June 6, 2008

Some of us started ahead with a trip to Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. Eddie and Quiding have many Filipino friends (former employee of Berghaus) who migrated from the Netherlands to Canada about 35 years ago. Their group of friends has kept in touch over the years and remained very close. Quiding, Eddie and I stayed with their long-time friend Perlie Borge-Dario and her husband Rey. Danny and his family stayed with our cousin Estelita (Ethel) Valenzuela who was also with the Berghaus group that migrated to Canada from the Netherlands.

Perlie and Rey picked us up at the airport and immediately took us to Chinatown to have lunch of delicious mami (noodle soup) and siopao (meat bun). Then they gave us a brief tour of Vancouver. We visited Stanley Park, an expansive park well-known for its artfully carved totem poles. In the evening, Jun, Danny and his family, Ethel, and her sister Annie joined us for dinner of barbecue and large Dungeness crabs at Rey’s and Perlie’s house, while reminiscing old times and catching up on more recent events in our lives. The sweet crab meat was mouth-watering. Dessert included sweet lansones, a popular Southeast Asian fruit. I was surprised that this tropical fruit which is known to ripen and spoil quickly is available fresh in Canada.

The following day, we took the ferry to British Columbia’s capital city of Victoria. The beautiful city exuded genteel ambiance with the elegant Empress Hotel, the imposing parliament building, and boulevards lined with cherry blossoms. As we walked on a dock, Kaye was thrilled to see a couple of big seals swim towards us and bob their heads above the water.

After the tour of downtown Victoria, we drove to Tessie Sharma-Isla’s and her husband Sohan’s house in Nanaimo-Victoria Island. Tessie was also with the Filipino group that migrated from the Netherlands to Canada. Tessie served us a satisfying meal of huge Alaskan king crab legs and oysters the size of a fist, giving me the impression by this time that all sea life along the western coast of Canada must be oversized.

The following day, Titus David (formerly assigned in the 60s as Commercial Analyst at the Philippine Embassy in The Hague and later in Brussels) and wife Lennie David gave us one final tour of Vancouver. We went to Queen Elizabeth Park to see its beautiful garden. It was evident as we sauntered around Queen Elizabeth Park that Vancouver has a sizable Asian population. There was a group of Chinese senior citizens at the park performing their synchronized morning calisthenics. Titus and Lennie are now Canadian citizens and reside in Vancouver.

Rey and Perlie drove Eddie, Quiding and me to Seattle where our contingent of fifteen tourists met to board the Norwegian Star for the cruise that would take us to Alaska and Canada.