Canada

Here's a little geography lesson.

This is a map of the "lower mainland"... meaning Vancouver and it's suburbs.

(You can click on the maps to make them larger.)

This is where I live.... notice it's not that far from Canada. We can actually see Canada from the backyard on 95% of the time.

Now, I hate to admit this, but I really don't have a whole lot of interest in the Olympics. I think it's great that the best in the world want to get together and compete, and cool that the world chose to do it practically in our backyard.... and if i take the time to figure out the schedule, maybe I'll watch some of the events.... but no promises.

And even though it's practically in the backyard... I'm not going to any events... the thought of traffic makes me nauseous.

Speaking of Olympics.... Winter Olympics none the less.... it's been a REALLY mild winter here. So mild in fact that they've had to truck snow in.... and I heard that they actually closed one of these mountains to steal their snow:


Anyway, I went to Canada today... obviously not for the Olympics, but to have lunch with my Grandma.

She lives over here:

Maria and I had a great time with Grandma. We went to Chinese for lunch and then headed over to London Drug to get some Gripe Water (this was a life saver with Maria when she was a baby) and Auralgan (which helps with earaches). Then we swung by Superstore and got some Canadian chocolate bars (so much different than what we have here in the states). Then it was time for Maria's nap so we came home.

Crossing the border was super easy today.... which surprised me being that the Olympics started today.

Now, there are 5 border crossings in the area:

Point Roberts, Peace Arch, Truck Crossing, Lynden, & Sumas.

I've never been to Point Roberts... which is that little peninsula on the left...

The crossings which I use most often are Lynden and Sumas, which are the ones to the right... probably because my Grandma & late Opa lived in Abbotsford. Today I used the Lynden border crossing.

Now, if I'm going to head in the other direction I would 98% of the time choose the Truck Crossing over the Peace Arch... the wait is shorter. Although if you happen to be in the area and want more of an experience the Peace Arch is definitely more picturesque... there is a park and its right by the water.


Anyway... now I've just been babbling. I find it interesting the border monitoring practices of this country. They've sure upped the patrols during the Olympics... Today I saw over half a dozen marked border patrol cars as I was driving along Zero Avenue (a road in Canada that parallels the US).

Seeing all those cars reminded me of a couple of border patrol stories...

We have some friends that live up in Blaine (which has both the Peace Arch & Truck border crossings). It used to be that for a while everytime the lady would take her garbage out the border patrol would come by and ask her what she was doing. She would say taking her garbage out... she lived there. They would say OK and keep on going.

Then there is this fellow that we go to church with who works for the border patrol, I have no idea what his title is, but he has something to do with video monitoring. He was telling my parents one time of this guy that got so fed up with the border patrol coming by and asking what he was doing that he got a hat, attached a spring to it, and to the spring a sign that said "I'm American". So now if he ever gets picked up on camera they radio and say "It's ok, it's just spring head".

Now, there's no point to either of those stories... they made me laugh, and I guess I just wanted to share.