Took a morning stroll around Seattle's International District - Chinatown and Japantown - then waited and did some work on the computer in the elegant hall of King Street Station. I had switched my train ticket forward from the evening train up the coast to the morning "thru bus" service - not as much fun, because instead of the train winding its way along the waterfront, you drive up Interstate number five, and all you see is trees, and the other cars on Interstate number five. Crossing the border on the bus is also a drag because all the passengers have to get off, claim their luggage, and line up to come through customs and immigration, then get back on the bus and wait for all the other passengers. Three people on my bus got taken into immigration for further questioning, and one - the guy who had been sitting next to me - didn't get back on the bus! Wonder what happened to him. We left him to his fate and proceeded on to stop in Richmond and Vancouver. Again, a less glamorous route than the train would have taken, through the flat suburban wasteland between Blaine on the US border and the city of Vancouver.
So why did I switch my ticket?
To be in Vancouver in time to hear
Kutapira play at the opening of the
Dragon Boat Festival in False Creek!
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| Back in Canada! The Vancouver skyline from False Creek |
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| Kutapira in concert in False Creek |
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| Kutapira in concert in False Creek |
The guys from Kutapira taught my kids to play marimbas at the Lively Up Yourself music camp at the Roundhouse Community Centre .... ten years ago! Since then we have been keeping up with their music and one of the things I wanted to do while in Vancouver was to catch one of their shows. Well this one could not have been more convenient - only a couple of blocks away from the train station, on the very day of my arrival! So I got one thing on my to-do list checked off right away!
After the show I got myself a Compass card - every city I've been in on this trip has been using these pay-as-you-go, top-up cards to pay for urban transportation, and it's very convenient. I took the Skytrain down to Waterfront station and the Seabus from there to Lonsdale Quay, where I met my sister for dinner at a pub - the same pub where we had dinner on the last evening before I left Vancouver on my last trip! So we can just pick up right where we left off!
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| Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver |
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| View across Burrard Inlet to downtown Vancouver from Lonsdale Quay |
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