Day 2: Vancouver
Welcome
Yesterday we crossed the border into Canada to play our first headline show of the tour.
Tristan and I started our day with a short run and then I breakfasted on a quartet of plattered fruits.
With Jonathan behind the wheel of our mighty Chevvy Tahoe we set out on Interstate 95 heading north, the Magnetic Ride Control and 10-way power-adjustable front bucket seats with driver memory keeping us comfortable and the Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert keeping us safe and on the correct heading.
On the i95 northbound.
Shark week was in the forefront of our minds as we passed this elasmobranch-esque Volkswagon Beetle.
After a couple of hours we arrived at the Blaine border crossing and joined the long line of cars waiting to enter the world’s largest Commonwealth state (by land mass). It took us a good hour and a half to get to the head of the queue and there Jonathan’s carnet knowledge was put to the test. It seems to be relatively uncommon to have to operate a carnet when crossing into Canada so we were going in blind. We couldn’t find the export office on the US side so in the end we parked at the Canadian side and Jon walked back across the border to get our paperwork stamped. Then it was back to the Canadian office for more stamps, and we were finally on our way again.
Jonathan getting the carnet ready for the Canadian border staff.
The Blaine border crossing signals the end of the i5 at the Canadian border.
A triumphant Jonathan returns after the first successful US/Canada border crossing with our carnet.
Once over the border it was only forty-five minutes to Vancouver, and we arrived with a comfortable amount of time to complete our soundcheck. We were happy to be back at the Biltmore, the same venue we had played on our 2019 tour. It is an excellent room that provides a cosy pub feel thanks to the low ceiling, vintage pinball machines, warm lighting, and adornments all over the walls.
The Biltmore Cabaret.
On our way to dinner we saw the very impressive Vancouver trolley bus system in action.
The night was kicked off by an excellent local band called girlsnail. They packed the stage with their eight-piece ensemble including a great sounding three-piece horn section. I filmed one of their songs if you want to check them out, but you could also listen on their bandcamp. Their songs were melodic with a wild quality thanks to the abundance of dynamics, breakdowns, and improvisational sections.
Vancouver produced an exceptional crowd for this show and we couldn’t be more grateful. After our last postponement in March (not even mentioning the last two years of postponements) it was a great feeling to return and hopefully everyone there had as good of a time as we did.
The next day heralded an early wake-up so after the show we headed to our hotel as quickly as we could after packing down. Getting ready for bed we felt that nothing else could top the feeling of playing to four hundred tipsy Canadian Beths fans. We were all wrong.
The MOEN 21070W Revolution Massaging Shower Head could be described as high performance. It could also be described as pulsing, twisting, helical, and functional. It puts water on body. And it does it in a way that is fun and easily customisable for the user. This a obviously a shower head and I usually stick to faucets in this blog but there was no way I could pass this one up. I’ll let this video tell you the rest of the tale.