Sabbatical Week 3
This week I went to Lynden, Washington to visit my parents. I wasn’t in a rush, so rather than taxi from Tsawwassen to the Peace Arch, I decided to try public transportation. I caught a bus from the ferry terminal up to Richmond, crossed over the highway, then hopped another bus to White Rock, taking it as far as it would go. When the bus shut off its engine, I began walking to the ocean, down the steep 23% grade of Oxford Street with its majestic view (see above), thinking how it would be the ultimate sled hill. The sidewalk is so precipitous, the city has added thick parallel treads so pedestrians don’t wipe out.
Google Maps calculated I had a 2.25 hour walk to the Peace Arch, but I reckoned I could shorten it by walking directly along the beach. So I headed east along the beach in White Rock, taking the brick oceanfront trail to the end, passing an inordinate number of ice cream shops and “Canada’s longest pier”. The trail gave way to a grassy waterfront park then the rocky shoreline itself. The tide was out, the wind was up and the waves, though small, drowned out other sounds. Striated bands of water and sand stretched to the horizon.
After a mile or so, the crowds thinned and I came to a small, swift moving river with ducks cruising on its surface. It was too big to jump over, so I landed up fording across, shoes on. It was a bit more than I bargained for and soon I was up to my ankles in oozy grey mud. Reticent to leave a trail of mud through my US customs inspection, I sloshed through nearby pools of standing water to clean my shoes. Most of the mud came off but it was a decidedly squishy walk the rest of the way. Popped out at the Peace Arch about twenty minutes later (besting Google Maps by an hour) and cruised through the long lines in the port building by flashing a US passport.
