Getting to the ship

Thanks to all who responded to my first post of this trip. A number of you replied to the email several others use the website to add to the post in the comments section. When you use the comments section of each post others who read from the website can also enjoy your comments.

Friday was a rainy day here in Kelowna but nothing like the unpleasant conditions in the Burlington area and most certainly not like the situation near Ottawa. Hopefully the community will work together to assist the tornado victims. It seems to me that the number of tornadoes in Canada is increasing. Climate change?

Saturday evening was lots of fun as daughter Tracy had organized a surprise 50th anniversary party for Jeff & Dave. It worked! They had no clue about what was to happen. They had a great evening with family and friends including video greetings from many who could not attend.

Sunday we drive to Vancouver and we are hoping to a good weather day. When living in Ontario as we don’t have to deal with weather variations resulting from altitude. Between Kelowna and Vancouver there are two mountain passes to be negotiated where snow is a distinct possibility at this time of year. Local rules demand the use of winter tires or the carrying of tire chains when traveling these mountain roads. Sunday’s forecast for the mountains seems favourable. We may, however, encounter some nasty stuff as we approach the coast.

The previous paragraph was speculative. We are now, as of 2:30 Sunday, at our Vancouver hotel. The drive on the eastern side of the mountains was nice and sunny but we found overcast and light rain as we descended the western slope. We arrived in Vancouver to a partially cloudy afternoon.

Eastern SlopeWestern Slope

Vancouver traffic was everything I expected it to be; insane. I wish I could claim it was better at home, but I can’t. At home, the highways overflow and fill up the city streets. In Vancouver there are no highways so everything is on the city streets. The results appear to be identical.

Sunday morning is cool but pleasant. No rain, so far. Our 10th floor hotel room has a marvellous view of a dozen or so other towers, There is a sliver of a gap through which some trees are visible in the distance. The view after we board the Emerald Princess should be far more interesting.

Today is our actual anniversary and we were married, 52 years ago, not that far from our hotel. We will continue celebrating both anniversaries as we cruise down the coast over the next 10 days. I will try to get photos of the harbour as we depart and post them in the next few days.

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