier too — almost all my old friends and a lot of my old profs are gone. I spent two days wandering around…was eaten by fleas at a motel…missed the professors I meant to see, and saw the professors I hadn’t meant to see. And, I couldn’t find the 22-year-old self that left the place. Until, that is, I went to Mukogawa, where I worked with Japanese college students in 1997. I found myself there, and also at my old apartment in the city, where I spent the last six months of school. I received a warm welcome at Mukogawa and Ben enjoyed playing soccer out in the grass there, and, in the end, I was glad I came. The order of the pictures is as follows: Gonzaga from the front, the side, and from Centennial trail; the next picture is the bridge behind Gonzaga. I jumped off that particular spot once with three other friends in a fit of energy one February while I was in school (it was very, very cold). The next is Ben and I on the big red wagon slide downtown, Ben on the Looff carousel (a historic carousel, also downtown) and then just Ben on the wagon, coming down, quite bravely, himself. The next one is Mukogawa, in the historic old officers’ quarters where we lived, and then of the apartment building where I lived while I finished school. The last one is Spokane downtown, at dusk.

Here are a lot of pictures from my trip to my parents, with more to come. After our breakneck pace through Utah, we slid into Nampa, Idaho with no problems and collapsed in my brother Nick’s house (not pictured). We spent two nights there visiting, and Ben loved my brother’s huge fishtanks (Nemo) and I spent the evenings staying up late and watching movies with my brother, the first time in a long time I have had such a chance. We went on to my parents’ house for 9 more days, and my dad took the week off in honor of the occasion. We spent one entire day working on my truck, and here is a list of things fixed: window, door handle, tailgate, all four brakes, bearing seals, right rear axle seal, starter. Thanks, dad. I have to take some credit — he did precisely half of the brake work, and I did the other half (after he showed me how) so that I would learn the skill. Then, to the pictures: the first set is of a torturous fishing trip (I despise fishing) at Swan Falls, a hydro-electric dam with a reservoir. It is a bird refuge, so I thought I might see an eagle or something, but mostly I was hot, hungry and irritated that all I could see were seagulls. Ben had fun, though, as did everyone else (I think). The second set of water pictures are of Payette Lake in McCall, Idaho, which is where Marti and I spent our honeymoon (it was much, much colder in January, and the lake was frozen over then). The lake was still very, very cold though, I might add, but it is still so pure that homeowners pump their drinking water from its center (they try not to think of tourists dipping their feet in it, I’m sure). It was a nice trip, and ended with a dinner at my aunt Theresa’s house. I also enjoyed running St. Luke’s Women’s Fitness 5K race, and I finished in good time despite dire predictions from certain family members (“You don’t look like you can run, but I guess the pipes are clean”) . I enjoyed my stay, and seeing old friends. “Make new friends, but keep the old — for one is silver, and the other gold.”