Monday, August 9, 2010

I have “been to” Canada in the same sense that I have “been to” Mexico.

Poking around on Carolina's blog the other day, I discovered a blog called Skittles’ place, and poking around Skittles’ or Skittle’s or Skittles’s place (pick one) landed me on Bernie’s blog, which has led to the post you are now reading.

Let me interject here that the more I “poke around” in cyberspace, the more I find blogs that almost make me want to give up blogging altogether. Some of them are that good. Most of those people even own digital cameras.

It turns out that Bernie lives somewhere in British Columbia in Canada in a Mobile Home Park (capitals hers) with her 72-year-old husband, Dave. They moved there a couple of months ago from somewhere she keeps referring to as “up north.”

[rant on]
WHAT??? UP NORTH??? WHEN YOU’RE ALREADY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA??? I mean, COME ON!!!

[rant off]


But I looked at another map and learned that Bernie’s previous residence, Granisle, is at about the same latitude as the southern tip of Alaska, so maybe she has a point, after all. Way down in the southwestern corner of British Columbia, I spotted Vancouver Island.


It reminded me that I have “been to” Canada two times, but just barely (three times if you count the time I was in downtown Detroit, Michigan, and looked across the river and caught a glimpse of downtown Windsor, Ontario):

1. I was in downtown Detroit, Michigan, and looked across the river and caught a glimpse of downtown Windsor, Ontario.

2. In 1991 or 1992, while visiting our son, who was a graduate student at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, the three of us drove along the edge of Lake Ontario all the way to Niagara Falls. We ate lunch on the American side, then crossed over into Canada and took in the much better view from the Canadian side. Then we drove south along the Niagara River and re-entered the U.S. at Buffalo. We spent all of about an hour in Canada.


3. In 1984, my other visit to Canada occurred clear on the other side of the continent. We drove up I-5 from Seattle, Washington, and crossed into Canada south of Vancouver. We never made it to Vancouver proper, though. We took a BC ferry from Tsawwassen to Sidney on Vancouver Island, and spent the night in the city of Victoria. Before returning to the States the following afternoon, we toured both the Provincial Museum and world-famous Butchart Gardens. It was a short but wonderful stay, as clicking on the words "Butchart Gardens" in the preceding sentence will prove.

So I have been to Canada, though just barely.

Other places I have been to, also just barely, include:

1. Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. Note that I did not say the Rio Grande River, which would be redundant. I walked across the International Bridge, bought some souvenirs for the folks at home, and walked back into Texas. I spent all of about half an hour in Mexico.

2. Nassau, Bahamas. My plane landed there briefly on the way home from a month-long business trip to Sweden in 1969.

3. Hamilton, Bermuda. My plane landed there briefly on the way home from a month-long business trip to Sweden in 1969.

4. London, England. I spent one night there on the way home from a month-long business trip to Sweden in 1969.

5. Amsterdam, Netherlands, International Airport. My plane landed there briefly on the way home from a month-long business trip to Sweden in 1969.

6. Copenhagen, Denmark, International Airport (twice). My plane landed there briefly on the way home from Sweden. I also landed there briefly on the way to Sweden. Did I mention that it was a business trip? And that it was a month long? And that it happened in 1969?

So there you have it. I, rhymeswithplague, qualify as a world traveler. I have stepped foot in eight countries outside my own, my native land.

My travels pale, however, beside those of Lord Yorkshire Pudding of Yorkshire Towers, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in the United Kingdom (that’s the British Isles, for those of you who don’t get out much). Just in the year or so I have been reading his blog, he has visited Singapore (or was it Hong Kong?), Chile, Easter Island, and God only knows how many other places before that. Through it all, he has remained his irascible, jolly, imperturbable, curmudgeonly, and lots of other adjectives not allowed on family blogs self.

But I need to tell you that I am not, as he would have you to believe, the subject of his August 8, 2010 post. I haven’t been to the UK since, when was it? Oh, yes, I remember.

1969.

7 comments:

  1. Dear Robert,
    In this post you list places you have been, including:-
    "London, England. I spent one night there on the way home from a month-long business trip to Sweden in 1969."
    Later you deny that you were caught on camera near The Houses of Parliament just last year. However, the camera never lies. All I can imagine is that that famous night in 1969 you met up with an English hotel maid and have maintained a secret relationship with her ever since. It's time to come clean after all these years. You must tell Ellie and risk the consequences.

    ReplyDelete
  2. YP, I find you amusing. Mrs. RWP, however, does not.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You spent a lot of months away from home in 1969.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wine, au contraire! I spent exactly ONE MONTH away from home in 1969. I lived in South Florida at the time, and my trip to Stockholm, Sweden, included stops in New York City and Copenhagen. My trip back home from Stockholm, Sweden, one month later, included stops in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Bermuda, and the Bahamas. I didn't return through New York because several New York-to-Florida flights had been hijacked to Havana, Cuba.

    The Quantas flight out of London had a "dream vacation" itinerary: Bermuda, Bahamas, Acapulco, Fiji, Tahiti, and Sidney.

    Welcome to the blog, by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Robert,
    I've "been to" Canada too. One of the reasons I love blogging is that I can travel the world and meet lots of new people every day!
    Cheers
    Helen

    ReplyDelete
  6. Helsie, or as you call yourself on your blog, Lady Helsie, thanks for visiting my blog!

    Do you happen to know a Lord Pudding? All you lords and ladies hobnob in your spare time; I just know it.

    No disrespect to either yourself or YP, but I once owned a pig named Lady Henrietta.

    Please excuse me; I am a bit giddy from having two new commenters on a single post (your lovely self and Wine in Thyme).

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm glad I had a small part in leading you to Bernie's blog. She is such a wonderful lady. Oh and thanks for the linky love back to my own blog. :)

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...