Despite the United States being geographically close to my hometown, - only about 50 miles to the border as the crow flies, - it can still be a bit of a chore to get to. I’ve taken the ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver proper countless times, I couldn’t even begin to estimate, and the novelty of such a thing has certainly worn off.
The route I took today was Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay, which is generally about an hour and forty minute sailing. While the ferry is nice enough, being up well before the crack of dawn (3am alarm for a 6:15am ferry) always puts a bit of a damper on things for the first few hours until the sun breaks over the horizon and casts a much more pleasing feeling over it all. Unfortunately, in this case, no such thing happened. As is standard for the west coast, it simply rained and rained all morning the moment I got off the ferry.
I was able to see a nice sunrise before it started raining though, which was at least a nice reward for waking up so early.
My first order of business today was to make the hour-ish detour out to Port Coquitlam to pick up a drone I had shipped to a friends house, as shipping it to them on the mainland saved about a week and a half on the delivery estimate, and was the only way I could have it in my hands before I left the country. The hand off was quick, and I was eager to get on my way to the border, anticipating long lines during the morning rush.
To my surprise, as I arrived at the border, no such lines had formed. I used the Pacific Highway port of entry compared to my normal entry at the Peace Arch, which may have contributed to the less busy nature of the crossing. There were only 2 cars in front of me, and I was through in just a few minutes.
That is, if they hadn’t asked to search the car. While I have nothing I’m not allowed to have, given the length of my stay they wanted to check my car as a precaution, which makes sense. The agent at the gate was very kind and friendly about it, explaining what I needed to do. Unfortunately, the agent at the parking area was not so nice, and got a bit annoyed at me while she guided me into the parking spot for not stopping instantly when she said stop, even though that’s not really possible given, well, physics.
Inside, the agent was also extremely nice. He was understanding of what I was doing, and gave me advice for the trip and for crossing back into the states later if I left and came back. He also left a note on my file so future border agents would have more context as to what I was doing. While we were talking (about 10 minutes), the agents outside were busy absolutely wrecking the organization of my car, dropping things on the ground, opening boxes and taking the contents out, etc. Very little care for the belongings of the person. I even found later that they’d ripped the box I keep my keyboard in, which is unfortunate.
Despite the deep search into every nook and cranny of my car, they let me through with no real issues, and I was finally on my way to Olympia, the first state capitol of many.
I arrived in Olympia around 3pm to clouds and light rain, but nothing too bad. The capitol is beautiful, with lots of vegetation and statues around. I made my way to the actual capitol building where I found some people waiting on the steps handing out snacks during their “day of action” for affordable housing and the homelessness crisis in the state. They had members of their organization inside the capitol at the same time, working with lawmakers to help find solutions to these issues.
One of them was kind enough to take my photo with the disposable camera, and while I forgot to take a photo of myself with my phone too, I do have some nice photos of the capitol building and surrounding area.
I didn’t really feel like sleeping in the car tonight, especially while still in a populated area, so I booked a hotel in Salem, Oregon, so that in the morning I could go to the capitol first thing. I stopped for gas one more time, then settled in for the night.
P.S., did you know they show ads at gas stations in the US? We don’t do that here in Canada…
