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.