The Huffey Family: Vancouver

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Road Trip to Vancouver, BC

We woke late (no kids to wake us, it was nice to sleep in) and got on the road before we had a chance to grab breakfast. The parking lot at the hotel charged a lot more if we stayed over a certain number of ours, so we had about 10 minutes to get out of the gate before that time was expired.

I wanted to check out a park that was north of where we were staying; the reviews said it had great views of the Seattle skyline as well as some pretty cool features to see inside the park, so we headed there before starting our trip north to Vancouver.

Once we arrived, it was obvious it was the place to be. The parking lot was full, the music could be heard from the lot, and people were scattered in all areas of the park.

The first group to grab our attention was the drummers and dancers, doing some sort of "fitness/zumba" type of class. It was different and interesting to watch, and actually looked like a lot of fun.

We walked around the park, exploring a bit more, noticing all different types of people. Inside one of the structures we came upon a few homeless people, with beds made on the decking above, and found it strange that so many people were there for entertainment, and a few feet away others were resting in their beds for "camp".

Just the "three" of us. :)

As we were exiting the park, some music caught our attention, and we walked over to the area where it was coming from. There was a large congregation of people, seated in chairs, singing music with others playing instruments, and I paused, listening to hear the words to find out what they were singing about.

Sure enough, I could hear that they were singing about Jesus. I looked at Derrick, and said "Well, you want to go to church?" and he, hesitating because he was unsure if it was a private wedding or other private event, gave me a strange look as I walked towards the group and joined the congregation at the back, singing along with the song.

He joined me, and a woman near by warmly smiled and handed us a program with lyrics to the songs. It was, indeed, an outdoor church service, and later on as we listened, we found out it was conducted in two languages, making it a pretty interesting experience. (Mandarin and English)

After the service was over, we were invited by those standing around us to join them for a buffet-style meal a few feet away. We accepted the invitation, thanking them, and enjoyed speaking with a few people while we ate as well as the worship leader and his family.

The buffet was impressive, it was actually a homemade Asian buffet, and we enjoyed our time outside in the sunshine, visiting and listening to stories of places to visit in the area.

After eating, we excused ourselves and headed north towards Vancouver, but made a quick stop to grab a geocache and some photos in Everett, Washington.

Derrick's hand was too big to fit, so I wearily placed my hand into the pipe... never a fun experience at first.

My bravery paid off!

We felt it was fitting to place an Iowa pig inside the cache and with the location in the fast food district, it was perfect!

Derrick replaced it as we found it.

After our quick stop to grab the geocache and a million photos of signs with Everett written on them, we continued north. We stopped at a few more places, checking out the views of the water, but quickly made it to the boarder where we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited... in line.

...and waited some more.

There were families playing catch, walking, lounging and enjoying a snack, in the grassy area while the driver of their vehicle waited in line (not a bad idea really). Soon enough we were past the boarder checkpoint and in Vancouver, BC.