Alaska Journal
3.29 p.m. and we are on the last leg of our journey and are 20 minutes from landing at Vancouver Airport.
There is snow down there but it looks in the process of melting.
Mountains! Canadian Rockies?
We have had quite a journey. This morning we awakened at 3.00 a.m. A taxi picked us up at 4.00 a.m. Our flight took off shortly after six.
I took photos of us backing out of the gate. We booked with Canadian Air and flew from Washington-Dulles Airport to Toronto, and from Toronto to Edmonton, and then from Edmonton to Vancouver. It wasn't so bad changing flights. I liked the fact that we didn't have such a long flight between airports. Being in those tight seating spaces is always a bit of a challenge for us, and taking the break with an hour or two hour wait was enjoyable, and fun looking around each airport. By that time we had no luggage and kept our bags to a minimum. It was easy to move from place to place without dragging anything with us.
A nice thing happened at Edmonton Airport. While waiting for our plane we met Guillermo from San Paulo, Brazil. We noticed him before and watched him moving around. He had those kind of striking good looks and I love to people watch at airports. It really does pass the time away. We still had two hours to go before our connecting flight. Gregg said he walked like a dancer. Sure enough, when he asked us a question about the flight, we started chatting to him, and he told us he had three auditions with three ballet companies tomorrow. He happily showed us on his iPhone photos of him in costume, in ballet poses, alone and with his female counterpart. He looked wonderful and the costumes told us he must have worked for a professional ballet company in San Paulo. When we introduced ourselves and I told him my name was Denise, he smiled and told me that was the name of his first dance teacher. I don't hear that very often, don't seem to be many Denise's out there so this was quite a coincidence. It was another one of those pleasant conversations with people you meet when traveling, one of the many things I enjoy. We had a good conversation by using Goodle Translate. Guillermo said he had given himself a year to get work with a ballet company before going home, his mother hoped for less he said with a smile. He hoped his English would be better by then. We told him quite truthfully that he was doing great and that his pronunciation was excellent.
The taxi driver dropped us off at our car rental in the city. As I waited in the hallway with all our luggage, sitting on a bench, door open and with me listening to the business of renting a car, right opposite psychic reading was offered. I took a couple of photos. of course. All things interest me visually.
We wondered if tipping was not the thing to do in Canada, so maybe anyone out there who is Canadian or in the know about these things, can tell us. We certainly don't want to offend anyone.
We reached our hotel in North Vancouver, and checked into our room. We immediately sank down onto our bed, saying how good does that feel? We fully intended to go downstairs for dinner, but soon dropped off for what we thought was going to be a short nap. We woke up (4.00 a.m. our time) at 1.00 a.m. Vancouver time and chatted a little. Gregg dropped off to sleep again but I was wide awake. I decided to finish the first day of my, hopefully, daily journal. Now that I am getting tired again I will try and get a few hours' rest before the day starts.
(I am not sure where the art in the four airport concourse photos were taken, except for that the last one in the set of four was in Vancouver.)
