Vancouver - 1987

 The first trip I ever made was when I was four years old and my older sister Cristie was living in Vancouver. 

Cristie, Me and my younger sister Niela

I have snippets of memories from the whole experience but I remember that my parents had to lie about my age and say I was five so that I would be able to fly by myself and not have an adult guardian present, which is completely normal and totally not how you end up on a true crime podcast. 

I did get to have my very own flight attendant friend for the whole hour long flight. I have vivid memories of getting to have a Del Monte fruit cup, something we never had at home, and finding the sad grapes within possibly the worst thing that ever happened to me. I think they tried to placate me with a pair of wings from the cockpit, which I promptly lost.

Fuck these grapes so much. The cherries too actually. 

I remember that Cristie's apartment had those fabric covered plastic vertical blinds and that it rained a lot so we needed to go buy me some rubber boots. I remember on our adventures, Cristie showing me barnacles growing on a wooden pole in the water, like below a wooden wharf or something? I remember her manicured nails touching one of the barnacles and thinking it looked like an alien. 

I seem to remember there being a slightly older blonde boy named Matthew(?) that came with us with potentially his parent. I'm sure I've been reminded of his connection to my sister over the years but it completely escapes me now. 

I remember going to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) and doing arts and crafts. Later, after reviewing the pictures in my teens I realized that the crafts we were making were at a place called the "Imagination Market" and that it was most definitely a segment on a show that I watched from like age 5 to 8 called Take Part with Lois and Herb Walker. 

We maybe made hats? 

Canadian children everywhere are having a complete nostalgia moment thinking about this, I'm sure. Or they are if they primarily watched the wholesome early content on YTV and CBC - remember Camp Cariboo? Or Under the Umbrella Tree? Putnam's Prairie Emporium? 

I have vivid memories of going to Playland at the PNE - I have a few pictures of me on some rides, but one I don't have pictures of is the big swings that fling you around like a carousel. I remember the centre of the carousel was gilded and magical, like a rococo unit ready to take you flying. 

At the time, I think coming to Vancouver was the most exiting thing that had ever happened to me. I mean, Rossland was a 7 hour drive from Vancouver so we never really went there. We more often went to Spokane Washington, only 2 hours away, if we needed to go to a bigger centre for something. 

All this to say, Vancouver always felt like a far off destination, even though it's the big city in BC. And I think my wonderment of travelling was sparked early days by this adventure when I was four.