So the pictures are going to be uploaded later on, probably tomorrow night, because I left my cable down in the car, but I'm currently in New Westminster, BC, back in Canada for the first time in more than two weeks, and staying with my friends Brenna and Devin. Their cats, Chaucer and Swift are in the process of trying to break into my room by pure force of meow, but it's been a great day so far, and one of the most unexpected ones, in terms of experiences.

This evening, I shot four guns a whole bunch of times. But we'll get to that in a bit.

Yesterday was a day of relaxation, the last day I was spending in the states before my brief dip back on my way to the cottage, and I did absolutely nothing of interest at all. I played computer, watched TV and a movie, went shopping, and ate a pizza for supper. There are no photos, mostly because I didn't do anything, and also because I was lazy and left my phone at the hotel. I grabbed lunch at Extreme Pita, a chain I didn't know was canadian, and watched the Denzel Washington movie "2 guns".

I am a big Denzel Washington fan, but this movie will not do great things for his career. I can imagine this movie being pitched at a greenlight meeting, and going ahead purely on the strength of concept alone, and then whoever was in charge forgot to write a good story, or beliveable action scenes. It was pretty forgettable, apart from the premise.

The one funny thing that happened to me was in the evening, when I decided to grab a pizza to eat in my hotel room. The chain I wanted to use, Dominos, didn't deliver to my hotel, so I went out to the first listing I saw on my google maps app. I arrived, got out of my car, saw the logos, and the ads proclaiming their current deal, and entered the door, to be greeted with a security guard questioning me. Apparently, I had mistakenly walked into the Dominos Pizza regional distribution centre, where no pizza is actually made. I was kindly asked to leave, at which point I visited another store to complete the purchase, but I thought it was an interesting enough story to warrant a mention.

This morning, I woke up, checked out, fairly late, actually, since I had a great sleep last night, and went to grab a coffee at Starbucks. I had a nice long conversation with Lou, in front of the starbucks, who wanted to hear all about my trip, and recommended several stops near Minneapolis, so I could grab some Wisconsin cheese curds to compare to the St. Albert curds I'm used to. I started on the I-5 North, and, despite some heavy traffic to start, I made good time, and crossed the border just before 1 PM.

Driving into Vancouver was fun, as it's a hillier city than I remember, and I nearly hit a car after cresting the rise of a hill to find him right smack dab in front of me trying to turn left. I wasn't going too fast, though, so it was fine, in the end. I stopped well in time, and the only danger was the 12 remaining bottles of water in the back seat slamming into the back of my chair.

My destination was Stanley Park, a place I've actually been, once before, with my family, in 2000. We had a perfunctory visit then, and I wanted to make the visit this time a little more prolonged. I walked along the outer edge of the park all the way around (going the wrong way, according to the signage, to my dismay) and took some great shots of the bay, of Lionsgate bridge, and of some of the flora present in the park. I tried to get a shot of one of the dragonflies that were prevalent around beaver lake, but they just didn't want to sit still for a photo.

I made my way to New Westminster, where Brenna and Devin are, and was greeted with the suggestion Devin makes to all of his guests in town, an evening at the Gun Range. I had never shot a gun before, I have certain philosophical objections towards the concept of gun ownership, but I wanted to try it out for myself, to see exactly what it felt like.

I shot four guns in total, a .22 pistol, a .22 sighted rifle, a 9mm P99 and a shotgun loaded with birdshot. The .22 was not what I expected. Both the pistol and gun felt very light, like toys, and had almost no kick to them whatsoever. It didn't feel like I was shooting a gun, it felt like I was playing a game. The rifle was pretty cool nonetheless, since it had a laser sight and a scope, which made for some very accurate shooting. The 9mm P99, however, was a different story. It had an immense kick for a handgun (I'm told that it's by no means the strongest, I'm just talking about in my personal experience) and was more difficult to aim properly than I had first thought. The shotgun was unique, we had a different firing stance, and I was told not to aim for the head, to aim for the body instead. The kick on this shotgun was deceptively powerful, in that I didn't really feel it while shooting, but my right shoulder felt a little battered after 15 rounds. They were all completely unique experiences, and I'm very glad we went. That being said, I left in complete confidence that I had no desire to ever own a gun. I may, however, come back and shoot one another time.

We ended the evening eating Pad Moon and Pad Thai with fried rice, and watching Top Gear. All in all, a very full day for what was initially intended to be a travel day. Tomorrow I hit Vancouver and tourist it up.

Cheers!