More wifi! You know what that means: a blog post! Still having a wonderful time here with our neighbors to the north. We are currently camped just outside of Kamloops, British Columbia.
There are so many reasons I love Canada. Sarah MacLaughlin, William Shatner, curling. And besides the beauty of the land, the people are pretty great. I've never met a Canadian whom I did not like instantly. If you've never had the pleasure of getting to know any citizens you might not expect such warm hospitality from the inhabitants of a land that most Americans think rarely thaws out (actually, this is the warmest weather we've had since Death Valley). And I guess that's not a totally illogical assumption. I mean, a mass of winter air can make it all the way from Alberta to Tampa and still pack enough punch to send us Floridians diving under our down comforters (okay, so that only takes a ten degree drop).
But I think the most welcoming gift Canada has offered us so far was an afternoon thunderstorm. It happened while we were visiting with our friend Joel and his family in Abbotsford where we had a great meal and a nice evening chatting. He was showing us around the backyard when a nice crack and rumble of thunder broke through the stillness. I was so thrilled it did not even occur to me to beat feet and make for shelter. I miss thunderstorms in ways I cannot describe. That storm followed us back to Surrey and poured rain on our roof half the night. Ahhhh....I couldn't sleep for listening to it and could not decide if I should feel really homesick or very well comforted.
There are so many reasons I love Canada. Sarah MacLaughlin, William Shatner, curling. And besides the beauty of the land, the people are pretty great. I've never met a Canadian whom I did not like instantly. If you've never had the pleasure of getting to know any citizens you might not expect such warm hospitality from the inhabitants of a land that most Americans think rarely thaws out (actually, this is the warmest weather we've had since Death Valley). And I guess that's not a totally illogical assumption. I mean, a mass of winter air can make it all the way from Alberta to Tampa and still pack enough punch to send us Floridians diving under our down comforters (okay, so that only takes a ten degree drop).
But I think the most welcoming gift Canada has offered us so far was an afternoon thunderstorm. It happened while we were visiting with our friend Joel and his family in Abbotsford where we had a great meal and a nice evening chatting. He was showing us around the backyard when a nice crack and rumble of thunder broke through the stillness. I was so thrilled it did not even occur to me to beat feet and make for shelter. I miss thunderstorms in ways I cannot describe. That storm followed us back to Surrey and poured rain on our roof half the night. Ahhhh....I couldn't sleep for listening to it and could not decide if I should feel really homesick or very well comforted.
On our last morning in Surrey, Kevin and I rode our bikes down the road to Peace Arch Park. The park straddles the border and features a beautiful garden, the arch, and a fairly casual-looking US border patrol agent. Casual, that is until you get a little too close to the obelisks marking the boundary. Then he'll give you the hairy eyeball. Riding back we realized the bike path runs right along the border through a shallow ditch and got to wondering, if we crashed into said culvert, in which country would we go for an ER visit? When I hit the deck I tend to hit it big so it's good to know these things in advance. Incidentally, my very finest mountain bike biff ever was an endo in Banff National Park that bent my helmet bill Daffy Duck-style.
Speaking of biffs, we hit a huge bump on our sojourn and killed our back-up external hard drive and a mercury thermometer took a dive into the sink and broke. That bathroom became an instant EPA World Hazard Site while Kevin googled "safely disposing of mercury." This same thing happened when I was a kid only I pushed the little mercury orbs around for a few minutes before my mom found me and ushered me to a safe distance. I suppose that little incident explains a few things. But this story ends well. We found good info and a safe disposal site in Kamloops and although it took up more of Kevin's morning than he would have liked, no humans or beautiful Canadian environments were harmed. Oh, and that hard drive managed to time it's suicidal leap to the floor for right after we had restored all data to the new hard drive in the Mac. May the wind be at your back...
And speaking of wind, tomorrow we hit the road again to complete our drive to Jasper National Park in Alberta, as well as Banff where we will be meeting up with friends Dean and Chloe Radbourne. (!!!) We also just received word from some other friends, John MacMurray and AJ and Rachel (whom we met way back in Zion when I chickened out of Angel's Landing) and we will get to spend time with them too. So July and August are turning out to be fairly social months for us, which is a good thing. A frequent dose of good friends is superior to a daily dose of rain and thunder anyway.
-Jenni
And speaking of wind, tomorrow we hit the road again to complete our drive to Jasper National Park in Alberta, as well as Banff where we will be meeting up with friends Dean and Chloe Radbourne. (!!!) We also just received word from some other friends, John MacMurray and AJ and Rachel (whom we met way back in Zion when I chickened out of Angel's Landing) and we will get to spend time with them too. So July and August are turning out to be fairly social months for us, which is a good thing. A frequent dose of good friends is superior to a daily dose of rain and thunder anyway.
-Jenni