The Front Row with MARK NELKE August 29, 2010

If you spend some time in Vancouver, then close your eyes, you might think you're in Seattle - with the waterfront, the big downtown buildings, B.C.'s version of the space needle (not shooting as high up as in Seattle, but still a nice view of the area).

And, unlike Seattle, you can navigate Vancouver without having to jump on that pinball highway known as I-5, where you close your eyes as you merge, then gun it and pray.

Another thing - there's no reason for people in Vancouver to be out of shape. At Stanley Park, a national park likely bigger than some towns in Idaho, a walking path and bike path circle the park, with gorgeous views of the water.

Same with downtown. Walking and bike paths run along False Creek there, and you could spend hours trying to hoof it all the way around. There are two paths, right next to each other - one for walkers and runners, one for those on bikes, rollerblades, skateboards, anything on wheels.

And both paths in both places seemed to be quite busy. It looked like they added the "wheels" path next to the existing path, so it must have been a treat for walkers, runners, cyclists, rollerbladers, dogs, etc., to navigate the same path back in the day.

Wiener dogs, of course, have the right of way on either path.

WE MISSED by a week watching the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League - they were in Saskatchewan that week - but we did see B.C. Place, the domed home of the Lions, as well as for the opening and closing ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in February.

While we were there, a large crane sat in the middle of the stadium, as they had taken the original roof off the Place, and were preparing to build a retractable roof for the domed stadium, to open again in 2011. In the meantime, the Lions are playing home games this season in an outdoor stadium for the first time in 28 years.

Traffic is a little bit of a crapshoot up there. Apparently they have something against left-turn lanes. On a typical three-lane road, in the left lane you have to be ready to brake in a hurry behind turning traffic; in the next lane you could wind up stuck behind a bus; and the far right lane is used as a parking lane during certain hours of the day.

Other odd things, like reversible traffic lanes, blinking (instead of solid) green lights, and Old Dutch potato chips, also made Vancouver stand out. General Motors Place, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks and, for about an hour and a half, the Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA, is right across the street from B.C. Place. Downtown along the water is an exhibition hall called Canada Place.

HAVING BEEN denied my CFL sports fix, we were successful in trying to take in a minor league baseball game. In a neighborhood setting we found Nat Bailey Stadium, home of the Vancouver Canadians, who like the Spokane Indians a member of the Northwest League.

We stopped by at noon on a Thursday afternoon to buy our tickets, trying to beat the rush to the ticket window that night before the game. But we noticed they were already parking cars at the ballpark. Why were people showing up seven hours early? There can't be that much tailgating before a short-season Single-A baseball game.

Doh! The game was starting in an hour.

OK, fine. Change of plans. The park is cozy, seating about 5,000, so all seats are good seats. The grandstand is covered for the most part, keeping the afternoon sun off us most of the game.

It was your typical minor league game with typical promotions, the most notable being some plastic clacking thing with a handle that was given out to youngsters. It looked like three pieces of plastic fingers that, when you shook it, the fingers whacked together into a sort of clacking racket.

Having missed out on a vuvuzela from the World Cup, I wanted one of those clackers, for no other reason than to put next to my cowbell and my claxon at home.

But, rather than try to muscle one away from an 8-year-old boy, we backtracked into the stadium to see if anyone had left theirs behind.

No dice, other than one we found that had been busted into three pieces. We decided it wasn't worth the risk of trying to smuggle a broken clacker across the border.

(Having now been to four of the eight stadiums in the Northwest League, here are my not-so-scientific rankings:

1, Avista Stadium, Spokane. A Triple-A quality stadium (on the field and in the stands) for a Single-A team.

2, Volcanoes Stadium, Keizer, Ore. Constructing the bleachers obviously kept the local aluminum factories in business, but other than that, a nice place to watch a game - even when the truckers lean on their horns as they speed by on nearby I-5.

2 (tie), Nat Bailey Stadium, Vancouver. See above. They sure seem to play a lot of day games up there. And while you could bake in some ballparks if they played in the afternoon, the roof at the Nat protects you and makes for an enjoyable afternoon.

4, Memorial Stadium, Boise. A nice park as well, but a notch below the ones in Keizer and Vancouver. A notch or two above a good high school park. Last time I was there, the parking lot wasn't even paved.)

HAVING ALREADY traveled on most highways large and small in Washington, we (OK, I) decided to take the British Columbia route for as long as we could on the way home before dropping back down into Idaho.

It turned out to be one of those "seemed like it was a good idea at the time" things.

Don't get me wrong, southern B.C. is scenic. The highway is just not straight. If we weren't winding around mountains, we were ascending them, then descending them. Thank goodness B.C. had the foresight to put in lots of passing lanes.

What looked like a trip of probably 300 miles as the crow flies took more like 500 miles of driving to get there. At an average speed of 40 mph, it seemed.

By dinner time, just outside Trail, B.C., with the sun setting and not knowing how long this roller coaster ride was going to continue, we said enough of that noble idea and dropped down just south of Salmo, crossing into Washington at Nelway. That road turned out to be no straightaway either, but at least we were safely across the border, and back in America.

"Which route did you take home from Vancouver?" asked the nice lady at the border checkpoint.

"We decided to take the scenic route across B.C.," we said.

"That's funny," she said. "Most people from Canada drop down into Washington as soon as they can, and drive across that state."

Now, I know why.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.