And we crossed the border at about 3PM today. I was expecting more hassle than usual, since the US gov't now has an orange alert, and we have a passle of Christmas presents with us. For some reason, Canadian customs is over-interested in making sure we aren't bringing in stuff to leave behind with friends.
In any case, our current status as being on "speed dial" with Canadian Immigration and Customs turned the whole actual border process into a one minute event. We spent about 10 minutes getting there, but what the heck.
We'll see what happens on the return trip--we're doing the Peace Arch instead of our usual, which is taking the Ferry to Port Angeles. One of the reasons we've done that in past is that the Peace Arch crossing is notorious for slowdowns and searches.
The biggest driving hassle today was dealing with downtown Seattle. Luckily, we showed up as the SeaHawks game was starting, so we missed most of the game traffic, but the transit lanes were all running in the other direction, so we had a 15 minute backup as we all went from 5 to 3 lanes.
I did the drive from just south of Portland to just north of Everett. Those of you who have never really seen me in action, and wonder why I know I'm a type A personality only have to catch me driving. Not that I'm doing stupid stuff, but I'm usually swearing up a blue streak regarding the driving habits of those around me. If you're gonna drive--*drive*. And get the heck out of the left lane if you're neither passing nor at least keeping up with prevailing traffic, okay? You're a worse hazard if you're poking along in the wrong lane.
I keep a small thought in the back of my head about moving to Seattle instead of Portland when the time comes, and wonder whether it would be better. Seattle's layout reminds me of Chicago's--only flipped to the other side. The water and the highways limit where everything can go, and once you deal with that, you're okay. And the suburbs go on for quite awhile.
Something to ponder...
Posted by lsefton at December 21, 2003 09:52 PM