Day 27 (4/27)
Oh yeah . . . we’re cool . . .
After breakfast at the lodge, Connie and I decided we’d walk one or two of the nearby trails. We chose the Trail of Shadows, which wound through ancient forest along the edge of the meadow that drew the first developer to this area. It’s called Longmire Meadow, as is the surrounding area, for the family that first began bringing tourists to this side of the mountain and built and maintained cabins, a gas station and the hotel. I don’t have words to describe the beauty of the forest. Everything was green – the moss that seemed to cover everything, the ferns, the hardwood saplings at the edge of the meadow and, of course the magnificent conifers of all sizes, including giants. Spilling from the marshy meadow along the streams was a plant with a beautiful, large yellow flower, which, like most primitive flowers, was not much more than a more evolved leaf. We learned from one of the several information signs along the path that it was Skunk Weed. We came upon pools with bubbles streaming up through them from below. We felt the water and it was cold. Later we learned that these natural baths had been an attraction for their “healthful qualities”, until the Park Service figured out that sitting in a pool of water with CO2 bubbling up through it didn’t do anything for one’s health and shut them down.
Even though the path had been a short introductory nature walk, we were charmed and decided to head out with that good feeling. We were excited about going to Vancouver and anxious to get on the road.
The ride down from the mountain and along the western side of the Cascades led us to bucolic farmlands southeast of Tacoma. Eventually we came to a real highway and headed for Puyallup (yeah, let me hear you say that the same way twice) where we would turn north and go up the eastern side of Lake Washington before crossing over to Seattle on I-90. It turns out that the road to Puyallup is about 50 miles of El Camino Real, with every fast food restaurant, national brand auto parts store, drug store, supermarket, gas station, sit down restaurant, smog check place, etc. repeated every five miles and punctuated by a stoplight every two or three blocks. By the time we got to 167N, I was ready for some crazy fast urban freeway racing. Thirty miles to 90, another 12 to I-5 in Seattle and still another 40 miles north before the traffic and I calmed down.
About an hour later, we pulled up to the boarder crossing station. The nice young man in a SWAT uniform smiled and asked us for our passports. Uh . . . passports? (Passports? We don’t need no stinking passports!) Uh . . . we. . . didn’t bring them. (World-class travelers Connie and Rob Rice arrested at the Canadian boarder trying to enter the country without passports!) What, are you crazy? No, he didn’t say that. After asking us some standard questions and filling out a small form, he told us to park over there and go into that building. We were told to sit on that bench (not the group W bench). I had thought about bringing them a few days before, but on the day we were leaving, neither of us thought to grab them. Anyway, after checking us out and figuring these dowdy old farts aren’t a threat, they let us into Canada without searching our vehicle – like they were doing to other travelers, or turning us away like they said they usually did in this situation. Can you say chagrinned? Oh yeah, we’re cool.
I’m not going to detail the long drive into Vancouver. Suffice it to say that our 5+ hour drive had turned into a 7+ hour drive and we were grateful to get to our hotel and get moved in. Because the hotel’s parking garage as well as all the near by garages could not accommodate our van’s height, we would have to park in an open lot eight blocks away. However, Derrick the doorman pointed out that the metered parking space on the street in front of the hotel was about to become available and helped me back into it. Logistics taken care of, we grabbed a beer (wine for Connie) or two and some snacks in the bar and went off to our room exhausted but excited about exploring Vancouver. Our day had gone from the sublime to the limit of arduousness, but now it was over.