ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - TRAVELING TO VANCOUVER - THE START OF OUR VACATION - FRIDAY, MAY 4TH, 2018

First day - Friday, May 4th, 2018 
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. 

There also appear to be many small lakes.

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.

We were surrounded with people who had bad colds.  One man who came and sat next to me in the gate area at Edmonton, gave me cause for concern.  He was very poorly and I felt sorry for him.  He sneezed and coughed heavily and he never covered his mouth.  I was ready for a walk around anyway, so I got up and took ten minutes to look around the stores.  Time to board and who do you think sat across the aisle from us?  The coughing and sneezing man.  A whole plane, a sky bus, and he sat next to us.  Amazing!  Is someone up there trying to tell me something, teach me more empathy, more tolerance?  He coughed and sneezed and groaned after every cough.  I did feel sorry for him but I also worried for all of us close by, but then again there were others too, maybe not as visibly sick but sniffles abounded.  Hopefully the coughing man finished his flight in Vancouver and his wife tucked him up in bed with a hot toddy.  He had been on the phone to someone a couple of times while waiting to board, and not a quiet conversation.  I think his ears must have been affected also.  As I said, lots of people seemed to have colds around us.  Keeping fingers crossed.

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.

I couldn't help but notice that he was approached by a worried looking gentleman from India, who was visiting relatives in Edmonton.  Our young Brazilian friend asked us if we could help.  Unfortunately, after several tries, we were unsuccessful in dialing the number this gentleman had given us, and this time we couldn't communicate very well.  Gregg asked one of the ladies at the gate.  She seemed very helpful and pleasant in our earlier conversations.  As busy as she was, she couldn't have been more friendly, and assisted this gentleman by getting on her walkie-talkie.  We heard her put out a call for someone who spoke Punjabi, where he was from.  We felt that he was in good hands as we all left and boarded our flight to Vancouver.  Looking back I hope it all worked out well, both for our young Brazilian friend and also for the gentleman from India.

Canadian customs was excellent, thorough and yet pleasant. When we left the airport we got a taxi driver who was originally from Iran.  Gregg always enjoys talking to people from other countries, especially from those countries he has been to in his navy days, and I enjoyed listening to their experiences.  In 42 years I have heard many of Gregg's stories of his travels, but they never fail to interest me, and sometimes something new trickles in that I have never heard before. 

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.

No, I didn't knock on the door.  I was cajoled into going to a psychic in my home town - psychic to the stars - when I was barely 20, and that was enough for one lifetime.

A nice young man who worked for the car rental offered to help us with our luggage.  We had to walk up a steep hill to get to the car.  He wouldn't accept a tip and said he was happy to do it.  A kind and friendly young man.  Our luggage was not lightweight and he did all of the heavy lifting. 

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.)