Andrea Hylen

Thank you to my sponsor Evolutionary Women. www.evolutionarywomen.org

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Concert # 7 –Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Hannah and I left Seattle early in the morning to drive to Everett, Washington. One of the Conscious Choices authors, Amanda Koh-Story 43, lives in the area and had arranged for a book discussion at a coffee house bookstore called The Gathering Grove. Steve is one of the owners of the bookstore.

His daughter Willow greeted me at the door with her Dad, Steve and brother, Rowan. We had a few lovely discussions about the store, the amazing people who come to the store and our connection to and love of Girl Scouts.

After two hours of great coffee and a conversation between Amanda and a woman named Nancy, I headed to the Canadian border.

Before crossing the border, we had a Burger King meal from the drive-thru, filled up the gas tank, called Verizon wireless to increase the mega, giga, something bytes on the wireless card and to check into our wireless service for making phone calls in Canada. After discovering that it will cost me 69 cents per minute I called my daughters, Mary and Liz and my sister, Joanne to let them know that I was not going to change the phone service just for a few days in Canada (at least not yet) and it would cost me 69 cents per minute for the next few days. I asked them to call if there is an emergency and I will listen to the voicemail.

All details checked off the list, we approached the border. We had our passports, including Hannah’s NEW passport! Yes! All is well. It was an easy, pleasant experience. We found out later that the Jonas Brother’s bus and equipment had a nine hour search and wait at the border. The concert started an hour and a half late due to the delay.

When we arrived in Vancouver, I felt wide-eyed, curious, and open to the adventure. It had been years since I had been in Canada. Immediately, I could feel differences in Canadian money and the exchange rate, food-what is potine?, clothing styles and yet, there were obvious similarities, too.

I saw a group of girls gathering with their friends to catch a glimpse of the Jonas Brothers. I saw fathers walking with their daughters and carrying posters that said, I love Nick! Or Joe or Kevin. There were girls with matching T-shirts and hats and other clothing. Intermittent screaming happened with the mention of the Jonas Brothers. And cars at red lights leaned out the window to ask why the crowd was gathering. When I responded with, “The Jonas Brothers are in town,” an instant smile and a nod of knowing who they are and why we would be gathering showed up on each face in the car.

I stood in a line with a mother, Leah, and her daughter, Isabel, age 6. With the delay of the concert, we spent almost two hours in line waiting to get into the concert. Isabel entertained us with her excitement about life. Leah and I compared notes on parenting and life. We found similarities between the places we live and our life philosophies. I enjoy these moments are the concerts.

The concert was one of the best I have ever seen. It was like every band, the Honor Society, Jordin Sparks, the Wonder Girls and the Jonas Brothers, was determined to give their best to make up for the delay in the concert.

The teens were close to being out of control the entire concert. The security guards were guiding girls back to their seats and away from the catwalk in almost every song. I say these next words with total respect and understanding and love for the teenagers. At times the girls were like a dog in heat and they just kept losing their minds!!! When one of the Jonas Brothers would come to our side of the stage, they would run in a massive group to the edge of the catwalk for a picture or a wave or…the ultimate…a touch of the hand. I even saw mothers doing this!!
Two tween-girls were sitting next to me. They had never been to a concert before and the impression from watching the Jonas 3-D movie was that they would be allowed to run to the catwalk and touch the boys and maybe even jump on stage with them. I encouraged them to enjoy the music and sing and dance and have a good time.

And as always, it was a great time!