Thinking back in my life, this started in 1987 as I was graduating from high school. Rather than facing college, I moved to Belgium for the school year courtesy of my local Rotary Club.
Twelve years later, rather than face the potential shut down of the world's computers (known as Y2K), I went to Hawaii and stayed with friends. One of my not so brilliant moves was being in the air flying between islands and Greenwich, England shifted to the year 2000 -- the most likely time the air traffic would collapse as worldwide, they are tied to GMT time. Ooops!
In November 2024 I knew I wanted to be as far away from the United States as possible on Election Day. Once Kamala Harris was running on the Democratic ticket, I had high hopes she could pull out the win, but I knew T's supporters would retaliate with destruction. Instead, I cried to every sympathetic ear in Australia.
Fast forward to January 20, 2025. I really, really knew I did not want to be in the United States as he took the oath of office. Knowing I wanted to be in New York City on January 19 to celebrate the launch of the Manuel vs. The Statue of Liberty, a musical she has been working on for over a decade. Manuel is a Dreamer who was brought to the United States as a child and is struggling to find a legal path to citizenship. A decade later he and his cohort have lost ground.
That left leaving early on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on an international flight. There aren't a lot of options. Flights to Europe tend to take place later to take advantage of flying overnight. I thought about simply driving to Montreal. After many attempts at, what I coined, fitting a square peg in a round hole, we decided on Vancouver.
The more I looked into Vancouver, the more I fell in love with that decision. A customer at REI told Don Vancouver is the warmest city in Canada. It is a city neither one of us had ever been to, but had talked about over the years. Many years ago, Don bought parts for his Vega from a junkyard called Vega Dave's. After all these years, it would be fun to see the place in person. Seattle, the headquarters of REI, or what I call REI's mecca, is a scant three hours south of Vancouver. Surely we could do a road trip. Those were great ideas, unfortunately neither one panned out.
Instead we spent a week in a city that is friendly. As I lined up pictures I wanted to take, people walked around me. It is a city, but has more space. The buildings aren't as tall. The streets are wide enough for bike lanes. The sidewalks are filled with pedestrians, but not overfull. The mountains visible from Canada Place and down side streets are mesmerizing. The weather was indeed much warmer than New Jersey, who was suffering an arctic blast with temperatures barely getting above freezing. Vancouver ranged from 32 to 42 degrees each day -- not the high temperature, but the overall range each day. With a strong dollar, we could afford to do whatever we wanted.
In short, I fell in love with Vancouver.
When pressed on a downside, it was that there is only one non-stop flight a day between Newark and Vancouver.
I've been told the gray, gloomy, rainy weather is a downside, but we were lucky it did not rain during our trip. Luck, or global warming, take your pick.
Enjoy the posts about our adventures.
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