Heading Back to Seattle

I woke up to my first Pacific Northwest rainstorm. Since it was so gloomy outside, I took my time leaving the hostel and chatted with my roommates and some of the people I had gone out with the previous night. The roommate who I thought was a little odd the first night opened up a bit. She was also checking out of the hostel that day. I asked her were she was going next and she said she didn't know. She explained that she had a job that allowed her to work from her computer and she just went where she felt like she wanted to go. We discussed different country's approaches to traveling. She grumbled a bit about how Americans don't travel as much as people from other countries, even when they are capable. For the most part, I have to agree. A few of my friends have caught the travel bug, but many have yet to see the merits of travel or will not travel unless someone they know will go with them. Before I left for Seattle, someone asked me who I was going with. I explained that I was going by myself but had friends there. I received a skeptical look. It's just Seattle!

After checking out of the hostel and using up my last internet minutes, I head back to Stanley Park to check out the totem poles before starting the drive back to Seattle. It was pretty pleasant until I got to the border. A few miles before you get to the border, they give you wait times. It was a two hour wait for the main border crossing and one hour for the trucker border crossing. I went for the truck border crossing which is also open to people in regular cars. I thought about making phone calls to pass the time, but didn't want to rack up too many roaming charges since I was still in Canada. A Native American man pushed a hot dog cart between the car lanes- probably making a lot of sales that day. When I finally got to the border, it took less than a minute to get through customs. Both times I crossed the border, the first difference I noticed was how the people of British Columbia are much better drivers than the people of Washington state ;)