Border Crossing
I have mentioned previously my dislike of flying. But, given our fascination with driving, if I need to go to Seattle (from Vancouver), that is not such a bad option. Distance-wise, it is not so bad, around 250 Km. If I drive at an average 70Km/H, it would take me around 3.5 hours. However, there is a factor that can skew that time: The border crossing…
I went to Seattle last Friday to meet with a friend I haven’t seen in almost a decade. She is currently living in Chicago and was planning to visit a friend of hers over here. So I seize the opportunity to finally meet her after all these years. And so I drove last Sunday.
For my driving instructions, I used Google Maps and the estimated time was between 2.5 hours and 3 hours. From Vancouver to Peach Arch border crossing took me around 30 or so minutes (it was before 8:00 a.m.). But, to cross the border… The queue was not that long and 3 gates were open (I think the Nexus gate was also open). However, it took me 30 minutes to cross the border! Of course, I was asked the “usual” set of questions and, fortunately, I had no issues. But still… 30 minutes…
Although at this point I wanted to enjoy the meeting with my friend, in the back of my head was still the fact I had to go back. And, given that it took me 30 minutes to cross to the US, how long would it take to go back to Canada?! Well, this pictures should give an idea…
See the lights in the middle left? Those were the tail lights of the cars at the gate to the Canadian side. Yup! It was a long queue, despite it was “just” 8:00 p.m. OK, probably that was a bad time, I am sure a lot of people would be going back by now. In the end, it took me around an hour to get to the gates.
Errr…. Streaks on the windshield. Ouch.
I will have to admit, despite all what it is said about the border crossing guards, they were quite pleasant. Straight questions, straight answers…
Pending, my trip Seattle!
