The northwest of the US and southwest of Canada is a remarkable area. The mountains coming down to the ocean and making island and inlet harbors seems to attract outdoor types. It's a youthful area. Vancouver is a young city; its whole waterfront has been redeveloped in the last thirty years. Granville Island has attracted entrepreneurial businesses and allowed the influx of Asians to develop food businesses. Always looking toward the Orient, when Hong Kong was returned to the Chinese by Britain many Hong Kong residents, as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations with Canada, moved across the Pacific to the Vancouver area. I did notice that Chinese people walk on the left which often created a traffic problem with Canadians who walk on the right.
Philipp and I took the Aquabus back to Granville Island for breakfast and then wandered the shops before taking a hike along the harbor. Our Aquabus
captain this morning was an interesting guy too. He is retired and lives in Vancouver from April to October driving the Aquabus but then spends the winter months in Bali on the beach...not a bad life. It really is a beautiful city. By that time, it was time for me to head back across the border to the US. A short drive from Vancouver is the US line. As I pull up
the customs officers first words were, "you sure took a wrong turn somewhere." After his usual questions I was on my way south to Bellingham.
Bellingham was where we stayed in 1986 when we came to the Vancouver Expo. Home of my long time friend, Steve Senge, it is a bustling small city and home to Western Washington University, where Steve has been a professor. Steve was my first friend after college when I moved to northern Michigan. He was in my wedding back in '76. He holds the distinct honor of being the only person to beat me in Trivial Pursuit - Genus Edition. He also remembers more of my past than I do. It had been along time since we had sat and laughed at our stories. He is an invariably positive person and good for me to listen to over a chicken fajita. His house is amazing. Built by a furniture maker, it has wonderful details rarely found in houses today.
My stay with Steve was short as I reordered my plans to get to Klamath Falls for a Friday afternoon soccer game. Steve gave me a sampling of his world famous brownies and I was off in the morning with a nine hour drive ahead of me. With the help of the national parks being closed, I was able to skip through Washington without much difficulty. Portland, Oregon looked like it would have been a fun city to explore but I was on a mission now to get to Klamath Falls. Down the Willamette valley and over the Cascade mountains I arrived at the soccer field at 5pm just as the game was starting. Matt wasn't expecting me. It was a treat to see his team pull off a win against the team that had just beaten the conference champion team. A year ago the OIT Owls had a lock on last place in the conference. A short year later they were in 4th place and poised now to possibly be in 2nd place if next week's game goes well. Watching Matt maneuver his team though the game was impressive. Even at the height of the game when refereeing was questionable and the college president started marching on the field impassioned to take control, Matt was in control and told his boss that he needed to get off the field...which he did. The game gave me an opportunity to shoot some photos of his players.
It is good to see Matt.
Philipp and I took the Aquabus back to Granville Island for breakfast and then wandered the shops before taking a hike along the harbor. Our Aquabus
My stay with Steve was short as I reordered my plans to get to Klamath Falls for a Friday afternoon soccer game. Steve gave me a sampling of his world famous brownies and I was off in the morning with a nine hour drive ahead of me. With the help of the national parks being closed, I was able to skip through Washington without much difficulty. Portland, Oregon looked like it would have been a fun city to explore but I was on a mission now to get to Klamath Falls. Down the Willamette valley and over the Cascade mountains I arrived at the soccer field at 5pm just as the game was starting. Matt wasn't expecting me. It was a treat to see his team pull off a win against the team that had just beaten the conference champion team. A year ago the OIT Owls had a lock on last place in the conference. A short year later they were in 4th place and poised now to possibly be in 2nd place if next week's game goes well. Watching Matt maneuver his team though the game was impressive. Even at the height of the game when refereeing was questionable and the college president started marching on the field impassioned to take control, Matt was in control and told his boss that he needed to get off the field...which he did. The game gave me an opportunity to shoot some photos of his players.
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