Thursday 29 March 2012

I'm on a Boat


Monday, March 26th
On the Road
Once all the tears had been wiped away, that quiet excitement of a road trip began to settle in.  The route was familiar; we have taken it many times with varying ultimate destinations in mind.  Most commonly we headed this way to get to Banff; a place whose meaning has changed over the years from a gateway to snowboarding trips to a place that felt a little like home thanks to brother I had there to just an escape away from the everyday grind of Calgary.  I recognize markers all along the road like odd shaped clusters of trees and peculiar rock formations scatter in the horizon but despite all that familiarity it felt different this time, it felt final.  I watched the scenery passing by the window and did my best to memorize the drive so that I can recall it at will in the future. 
As we drove through Canmore we saw an animal running in between the highways – there’s still some debate between Dan and I about what it was.  I instantly claimed it to be a wolf but Dan was a bit reluctant to believe it; he argued, instead, that it may have been a coyote.  It was for sure a wolf.  He had a wolf’s face!  Dan argued with me a bit, pointing out that wolves travel in packs – my response was “the lone wolf”, it’s not an expression because it never happens...  As we made our way towards Lake Louise I kept my eyes peeled searching for more elusive animals.  I’ve always wanted to see a bear but in all the time that I have spent up in the Rockies I have never been afforded such an opportunity, mind you that can certainly also be considered a good thing.  But to see one from the safety of my car would be a real joy.  This, of course, did not happen.  Before we knew it we were encroaching on the BC border and the town of Field which has always been a special place for Dan and I.  The first trip we ever took together was to Emerald Lake Lodge; a majestic cluster of cabins nestled onto the shore of the lake and wrapped up in mountains that provide you with the most incredible sense of peacefulness.  I remember when I told Dan that we would be staying there and as we looked it up he discovered that there are no televisions there... NO TVs...  Dan was not impressed, “What will we do there?”.  The truth is you don’t do much, but you certainly don’t miss having a TV; instead you watch the fire, play board games that you haven’t even considered playing since you were 12.  We ended up staying there quite a lot, always taking a trip into Field – it’s a picturesque mountain town that Dan would sometimes dream up ideas of living in.  His favourite image came from there: the local hockey rink with sticks stuck in the snow at either end.  Yes, there were many fond memories of Emerald Lake Lodge and Field BC (these memories brought to you by CRMR) and we swiftly moved past it and Dan pointed out that this is when our adventure really begins.
We had now passed by all the familiar, all the comfortable memories.  The roads to follow were ones that we had only travelled together once before.  The succession of towns not quite as certain but as we went along we remembered the small towns splayed along the side of the road.  We stopped in Revelstoke, nearly the halfway point from Calgary to Vancouver, we were 5 hours in and not the least bit tired.  I think the excitement and anticipation of reaching our eventual destination prevented us from feeling the exhaustion that had been building over the last week.  Dan had a friend there to visit briefly and then we headed off to town to get something to eat before making our way back on to the road.  We decided that we were just going to push on straight to Vancouver.  We hadn’t made any concrete plans about where we should end up on this first day of our journey and that indecisiveness seemed to only aid in pressing us forward to our next known destination.  The boredom of driving for so long began to set in as we approached the town of Sicamous; I know this because we began to think up slogans for the towns as we passed through them and we found it so hilarious that we were both in tears.  Here are a couple of our favourites “Sicamous, we’re next to a way better town”, “Shushwaps, teenagers will throw up on your boat”, and “Sicamous, you can stay here when you’re dragging your daughter back home”.  I can tell as I write them that they’re nowhere near as funny as we thought they were at the time... but damn were they ever funny then. 
We arrived in Vancouver at about 9:30 that evening, we had been on the road for over 11 hours but thanks to the time change we had gained back that hour you lose when you “spring forward” each year.  Reaching the city brought on a collective sigh of relief between us.  As we navigated through Vancouver’s surprisingly quiet streets we became excited once again with the brief realisation that things are actually happening, we are actually doing this.  We stopped, of course, for some beer before heading to our hotel where we promptly collapsed.  We had a couple of drinks before realising that we hadn’t anything except candy and Malteser’s since Revelstoke over 6 hours beforehand.  We started walking down Denman trying to find something good to eat – I was more than happy to have some of the Pizza by the Slice that we saw almost right away, but Dan has something against Pizza by the Slice...  Instead we started walking, peering into the windows of restaurant after restaurant.  Once Asian noodle place had plastic portrayals of each menu item in the window...  Why do people do this?  Why do they think that this is ever a good idea?  No one wants to see the food they are considering eating preserved in an eternal state.  It’s creepy.  We did not eat there.  Instead we found a Greek place that redefined tacky as the ceiling was painted like blue sky filled with white puffy clouds.  The windows boasted green and white awning on the inside, and a small white picket fence ran around the entire space like a 3D wallpaper border.  All that being said, the pizza we had was delicious. 
Tuesday, March 27th
We let ourselves sleep in for the first time in a long, long time.  There was nothing to do, no agenda to be met.  It felt amazing.  We dragged ourselves out of bed and headed down to use the hotel’s hot tub in hopes that it would aid in relieving our muscles that were still sore from moving.  There we met a family from P.E.I.  The father was quick to divulge the fact that he owns a car dealership and recently put in over $100,000 into renovating his home.   He was also quick to show his disbelief and shock that we were moving to a new city without jobs – we decided then that we would no longer share that information with strangers.  By the time we got ready for the day it was time for lunch, and found a place in Gastown called Pickenpah.  It was a Caroline-style little BBQ place tucked into the corner of a building where you would think it was impossible to fit a restaurant and yet there it was.  Dan was quite excited to discover that they had can of Lucky right there on the menu – it was confirmed, we were in BC.  We both had pulled pork sandwiches which were awesome.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  Afterwards we walked around the Gastown area for a bit before heading back to the hotel.  We literally did nothing until Dan’s mom came to meet us and then we headed off to dinner.  We went to the Boathouse in English Bay, an easy walking distance from our hotel.  I may be unemployed, but I still scrutinize other restaurants in the way that only a member of the industry actually can.  We were greeted at the door by a hostess and a man who was either a maitre ‘D or a manager who took one look at us and offered the lounge.  Actually, he didn’t really offer it, he presumed it.  Dan and I talked about it afterwards and we’re sure it was because Dan was wearing a hat but that kind of thing really drives me nuts.  I think in the service industry you always have to set your own judgements or biases aside because you really never know the situation with people – a millionaire could walk into your restaurant looking halfway to homeless or a critic could come in looking that perfect amount of disheveled that a lot of writer’s seem to strive for.  I also noticed that the table cloth was put on the table with the seams on the outside – those that have worked with me can attest to my particular annoyance with this when it came to folding napkins.  It was nice; it reminded me that I’ll always have that server mentality no matter where I am or what I am doing.  My meal ended when I was polishing off Dan’s plate (as I often do...) and I got a bone in the halibut – that will end my dinner every time.  I didn’t complain or anything, there wasn’t much left, but I’d take a hair over a bone any day.
We went back to the hotel and watched We Bought a Zoo based on the emphatic reviews it received on Tannis’s pinterest.  I really liked it and cried a little bit (like I needed more crying) and Dan fell asleep.
Wednesday, March 28th
I started the day late once again.  Dan had gotten up earlier and was forced to entertain himself as I was not willing to get out of bed until I was ready.  I got up in time for lunch again which we had at Vera’s Burgers, a chain in Vancouver.  They were pretty damn good burgers, but the onion rings were the real delight so I would recommend saving room for those.  After having lunch we headed up to UBC just to check out the campus: wow.  I feel kind of cheated for not considering going there for university.  Don’t get me wrong, I think Ottawa U has a beautiful campus as well and Calgary’s campus is pretty nice but UBC looked immaculate.  I don’t quite understand what’s going on there because there seems to be a pretty unusual integration of homes within the campus that can’t possibly be for student housing... Unless it’s for super loaded student to buy their housing while they go to school because some places looked really nice.  After driving around for a while we decided to go the Museum of Anthropology which is either right on campus or just across the street (I’m not sure where the barriers are).  We both loved the museum and I have about 100 pictures to prove it.  There was a lot of native art and artifacts which I found really interesting because I didn’t really learn much of anything about Natives growing up in Ontario.  Dan, however, had learned quite a bit when he was in school and I have also been learning a lot more about it through this history of the Canadian West course that I have been doing.  It was really great to see some of the things that I have been reading about right in front of me.  We actually spent about 3 hours walking around the museum.  We left feeling both entertained and informed.  Next we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the hockey game – this was the part that I had been looking forward to the most.  I love going to hockey games, especially hockey games where you’re in the majority with the fans instead of having Calgary Flames fans yell and sometimes even throw things at you.  That being said, Dan was sitting next to a teenaged boy cheering for Colorado and I had the single most annoying woman sitting next to me cheering for Colorado...  and by cheering for Colorado I mean she was constantly yelling dumb crap like “Kick his ass”, “Punch him in the face”, “Ya Avs, Vancouver sucks”.  Delightful.  I have never had to work so hard to suppress the urge to grab another woman by her ponytail and... Well, I’ll just stop there.  The game was a lot of fun; we were closer than we have ever sat before (except one time that we snuck down into someone else’s seats).  It’s amazing how fast and how big those guys are.  At one point LaPierre checked a guy into the boards right in front of us and you could the intensity and anger in his face when he did it... You don’t see that on TV.  After the game Dan went down and got his hat signed by Kassian – I wasn’t there but I can picture his face lit up just like all the kids that were probably also trying to get signatures.  We went to a place called Fritz with a friend of Dan’s and had some fries and poutine before crashing one last time in Van before making our way to the island.
Thursday, March 28th

We woke up this morning and quickly got all our things together and started for the ferry terminal.  We arrived at the ferry terminal at 11:30 and waited about an hour until boarding time.  We finally boarded and I sat at the back of the boat watching the mainland fade away in the distance as I wrote this...  I took a break and headed up to the deck to look out at the island as we were approaching it.  Now, here I am on an island surrounded by ocean.  It seems crazy in my mind, but it looks amazing to my eyes.    

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