Getting Detained In Canada With David, Theo & Ruby

Incoming "Where in the PNW (Pacific Northwest) are David, Ruby?" email showed up this morning when I woke up my computer.

Text in the email indicated this one is too easy to guess where the Tacoma Trio are. Which it clearly is, what with the Slotemaker Road sign indicating the Tacoma Trio were in the Lynden zone, a short distance from the border with Canada.

The rest of the text in the email, that accompanied four instances of photo documentation, was a chilling tale of what it is like these days at the border, a border which used to be super simple to cross, both going to Canada, and coming back to the U.S.

The email text telling the chilling tale is below the next photo.


There seem to be some details missing in this cross border detention tale. They must have somehow accidentally driven across the border. I don't quite know how one might accidentally do that. At the Lynden crossing you clearly know you are at the border, you pass through a checkpoint to enter, something you don't accidentally do.

I am thinking crossing the border has drastically changed since I last did so. Back then you did not even have to show an I.D., let alone a passport. The Canadian border guy would just ask where you're going and if you are all American citizens. Then on the return the American border guy would ask a question or two, like do you have anything to declare that you purchased.

Ok, this one is too easy. But a funny story. Went to Bellingham for a soccer game. Jake and Joe and Monique and Henry came to the game. Henry is a hoot! And Ruby’s team won 1-0, so now they need to come to all the games. After, we hit up Slotemaker road again, had a lovely lunch with Judy and the Whatcom County cousins, visited mom and dad then got ice cream cones at Edeleen. Since we were so close to the border, we drove to show the kids. But we went too far, had to enter Canada, didn’t have ID for the kids and we got detained! I had pics of their passports on my phone and that worked and they gave us paperwork to get back into the US. It was a bit of an ordeal. They even searched our car. So weird!

I am assuming Edeleens is a dairy store selling ice cream that has arrived in Lynden since I was last there, back in August of 2017.

I assume the above is a border marker at the Lynden border location. I do not recollect ever having seen this myself. 

I am assuming the above photo shows Theo, David and Ruby in the detention area, awaiting being cleared for passage back to America.

When my siblings and I were kids we were often taken to Canada by our parental units. Usually entering via the crossing at Blaine, which is the location of the iconic Peace Arch Park. When we were kids we thought it great fun to jump back and forth across the border, thinking it clever to later say we went to Canada 50 times today, or some such number.

I do not recollect ever going to Blaine's Peace Arch Park with David, Theo & Ruby's Mama Michele. Michele is the youngest of my siblings, younger than me by almost two decades...