Day 5: Back to the US

We got up sort of early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and packed up. Today was return to the US day.

First we took a cab to the airport. The cabbie was a very meticulous (he kept cleaning the car while he was driving) and careful driver. What a nice change from the first cab driver! I could actually let go of the door handle and look at the interesting mix of houses and businesses on Granville Ave.

The cabby took us right to Avis where I picked up our car. First I got an Eclipse which looked cool and seemed fine until we sat in it. The seats are very low. I turned it in for a Sonata which is very dull but runs okay.

We headed south for the border. We had been warned that there would be a long wait to cross but when we got within a couple km of the border we saw an elctronic sign that said there was no wait. Yay!

Soon we came to a line of cars doing the stop-and-go thing toward the border. We couldn't see the actual border station but I thought we were close since the sign said there was no wait. As we came around each turn I expected to see a smiling US custom officers waiting to check us through . Well we crawled along for at least thirty minutes before we actually saw the booth with the customs guy.

FYI, here's the questions that he asked while he scanned our passports:

Where are you from (in the US)?
Why were you in Canada?
What are your bringing into the US that you bought in Canada? (I said "nothing")
Nothing?

BTW, the Peace Arch on the Canadian side of the border is really an unimpressive large wooden gate. It sits on the grass in a little park on the Canadian side of the border. Maybe people used to walk through it and it had some use.

We drove for eight hours all together, only stopping to get coffee and then Mountain Dew (regular flavor). That got us to McMinnvile, OR about 7:30 p.m. McMinnville is the center of the Oregon vineyard country and the plan was to get there earlier than that so I could visit a vineyard before dinner.

After we checked into the hotel we had a good dinner at one of the bistros on the main street. I had a nice glass of local wine but I've already forgotten the name of the vineyard.

Besides being a center of Oregon winemarking, McMinnville is the birthplace of Beverly Cleary, on of the best childrens' book writers ever. I have to admit I've only read a few of the Romona books (I think my daughter had read them all) but I think that she really captured how kids feel. Read one.

After dinner we took a walk down Third Street, the main street in town, which ends at the city park. The public library is on one side of the park entrance and the public pool is on the other side. Beyond the buildings was a two level park with a nice playground and some very big old trees on the top level and picnic grounds on the lower level.

We explored the library a bit. There is a small building which was the original Carnegie library built in 1912 and a newer building attached to it by some walkways. The first floor of the new building is a very comfy children's library. The teen area is upstairs along with the usual fiction/nonfiction. There is the usual assortment of Beverly Cleary books on the shelves but not more than the usual assortment. I wonder if they remember her as a local since she mainly grew up in nearby Portland.

Sally had to prep for her conference so we headed back to the hotel. I'm planning for my excursion tomorrow.