Five Reasons, St. Louis Is Different Than Penticton

I have to be honest, St. Louis, Missouri was not a place that was on our radar to travel to. Other than being the locale for the musical "Meet Me In St. Louis", home to the  St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Blues, we knew very little about the place.  It took a promise made over a year ago that we would visit if she ever came to North America, to get us to travel there.  Doctor J left Harbin last November to take up residence in the "Show Me" state for one year and thus the journey became a reality. 

Before we start the journey, I thought that it would be a good idea to give you a glimpse of what to expect if you decide to visit St. Louis. You can relax. In the four days we were there, no one asked us to show them anything!


DIFFERENCE 1

St. Louis has the MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI, the largest river system in North America. Penticton has the Okanagan River Channel, the straightest river in Canada. The Mississippi is over 4,070 km long (2,530 miles for you Americans), touching 31 states. I wouldn't consider tubing down the Mississippi but wouldn't hesitate tubing down the Okanagan River.  ^[

DIFFERNCE 2

St. Louis has Busch Stadium, home to the World Champions (Which world I am not sure) St. Louis Cardinals. On October 28th, 2011, just under 48,000 Missourians watched the Cardinals win the World Series. Penticton has Rotary Stadium, home to the ????  On October 28,2011, there was no one at Rotary Stadium. This Busch Stadium is actually the third Busch Stadium. It is also home to $8.50 bottles of  Budweiser and Bud Lite. Ouch! Sadly, no beer is available at Rotary Stadium unless you sneak it in.


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DIFFERENCE 3

The Mississippi River is also well known for the riverboats that plied it's waters, hauling people and cargo from the Gulf of Mexico to Ohio. St. Louis still has two simulated paddle wheelers, the MV Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher providing cruises up and down the Mississippi. Penticton has one simulated paddle wheeler and one real paddle wheeler but sadly only one is still cruising. 





















DIFFERENCE 4

For the past 11 years, for 6 weeks each year, Forest Park in St. Louis hosts a Festival of Shakespeare. Every year, for one weekend, Gyro Park in Penticton hosts a Festival of Elvis. This year, the Festival of Shakespeare presented Othello and get this, it was free.  Usually, when I hear "It's free", my expectations are not too high but this production blew us away. A first class presentation suitable for any stage in the world. Thank yah, thank yah verah much!
















DIFFERENCE 5

St. Louis has the ARCH,  at 630 ft., the tallest man-made monument in America. At 55 ft. high and 310 ft. wide, Penticton has it's monumental signage on Munson Mountain, bigger than the Hollywood sign. The ARCH was  built as a monument to the Westward expansion of the United States. You can ride to the top for a great view of St. Louis, if you dare. It looks like it could fall over in a strong wind but has withstood tornadoes since 1965.

1/2 an Ironman = 1/2 the Ouchies NOT!

A Short Stroll From Our House To China

A recent trip to Toronto required an overnight stay in the Centre of the Canadian Universe. Looking for a place to stay on line, I came across a good deal for a hotel located in the centre of Toronto's China Town. The next morning with some time on my hands, I spent some time on my feet, roaming around China Town. It got me thinking of all the China Towns that we have explored in cities around the work that we have visited. San Fransico, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Paris, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Penticton.

Yes, Penticton. Perhaps not as big or elaborate as some but still a gathering place for Chinese immigrants to hang out and make a living. It did not really reach town status so was given the name Shanghai Alley (above).  At it's peak, it was home to 60 Chinese immigrants. There were laundries, rooming houses restaurants as well as other services including gambling, opium and the consumption of rice wine. By 1960, Shanghai Alley disappeared and was replaced by the ever popular parking lot. The mural that can be seen below was created to mark the location of Penticton's China Town. 

The Chinese began arriving in the Okanagan around the latter part of the 19th century. The construction of Canadian Pacific's transcontinental railway (1880)  saw  mass immigration with an estimated 11,000 immigrants arriving to work on the railway. Chinese immigration to Canada continues today with China continually at the top. Breakdowns by country are not provided by Immigration Canada but it is estimated that over 60,000 Chinese came to Canada in 2010. 

Perhaps there is hope for a resurging China Town in Penticton. 

Blogging Status in Jeapordy

FRAUD UNCOVERED ONCE AGAIN?

As part of our ongoing campaign to maintain the honesty and integrity of blogspot.com, we have  implemented a system of monitoring our bloggers for honesty and integrity. We are especially vigilant with bloggers who have had their honesty and integrity previously called into question. Once again we must question brettandnonie's blogging for honesty and integrity.

A close review of their posted pictures has revealed some anomalies that once again requires us here at blogspot.com to make you, the reader, aware.  The pictures on the left are claimed by brettandnonie to have been taken while they were purportedly traveling in China while those on the right have been prepared by blogspot.com. Our in-depth research and close examination of their pictures has led us to believe that they were taken a little closer to home.  Our research found that Canada is home to many "Chinatowns", some very close to brettandnonie's current location. We ask you the readers to examine the pictures closely, review our findings and make your own decision as to the veracity of the pictures.

The Truth About Grandparents

Just returned from a trip to Central Canada and a visit with the grandchildren. Started this blog while enjoying the comfort of Via Rail and sipping a inexpensive glass of red wine. Be aware, my inhibitions had been lowered.

All right, lets get it our there, the unvarnished truth about being a grandparent. Be aware that all grandparents are fibbers. Not liars, that is too harsh a word to describe what grandparents do. Fibbers evokes a kinder gentler portrayal of our deceit when discussing grandchildren with others.



When faced with the obligatory pictures of other grandparents, our vocabulary is suddenly filled with adjectives like beautiful or the 100's of other synonyms. (cute, delightful,  pretty, gorgeous, adorable, handsome, angelic, lovely, etc., etc.)  Antonyms fade to the furthest reaches or our brain never to reach our lips. As grandparents, we believe that unattractive grandchildren do not exist, some are just cuter then others, specifically when they are yours. When shown pictures, we not only see the grandchildren but we also see the faces of grandma and grandpa, beaming with pride at what they have had half a hand in creating. Some would suggest that it is the same look as displayed by new parents but I would say  that those looks are more ones of astonishment mixed with pride and joy over what they have created but at the same time, eliciting similar descriptive commentary used for grandchildren. See adjectives above. Sadly for grandparents, astonishment has long been beaten out of us.



Grandparents are genetically disposed to fibbing and are mandated too believe their grandchildren are the bestest, with all other grandchildren ranked accordingly. As well, we are convinced that they have inherited only our best genes, splicing out all the others. A grandchild's flaws are quickly overlooked or blamed on outside influences  such as their parents. As Gore Vidal said, "Never have children, only grandchildren." 











I have attached the necessary pictures to meet the requirements of the Grandparent Handbook, Section 5, Article 3.8.

Visas:Don't Leave Home Without Them

QUESTION: Are visas an efficient way to control people accessing your country or just a cash grab?







A visa is an official document, usually stamped or glued inside your passport, giving permission from  authorities to enter their country.  A fee may be charged for issuing a visa; these are often also reciprocal, so if country A charges country B's citizens for a visa, country B will often also charge the same amount for country A's visitors. Quite often, the fee will be reciprocal as well, country A charges $50 then country B will charge $50. Canada requires entry visas from 168 countries with 53 countries having visa exemptions

 A quick review of both lists indicate the following. If Canada does not require a visa from a certain country then that country does not require any paperwork for a Canadian traveling into that country. If Canada requires a visa for a country then that county requires either a visa prior to entering the country with the resulting costs or they require a reciprocity fee that is payable in cash, credit card, or by traveller’s cheque prior to clearing immigration at the airport.


Additional review of the Canadian lists clearly show our bias for European, British and Commonwealth countries for visa free entry to Canada. But to be fair the list also includes a number of Asian and African countries. The USA only lists 36 countries that do not require a visa with only six countries not found on or attached to the European continent. Looking at countries  whom seem reliant on tourism,  we mostly find that visas or reciprocity fees can be purchased or paid for upon arrival to the country, no trips to an embassy required.  

Based on the above, I would put forward the answer that visas are both a cash grab and a method of control. As well, I would like to add reciprocity as another reason. Do unto others as they do unto you. Our experiences with the staff who man these stations and collect your money has for the most part, never been a positive experience. Perhaps they attend the same schools as the customs officials.

As we stood in the line at the embassy waiting to hand over cash for a visa to a country who shall remain nameless (wink, wink, nudge, nudge),  I asked myself this question, "Who wouldn't want a Canadian tourist visiting their country and why are they making it so difficult ?"  Alas, the question went unanswered. Probably better that way. I suspect the difficulty is reciprocal. 

Borderless World??

We went for a quick post New Years trip down to the US of A.  This required a trip to the bank to retrieve our passports. Since the events of 9/11 Canadians have to produce a passport for entry into the States. Prior to that all you needed was smile :), be reasonably sober and able to produce a valid photo ID.  I once used my Block Buster video card to slip down to Bellingham, Washington for a beer.  With our dog eared passports in hand, we sat in the US line waiting to talk a customs officer. Bored,  I got to thinking about all the factors we face to cross a border into another country.

We have crossed a lot of borders in the last ten years and faced dozens of surly customs officers. Except for one or two exceptions, surly customs officers have been the most consistent factor we have found when crossing borders. There must be a school somewhere that specializes in giving customs officials those sneering looks of suspicion and unspoken accusations of smuggling. 





Surly (adverb), Surliness (noun): irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner
Sullen (adjective): gloomily or resentfully silent, repressed
Churlish ( adjective): marked by a lack of civility or graciousness

I think you get the idea. The prize for surliest is awarded to? Ah, too many to fairly award it. Although the borders where custom officials carried big, scary looking  rifles, dramatically enhanced our experience and perhaps coloured our perceptions of the levels of surliness we were subjected to.

Another factor faced is the valuable time spent to cross borders. Anywhere from under a minute to 10 hours. The clear winner for the most time spent crossing a border was from Mongolia to Russia. To be fair, the train we were traveling on,  required a complete wheel replacement due to the different track gauge size between the two countries.  While this was going on, we were left to wander around a quaint little Russian town, that doubled as a giant souvenir shop. The winner for the least stressful crossing was from Estonia to Sweden. We arrived on ferry from Tallinn to Stockholm. Disembarking from the ferry, we had passports at the ready. We quickly found ourselves outside on the dock, not seeing a soul who looked like a customs officer. We kind of freaked a little, thinking that we had somehow bypassed some form of control point and that we were illegal immigrants on Swedish soil. Not to worry, but we did have to deal with surly taxi driver that took us to our hotel. But that's another story and fodder for another blog.

There was a brief thought back in the late sixties, when peace and love was rampant, that in the future borders would become non-existent. Sadly, we are no closer today to a borderless world and the chance of that happening in the future is about as doubtful as finding a friendly, smiling border official at any border crossing. But, lets for a moment imagine a world without borders, what would we do with all those border officials?  Armed taxi drivers perhaps.


 Visas, a legitimate way to monitor people entering your county or a cash grab. Stay tuned.