Entering Canada

With three good days in Seattle, it’s time to continue north to Canada. There’s always a bit of anticipation in crossing the Canadian border, despite the fact that it’s been a regular part of my life for the last few years. This approach is my first time crossing the land border to see my partner. To date, I’ve always flown.

One of the significant challenges in air travel is that there’s always a hard date. The plane takes off at a specific date and time, and that firm deadline has always had subtle and no so subtle influence over my time in Canada. I didn’t have a deadline to leave this time and wanted to use my time north of the border more flexibly. I would depart Canada when I was ready rather than whichever flight I would be on. That shift allowed us both to be more flexible with time. I enjoyed the fact that the time element was off the table. Sure, I was going back to the United States at some point, but that date was set in stone before the trip even began.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States participate in cross-border “Trusted Traveler Programs,” which make travel between the three countries and select international destinations significantly easier. Canada’s program is called Nexus and includes Global Entry and TSA Pre (plus, it’s cheaper than American programs). When crossing the land border, I had to waive my Nexus card, answer if I had any items to declare, and they waived me into Canada.

One of the things we were most excited in seeing was the new Rivian outpost. Unlike the Bay Area, Rivian is still very new here. Rivian just opened a service center and a Rivian Spaces where customers can see the pickup truck and SUV in person rather than a fully online experience. It was fantastic to see the Rivian Spaces in downtown. San Francisco is one of the last places for Spaces to open, likely due to the truck’s popularity in Northern California.

We met several employees who opened the new showroom, and they were all curious about the experience of traveling from the San Francisco Bay Area to Vancouver. I was happy to report it all worked like clockwork. The truck had no issues, and the charging worked exactly as expected. Since I ordered my vehicle online, it was also lovely to see all the different accessories, like tires, roof racks, and bicycle racks, all in various configurations in one place throughout the showroom. It’s going to be a big value add when the San Francisco and Groveland Spaces come to Northern California.

I had to laugh; one of the truck’s features is to record any movement when the truck is parked. One of the employees walking by quickly took a snapshot of my truck. He was checking the truck out, LOL. Yellow is one of those colors that doesn’t necessarily look great on the tile, but when you see it in person, wow, it is truly fantastic.