7/22  I depart Smith Rock in the morning and drive north to Vancouver.  Pass Mt. Hood, where at least 50% of the tourists have dogs.  I take this as a positive sign.  Another lug bolt breaks, this time on the left rear wheel.  By driving slowly and keeping the remaining bolts tight, I am able to continue to Joanna and Carl's house in Vancouver.

7/23  Hang out with Joanna, Carl, and Jasper.  We buy food, eat food, and go for a short hike.  I ignore my broken car.

7/24  No more ignoring the car.  Since I have time and Carl's tools, my plan is to fix the car myself.  I remove the wheel to verify the problem and then order the parts I need.  We play cards in the evening after Jasper goes to sleep.  I lose.

7/25  Jasper's nanny has a broken ankle.  Joanna trusts me to babysit until the backup nanny arrives.  I do my best, and Jasper still has all his major appendages at the end of my shift.  He even has a fun time playing with me.

I head out to get the parts for my car.  End up having to go to two places because the first shop ordered some of the wrong parts.  Also buy some tools that I expect to need.  Back at Joanna's house, begin the repair.  One bolt I need to remove is rusted in place.  They really salt the roads in Ithaca and it shows on the car.  I use a breaker bar -- a long, rigid wrench used when the force would damage a normal socket wrench.  The breaker bar snaps in half.  Sigh.

We play cards in the evening after Jasper goes to sleep.  I lose.

7/26  Feeling guilty that I broke Carl's breaker bar, I buy a new one.  Following Joanna's rules, the new breaker bar is much better than the old one. P.S. I still have those blue candles, and Josh still likes that pot.  With a burst of inspiration (or perhaps insanity), I rig my dragonfly stove to the hub so that the flame heats the stuck nut.  After burning through a bottle of white gas, I try the new breaker bar.  Nothing.  Sigh.

Bridgette, Jenn and David stop by on their way to Squamish.  They are a few hours later than expected because they got turned back at the border.  David got in, but Bridgette and Jen were denied.  How lame is that?  They had to go back to the US, find an ATM, and get proof that they had money in the bank and could afford to be in Canada.  The US Border Patrol guard laughed when he heard they were kicked out of Canada.  Interestingly, Joanna's sister Jen was also denied entry to Canada recently.  It was because she DID have her bank statements with her.  The crack Canadian guards thought that indicated she might be planning to never leave.  My advice, when heading to Canada, it is important to both bring and not bring your bank statements.

That is five house guests with Mike upstairs, me downstairs, and three climbers on the back deck.  Joanna is thrilled.  And Carl tolerates it admirably.

7/27  Defeated, I take my car to a local shop to have the lug bolt replaced.  They spray the stuck bolt with lubricant and put an impact wrench on it.  Nothing.  So the mechanic gets the BIG impact wrench.  That does it.  The bolt is off.  The rest of the repair goes relatively smoothly.  The parking brake has be partially disassembled and the ABS sensor is somewhat in the way.  But the bolt is replaced and the Subaru returns to fully operational status.

Bridgette, Jenn, David and I have lunch in downtown Vancouver.  Then we go shopping in the MEC district.  This was more fun for me when I did it five years ago and the exchange rate was like $20 Canadian for a pocketful of US change.  Now the exchange rate is nearly even.

The climbers depart for Squamish where I will meet them in a few days.  Joanna, Carl, Jasper and I go down to the beach to play and watch the sun set.

We play cards in the evening after Jasper goes to sleep.  I lose.

7/28  I make some cookies that we need to give the neighbors (after eating plenty ourselves).  Then spend the day preparing a slide show of my trip to this point.  The show is a big hit.  At least that's my perception :-)

7/29  Rebecca and her friend Eric stop by to return Carl's pressure washer.  Rebecca is going climbing for the second time in her life.  To Squamish.  And she didn't even know I was going to be in town.  Unfortunately, she is just going for the day, so we won't overlap at all.  Joanna tells me that Rebecca had a great time climbing and may continue in the future.  Joanna and I also have a somewhat incomplete discussion of polygons -- not getting much past the three sided variety. 

After Rebecca leaves, we take Jasper to Stanley Park.  We walk around the park while he sits in the baby backpack and drops blueberries on the ground so we can find our way back to the car.  Then we go to the playground near Joanna's house.  It has some pretty good elements.  I think Jasper has fun too.

My pants have holes again.  I really want these pants to last until the end of the trip.  I cut the bottom of the legs off and use that material to make a giant patch over the entire butt.  Joanna shows me how to use her sewing machine, which is actually fun.  I stitch a giant heart over the butt patch to keep it in place.

At night, Carl and I walk a few blocks to see China's entry in the annual Vancouver fireworks competition.  It is pretty impressive.  Carl and I are both amazed by the literally thousands of people we see taking flash photographs of the fireworks.  My first thought is that these people are... confused.  But I realize they might be on to something.  Testing that theory, I take a flash photo of the sun.  It works fine, but you need a tripod to stabilize the camera for a 16 minute exposure.  I recommend f/982 at ISO 50.  Camera jokes?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Ok...  Anyhow, the sparkles in the crowd add somewhat to the ambiance.

7/30  We rejuvenate our long lost Sunday tradition of a pancake breakfast.  I try to get WICB's Best of Broadway from their webcast.  But the three hour time difference defeats me.  We even missed Breakfast With The Beatles.  Pancakes are still good, even without Broadway musicals in the background.

During Jasper's nap, Joanna and I go for a bike ride around the University area.  Then we head to Betty's house for dinner.

We play cards in the evening after Jasper goes to sleep.  I lose.

7/31  Depart Vancouver for Squamish.  I drive north along the very scenic costal road.  Reach the Squamish campground and find the site where Bridgette, Jenn and David are staying.  They are out climbing, so I hike the South Peak trail to the top of the Squamish Chief.

Camping here is $9CA/site/night.  Not a bad deal if you split the site between four or more people.  There is no potable water, which is fairly annoying.

8/1  The four of us climb at Smoke Bluffs.  Today is a trad day, no sport climbing.  We start at the Penny Lane area.  I lead the area's namesake climb, Penny Lane (5.9), and Bridgette follows.  We rappel down over Crime of the Century (5.11c) which I attempt on TR.  I get to the top, but it isn't pretty.   Next Bridgette leads Partners in Crime (5.11a) which has a flaring crack through the crux and doesn't take great gear.  Very stiff lead.  I follow the route and lieback right through the short crux, which actually makes the climb significantly easier.

We munch on wild blackberries while walking to Zip (5.10a) which our guidebook calls the stoutest 10a in Squamish.  I lead the climb, and it is quite sustained, but has awesome gear the whole way.  Jenn is still new to trad climbing and certainly has an opportunity to push her limits on Zip.  David climbs laps on TR when the rest of us are done with the route.

The four of us make a nice dinner together.  Then Bridgette and I head out to a late night visit with Noah and Siemay (and their dog, Chili), friends of Bridgette who have just arrived in Squamish.  They are taking a one year road trip in the ultimate road trip vehicle -- a huge, gigantic, enormous RV.  Noah has installed a sound system and projection unit.  He has 400 DVDs and the newest XBox.  The RV park has complete wireless internet coverage.  If I lived here I would never climb.

8/2  Rest day.  After one day of climbing, I don't really need a rest, but everyone else has been climbing hard for five days.  We spend most of the day in the Squamish library.  In the afternoon, Greg arrives from Yosemite and joins our campsite.  We all spend the evening with Noah and Siemay in their RV.

8/3  We meet Paul and Lauren.  The seven of us head to the base of the Grand Wall for more hard trad climbing.  Greg, Bridgette and I climb the first pitch of Peasant's Route (5.10a).  Then Greg and I climb Exasperator (5.10c).  I lead the first pitch, a brilliant 5.10a finger crack.  Greg takes the second pitch which is stiff 5.10c fingers at the start and widens to a much appreciated hand crack at the top.  We have a great time on this fantastic climb.

Greg and I head off to climb Arrowroot (5.10b) a well protected single pitch climb.  Greg leads and I follow.  At the same time, Bridgette and Paul are having minor epic on Rutabaga (5.11a).  The climbing is very hard, and it isn't obvious that they have to reach Arrowroot to rappel.  Eventually everyone makes it to the ground safely.  We all eat dinner, then head to the party RV for evening entertainment.

8/4  David and I want to do a long, casual, multi-pitch route.  We decide to try Diedre  (6 pitches, 5.8) on the South Apron.  A soloist shows us to the base of the route.  He ends up climbing it twice while we are on it.  There are a few other parties, but we aren't slowed much.  The climbing is very easy.  It is extremely soft for 5.8.  David isn't ready to lead trad yet, so I get to lead every pitch.  Fine with me.  Fun climb, nice views.

Everyone else is taking a rest day, so David and I head to town to find them.  On the way we see the world champion chair carving competition.  Yee Ha!  There is a lumberjack festival in Squamish.  We only catch the chair carving contest, but I'm sure the log rolling contest and suspender wearing contest were pretty exciting too.  David and I find everyone in the park across from the library.  It is a nice day to hang out and stretch.  I do my pilates which had been regular exercise for me for several months before the trip.  Haven't done any all summer, so it feels good to exercise my core.  As the sun starts to set, I say goodbye to everyone and drive back to Vancouver.

8/5  Joanna and I take a long walk during Jasper's nap.  We eat tons of wild blackberries all along the way.  Yum!  At night we enjoy a fantastic sushi dinner with Mike.  Carl and I walk to watch the final entrant in the fireworks competition.  Mexico's presentation is spectacular.  They deservedly win the contest.  The night ends with a finale put on by all four contestants.

8/6  We go for another walk to the playground.  Three adults seems to be about the correct number to monitor Jasper's activities.  One spotting his current actions on the playground, one predicting his movements and spotting future hazards, and one taking a break.

While Jasper takes his nap, Joanna and I play cards.  I actually win a game for the first time this summer.  But it turns out the deck has an extra seven of clubs, so the game doesn't count.  We have dinner with Betty, then play another game of cards after Jasper goes to bed.  I'm back to losing again as usual.

8/7  Another trip to another playground.  Over lunch we play cards and I'm still losing.  We head to Granville Island for the afternoon.  Jasper enjoys playing in the water park.  We walk down Kits Beach to see all the beautiful people, but they are more beautiful by reputation than in person.  For dinner we prepare a huge batch of homemade pizza.  Yum!  Joanna and I do a round of pilates in the living room after Jasper goes to sleep.

My losing streak at cards became almost humorous.  I rarely lose at board games or card games.  Not trying to brag or anything, but I play a lot of cards.  So to suffer a summer long losing streak is just inconceivable.  I really was trying to win every game.  Joanna decided that it was some sort of trade for good climbing karma.  I suppose I can accept that.  But I still was really trying hard to win.

Joanna and I played a gin variant which I had never played before (which could explain the first game I lost... Joanna kept springing new rules on me as the game progressed).  It is much more fun than other variations of gin I've played.  The game is played with 2 - 4 players.  With 2 or 3 players, deal 9 cards each.  7 cards each with 4 players.  Follow typical gin rules, you must pick and discard each turn.  Pick from either the face down pile or the discard pile.  You may play three or more of a kind and straight flushes of three or more.  You may play off someone else's cards.  So if three kings are played, you may play a fourth king.  Aces are high or low, but not both (i.e. straights do not wrap).  When picking from the discard pile, you may pick any card in the pile.  However, you must take all cards in the pile newer than the one you select, and you must immediately play the selected card.  You are not otherwise required to play cards.  A hand ends when one player has played and discarded all cards (a player must discard each turn, including the final turn).  At that time points are totaled.  Aces are 15 points, 10-K are 10 points, 2-9 are 5 points.  Points played count positive, points still in the hand count negative.  Sum all points from the hand.  The game ends when one player reaches 500 points.

8/8  I depart in the morning for western British Columbia.  It is a very scenic drive.  I stop at a fruit stand along the way and get all the fresh veggies I can eat in two days for $0.40.  I finish Harry Potter V and start Harry Potter VI.  Good audio books while driving.  My paper book is currently QB VII by Leon Uris.  Also good, but not as good as his other books.  Why the heck does Uris pointlessly  kill a character on the last page of every single one of his books?  I've read four of his books and it happens every time.

8/9  Stop in Revelstoke, a tourist town on the TransCanada Highway.  They have a library where I can hang out for a while.  Continuing west, I come to Glacier National Park.  This is the Canadian Glacier NP,  not the American Glacier NP.  Confusing the matter more is the fact that Canada's Waterton NP joins America's Glacier NP to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.  But the Canadian Glacier NP is several hours north of both.  Not that you really care.  David had recommended hiking the Abbot Ridge trail in Glacier, but the rain and clouds discourage me.  I take a few pictures and drive on towards the Bugaboos.