Canada, Here We Come!

Short Version:
We run for the border, with pizza.

Long Version:
Mt St Helens isn't that far from the US-Canada border. Unless you're at the south-east corner of the mountain, in which case it's an hour or so just to get to the Interstate, then another one to get to the north-west mountain access, where the visitor centre and mountain headquarters are. And where we were, six or seven weeks ago, under a blanket of cold, foggy cloud. This time, the sun was shining, and it was still hot enough as we rolled into Olympia seeking delicious foods that I had to dig out a shirt before heading in to the Old-School Pizzeria, where we ate under the watchful gaze of metal gods of yesteryear. It's good to be reminded that Anthrax had big hair in the early 90s, and that even so they were among the less cartoon-like rock bands of the era.

Hunger suitably assuaged, it was back on the Interstate, and north at a furious pace. We passed through Seattle at sunset, which was really pretty and made Janine homesick, and crossed the border into Canada a few hours later with no border fuss whatsoever.

We'd been on the I-5 for so many hours that it was kind of weird when the road withered away, leaving us on an - admittedly multiple-lane - suburban street, with a 50-60km/hr speed limit. Signage was adequate - barely - to get us through downtown Vancouver, with only one traffic mishap*, and before we knew it we were crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge into North Vancouver, and pulling into the driveway of the house on East Kings, some time after midnight.

Showers for hours, then sleep. Mmmmmm, delicious sleep.







* = Turning left off a one-way street onto a two-way means:
- Get into the left-hand lane
- Turn into the right-hand lane
Unless you learned to drive on the left side of the road, and are really tired, and there's no oncoming traffic... in which case it's entirely possible to drive quite a way up the wrong side of a major urban thoroughfare before realising exactly what it is that's giving you that "something's not right" feeling. Still, no damage done, and no cops witnessed said indiscretion, so it never happened.