Guten Morgen! *ahem* Good Morning. Breakfast at the Bavarian Lodge was not quite the German feast that GBRT had been expecting. Indeed, it was about as American as could be: Starbucks coffee, Fruit Loops (avoided), waffles, etc. Nonetheless, the team made the most of it. There may be no such thing as a free lunch but there certainly is such a thing as a free breakfast. Graham Nelson proposed a round of ‘kleiner-golf’, before leaving Leavenworth. However, due to lack of interest, the game was, sadly, cancelled. Sorry, Graham.
Having loaded their trusty wagons, the team set off on the first leg of the journey back to Vancouver. Crossing the Cascade Mountains in the opposite direction was accompanied by low cloud and rain, which made admiring the scenery almost impossible. Those not driving chose either to catch up on much-needed sleep or to feel smug that they were not one of the rain-soaked cyclists, whom we saw fighting their way uphill.
The team made good time to their destination, the Boeing Factory at Mukilteo, north of Seattle. The Captain, having forged ahead, had already collected tickets and, much like during a school trip, these were handed out to the team upon arrival. Fortunately though, the team were not expected to hold hands or walk around the factory in a crocodile.
As photography was not permitted on the tour of the Boeing Factory (one assumes in case of industrial espionage), the diarist will also be careful about the level of detail he provides concerning the tour…Suffice to say, the Boeing factory is incredibly large. In there, an incredibly large number of employees work round the clock to assemble an incredibly large number of individual components into incredibly large aircraft, taking an incredibly small amount of time to do so. These planes are then sold for incredibly large amounts of money to an incredibly large number of buyers around the world. Lamentably, upon hearing the price tag of even the smallest of Boeing’s fleet, the diarist realised that his dream of commissioning a GBRT aircraft simply wasn’t going to happen. Souvenirs purchased, the team piled back into vehicles and made a break for the border.
Mixed fortunes in the Seattle rush-hour traffic meant that some members of GBRT arrived at the Canadian border a smidgeon earlier than their teammates. However, once reunited, the transition back into Canada was mercifully smooth. From the border, the team’s final destination, the Best Western Plus Chateau Granville in Vancouver, was only an hour away. Arriving at the hotel, it was evident that we would be based in a rather colourful area of the city. Cultural experiences proffered themselves from our very doorstep, with the ‘specialist’ store across the road offering (the diarist assumes theatrical) shows for as little as 25 cents. With unloading next on the agenda, however, this was no time to catch a performance.
The diarist is not currently and, indeed, has never been, a hotel designer. In spite of this, he feels qualified enough to comment that, in a building with fourteen floors, two lifts are not enough. The process of ferrying bags, guns and people to their rooms required a prolonged operation of ‘lift monopolisation’. Here, confused tourists, hoping to return to their rooms, would be greeted by a lift, which was impossibly full of members of GBRT and their kit. Apologetic smiles would be exchanged, the doors would close, and the lift would continue upwards. Eventually, however, all equipment was deployed safely and the team convened in the hotel restaurant for dinner and to discuss options for what to do in Vancouver. Some members of the team intended to visit Vancouver Island, whilst others planned to explore the city’s plethora of museums and parks.
Lollipop awards (Day 12):
Good – the Captain, for organising the trip to the Boeing factory and collecting the tickets.
Bad – the diarist and a fellow member of the team, for conducting an unofficial, text-based team debrief, during the main team debrief.