Vancouver

Day One

Greetings everyone from Vancouver, which turns out is not actually in the United States at all.

We’ve been aiming for a trip here for a while, and when I say that I mean Amy wanted to go, and I’ve decided I’ll just be where she is. So I renewed my passport and helped with our planning, which mostly consisted of nodding vociferously when she suggested doing some things.

All kidding aside, I’ve always maintained an interest in the Pacific Northwest. I recently visiting Seattle with my son, and did a fair amount of comparative reading on First Nations during my graduate coursework. Plus, the images I’d seen of this place were just spectacular. I’d visited Canada once before during a trip to Toronto, and really wanted to return to see it more.

This is one of my favorite things about Amy, who constantly reminds me that you are allowed to actually enjoy life. So yesterday we boarded a United flight out of Denver for a short three hour hop to the PNW.

I used to be terrified for flying but now I can’t get back in the air fast enough. I have a bit of a love affair with the Golden Age of Flight (historians are probably the humans most susceptible to nostalgia) with their Pan Am airways, big seats, full meals, and smoking sections. Ok, so not all of that, but you get the idea. Since Amy doesn’t like the window and I love it, I got some amazing views as we headed northwest.

I also got to relive that Golden Age of Flight with a little meal onboard, complete with the beverage of my choice, Coca-Cola—on the rocks.

Looking down on the landscape as we made our approach, it was hard to not to be inspired by the beauty of this place, and imagine what lay in store.

Deplaning and going through customs was a breeze, though I must say that for what I could tell, Vancouver’s airport reminded me of Charles De Gaulle in Paris, especially with the open walkway above the terminal.

If there’s a downside of this trip, it’s that I’m missing the Denver Powwow, one of the largest in the country, and a lot of the Tribes I work with are usually there. So it was nice to see Vancouver’s Indigenous heritage presented right up front for new arrivals.

Ridesharing is something new here in Vancouver, so we actually took a cab to our hotel. We stayed at the Loden Saturday night and will return here after a couple days on Vancouver Island. But we were both excited to see our new home for a few days so we checked in and quickly headed out to do a quick walk around the town before meeting some friends for dinner.

This is the Loden. I pulled off the internet because mine can’t do the place justice.

The hotel is gorgeous and the staff were exceptionally friendly. And our room offered some killer views of the surrounding city. Plus, they left us some candy so I was immediately sold on the place.

Our hotel is in a good spot and close to the water so that meant we could really enjoy walking around, but we were both completely exhausted both from travel but also because we both have been working really hard in the weeks prior to the vacation. Amy, God bless her, knew that I’d want to see the harbor immediately so we proceeded in that direction, making a giant loop around before heading back to the hotel.

After our quick tour, we returned to the hotel where we immediately passed out and overslept and almost missed dinner with our friends, Shawn (never Sean—we don’t trust the Irish around here) and Kim, who were absolutely the best part of this trip so far. For once, I managed to not have my phone out at dinner, so I don’t have any pictures of us or of dinner, but just imagine for people having a good time over drinks and good stories.

I’m typing this on my phone as we prepare to go out and visit the city today. In a few hours, we’ll take a sea plane over to Vancouver Island for a couple days and we’re both looking forward to that.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this quick departure from my normal Substack posts, and I’ll try to do more of these over the course of the trip.

I hope wherever you are, you’re having a terrific Sunday.

Jason