23 JUN 98

Hello from the cheap Internet place in Vancouver. I am waiting for the rain to stop.

After my last update, I went to the bar at noon and watched Brazil beat Morocco in the World Cup of Soccer.

The next day we drove up the Icefields Parkway and looked at some not so blue lakes and played on a glacier. I brought the garbage bags this time so we could slide down the toe of the glacier. I was racing Takuya down the snow and I was winning, but he his so competitive that he had to get up and run down. Naturally, when he got to the bottom he could not stop and tripped and fell onto the rocks. He cut his hands a little bit and announced that he had won.

Takuya, a passenger from Japan has been a lot of fun this trip. He told us he is the greatest chess player and early in the game he said "Come on Baby" to me. He speaks very little english, but we have been having a lot of fun together.

In Jasper it was raining, so nobody wanted to hike. I knew how boring Jasper was, so I gave them the morning free to shop and then took them for a walk in the drizzle up a canyon in the afternoon. Then we played in the pool and I worked on my one and a half flip. The lifeguard said my flips looked pretty good.

The next day we drove and looked at some waterfalls and then had a really nice night with no rain. The following morning we left for our overnight canoe trip. We had perfect weather and even did a small hike up to a viewpoint. I spent the afternoon floating in a canoe and reading a book. It was very relaxing. That night, since my van was across the lake, I slept outside again.

The next morning we canoed out of there and drove up to a campground that was very secluded. We had to drive three miles up a mountain on a dirt road to get there. We were the only ones around and it was very nice.

Yesterday, we went rafting on the Thompson river with a guy named Herbie. He has been taking Trek groups on his motorized raft for 17 years and gave us a good ride.

Today we are hanging out in Vancouver. I helped Takuya buy his train and bus tickets, so he took me out for Sushi to say thanks. I have learned a bunch of new Japanese words this trip, thanks to him.

I bought a few new CD's today, so I am going to go listen to them now. Bye.