Vancouver

I went out to the Pacific Northwest ahead of M by a few days, so I could spend time visiting with my oldest (read longest) friend of 38 years, Larena, of Life at 40 Something, and to meet Michelle of Knock, Knock, it's Cancer, who I've been reading, chatting with on-line, and on the phone for 7 years!

Then M joined me a few days later, along with her sister, and sister's family.  We rented a beach house on the Olympic Peninsula for a week to have a vacation and to celebrate my 50th birthday.

This is a view of Lion's Gate Bridge as seen from the south end at Stanley Park in Vancouver.  This bridge, from the north end, is my firmest memory of my first visit to Vancouver twenty years ago.  I came off this bridge and drove right into Stanley Park, where everything changed for me in an instant.  Every time I go back to Vancouver, I have to go gaze upon this bridge, and remember how close I came to losing everything, and remember the gift I was given on that day so long ago.  

Here's another view of the bridge from the side.  You can see this view of the bridge from the top of Stanley Park at Prospect Point overlook, and from the restaurant up there of the same name.

This is also where Michelle and I met for lunch.  

You can see the bridge in the background.  It was interesting meeting Michelle in person for the first time.  We have shared so many experiences over the years, and our lives have some common threads. I've met many people over the years that I met first on-line, so this wasn't awkward for me.  I don't know if it was awkward for her.  She was very pleasant and very easy to talk to.  We had lunch and talked for quite a while.  I was really glad we both made the effort to meet.  I sometimes feel like my life and experiences are completely unique, no one else's life is quite like mine, then I meet someone like Michelle, and I realize life is like a board game, and we're all playing the same game, on the same board, and even though the roll of the dice might be different, and our moves might be different, we can't help but share a lot of the same experiences and life choices.  Next on my list to meet are Naomi (CA) and Cyber Kitten (England).  I'd still like to meet Kathy (Tish's mom), but I don't know if I'll ever get to Minnesota.  

Well, I think I've jibber-jabbed enough for one night.  In the next post I will show you more of Stanley Park.  It's the most wonderful, all encompassing park I've ever seen.  There's so much there and so much to do, it's also unbelievably large.  Until the next post, adieu.