Adventures, Mexican Sun, Pina Coladas and a new addition

So we just got back yesterday morning after driving from Vancouver straight through. Man are we EVER beat. We spent the better part of Wednesday driving from Everett to Vancouver, around Van City then back home…but more on our way back later! MUCH later.

My last post I wrote about us just about getting ready to leave. Officially we took off down the highway at 5:40pm September 2. We had coffee’s, two iPod’s full of music and we were ready to go. We drove through the night, stopping once north of Cache Creek for a 2-hour snooze. We finally made it to Vancouver at 10:30a September 3.

For the Friday and Saturday, we hung out with My boyfriend’s sister, Erin. She took the Friday off to hang with us. We did some catching up, had dinner, went to IKEA and bought picture frames and went and saw Deadliest Catch Live at the Red Robinson Show Theatre in Coquitlam. We bought tickets for this last month and we were lucky enough to have this synch up perfectly. It was a great way to kick off what was sure to already be an amazing vacation. Our idea was to go to the show then head to the airport to catch our early 6am flight. Since it’s an international flight (direct to Los Angeles) we were advised to be at the airport, checked in 3 hours before. We figured since we were leaving Erin our car, instead of making her drive us to YVR at 3am, we’d just head to the airport after our show wrapped up. We got there at 11:30pm….and so began the waiting 😦

By the way…the international departures terminal SUCKS after 11pm. It’s not very busy and nothing was open!

Finally, we were boarding our 737 at 6:00am. I had fallen asleep quite a few times while waiting to board. My boyfriend somehow managed to find things around the empty airport to keep him occupied while I slept. We were both so excited to be getting on the plane. Our flight to Los Angeles would land in 3 hours!

My boyfriend slept through about half of the flight to LA. From the air I could see Crater Lake, and Mount Shasta. I had to wake my boyfriend up to see Crater Lake because it was absolutely amazing, and it’s a place I had talked about before! Once we began our descent into Los Angeles, we noticed how thick the fog was. We couldn’t really get a great aerial view of the city because of the thick fog. But we did see the ‘Hollywood’ sign, which seemed much smaller than I remember. Once we FINALLY touched down, it felt like years NOT hours, we went through the terminal down a looooong tile hallway to claim our baggage. We were VERY surprised to see how old and haggard this airport is compared to how “ultra-modern” its city is. At this point I was starting to wonder where we’d meet our reps for Royal Carribean, but as soon as we stepped out into the foyer to collect our luggage, there was a very obvious RCL rep waiting for us and the other passengers on our airplane.

Once all the passengers from our airplane got their luggage, our reps phoned for our transfer bus to San Pedro,roughly 30 minutes drive from the airport. We were off, exhausted, but ready to get on our big ol’ ship!
As we were driving down the freeway towards the cruise ship pier, I was looking out the window remembering virtually 4 years earlier I was in a stuffy, crowded white van carrying myself and 10 other members of my family. I remembered how cranky we were with each other ALREADY and our cruise hadn’t even started yet. This time I felt at ease and excited to meet our ship. I was excited to have my boyfriend on his first cruise. I was excited that it turned out to be a celebratory cruise in light of my new promotion. I wasn’t dreading anything but going home in a week and a half. I was having fun! The fun escalated when we first caught a glimpse of the Mariner of the Seas:

The last 417 days; the work, the planning, the energy, the focus, the excitement…it all came down to us seeing her for the first time! IT WAS AWESOME!

15 decks high, taller than the cruise ship terminal, it looked so clean and ornate! Now all we had to do was board and get on with our cruise!

But first things first, we had to go through security….AGAIN! We already did the security thing going through the airport, then through customs, now to get on the ship…..and off, and on again. Security was something we’d be going through for the next week and a bit, we had to get used to it. We dropped our luggage off, Royal Carribean stateroom tags attached, and said goodbye to it. It would be delivered to our stateroom no later than 8pm.

Once we made it through security, and up to the front to check in, we got our SeaPasses:
SeaPasses are literally the most important document on your cruise: They are your stateroom key, your ID, and your credit card for your onboard purchases. Losing it prohibits you from leaving the ship or getting on the ship. Once we got our uber-important cards, we made our way to a secure sitting area to await our numbers being called…we were “number 3”. Once our number was called, we made our way up an escalator to the Gangplank to board the Mariner!

We made it on board.

Truth be told there were so many things that could’ve gone wrong up to this point: Our car could’ve broken down on the way, we could’ve missed our flight out, something could’ve happened with the flight, we could’ve missed the transfer bus. Instead everything fell perfectly into place, and our cruise was underway at 5pm. As soon as we made it on the ship, we began exploring our new home for the next week. Our stateroom wouldn’t be ready until 1ish…so we had some time to kill. No matter how many times in the last year that we checked out Mariner online, nothing could prepare either of us for this ship.  To say it was incredible would be an understatement.  I was awestruck. 

We both decided we were hungry, so we made our way to Deck 11 and checked out the Windjammer Cafe.  This was a huge buffet style cafe with pretty much any food available you could want.  Any food, any style, ANY combination:

This is my boyfriend’s “first” meal of many; hamburger, pickles, pizza and mashed potatoes…see I told you any combination!

Once we made our way to our stateroom, all we could do was put our bags on our couch and leave again to go exploring.  I had bought the Grand Romance Package as an additional gift to my boyfriend.  The package included champagne (real champagne at that, not sparkling wine), strawberries, the best tasting cupcakes EVER, 2 hors d’oeuvres and 2 after dinner treats on the two formal nights and 2Terry Robes, plus flowers and Breakfast in bed one morning.  As another little extra was a portrait of our choice in a silver-plated frame.  We nibbled a bit on the fruit before we made out way out of the room.   It was cloudy and we still ahd a bunch of time before we left, but a couple pina coladas later and we were setting sail.

We ate dinner in the dining room, 5th deck, and the meal and service was every good as I remember from my last cruise.  We managed to get a seat right by the window.  I couldn’t believe that after 417 days we made it here, and it felt great.

Day 2 I got super burnt.  I had met some ladies on deck while my boyfriend caught up on some sleep.  A few pina coladas, gripping conversation, blue sky but light cool wind and well, I spent the next 4 days of our cruise in complete arm agony. But of course I wouldn’t let that stop our good time.  It was the first formal night and I was looking forward to dressing up for my boyfriend. We had a great meal:

It was perfect!

September 7 we made our way to Cabo San Lucas. My first impression of this town my last visit wasn’t a great one. I saw kids the same age as my stepson being pushed towards me to sell their families wares. I’m all for family business but 3 year olds? Really? Talk about pimping out your children. Anyway, we had a shore excursion in Cabo this time so we went thru customs and did a bit of walking around before we made our way to our Sea-Kayaking excursion.

Not sure if I mentioned my back issue that just happened before the trip but literally my back went out about 4 days before we were to leave so needless to say Sea Kayaking was going to be a little daunting, especially since they were “sit-on’top” kayaks…..a.k.a uncomfortable craft with very little back support. The main reason I’ve been able to kayak with my back problem up to this point was because my kayak has excellent back support. Anyway, we paid for the excursions back in June so I sure as hell wasn’t backing out the day of. I was going to tough it out! BIG MISTAKE.

The excursion guy kept yelling at me in Spanish because we were having trouble steering because we were up against the wind and tide. My back was killing me and I know I was frustrating my boyfriend because I wasn’t helping with paddling as much as we’d like. We kayaked across the Sea of Cortez to Lands End and Los Arcos then made a stop on Lover’s Beach to do some impromptu snorkelling. We were both EXTREMELY stoked to do the snorkelling as neither of us have done it before.

It was AMAZING!!!

Right off the cuff I breathed in nasty salt water through my mouth and almost threw it up. The riptide was insane, I was being thrown into the beach then pulled back out towards the reef like a rag doll. But as soon as I gained my bearings and calmed my racing heart the experience was unbelievable! At one point I turned and saw a school of literally thousands of tropical fish; the colours were astounding: indigo, the brightest yellows you’ve ever seen, vibrant reds! We both had such an amazing time snorkelling, we’ll be getting our scuba ticket so we can spend next summer face down in water!

After our snorkelling, we had to kayak back another kilometer or so to the beach to finish off our kayaking, which was HELL. But nothing could describe the pride I felt when we finished. As painful as it was, it was worth it being able to say we kayaked the Sea of Cortez……we were going to eat and sleep good that night! We had to…Mazatlan was next

September 8, we docked in Mazatlan. It was humid as hell and rainy beyond all reason, but we were in Mexico and we woke up on a cruise ship. Because we had no shore excursion booked for Mazatlan, we decided we were going to do our breakfast in bed that morning….WHAT A FEAST!! Our “main course” was scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar! Mmmmmm!

No good breakfast is complete without Mimosa’s!

What a wonderful way to start our day! It was perfect!

After our breakfast, we took on the city of Mazatlan!

Mazatlan was the city we liked least on our trip. For starters, when we docked we docked in a container port and had to be “bussed” to the terminal to go through security. The city seemed dirty but we hailed a cab and made our way to the Golden Zone, the approved, tourist-friendly shopping district. While we were waking around, we were approached by a man outside a jewellery store offering a personal tour for two of the city for $30. It seemed to good to be true and we were worried we were being taken for a ride so we took off to find out port and shopping guide whom I saw upon first arriving in the Golden Zone. He told us that if their in the zone chances are it’s legit and it’s okay….so we decided what the hell….we went for it.
That was the BEST thing we could’ve done. Our taxi driver spoke relatively good English and took us wherever we wanted to go…all the tourist-y areas. We saw the Basílica de la Inmaculada Concepción.  Begun in 1875, the Moorish style cathedral took 43 years to build.
It was stunning!  Our driver took us to see the Cliff divers…..who actually didn’t dive because no one would pay to see them. We got to see a bunch of town! This guy turned out to be an awesome tour guide. He took us on our own personal tour for about an hour! It was well worth it!

As we headed back to our ship, we had a few awesome pictures that we wouldn’t have gotten had we not taken that taxi. In the end; even though Mazatlan was our least favourite port city to visit, we took from it some awesome experiences nonetheless!

September 9, we docked in Puerto Vallarta. This was the day I was most excited about. In June we booked the ‘Dolphin Encounter’ shore excursion…I was finally going to touch a dolphin. I warned my boyfriend a few times that if I got close to a dolphin I may cry, I was super stoked!!!
So we met with our excursion group and took a chartered boat to another part of Puerto Vallarta called Nueva Vallarta. It took about 15 minutes or so along the dirtiest, muddiest waters ever! Turns out it rained for a good week before we got there, thank goodness it was sunny when we arrived 🙂

We docked at the excursion and were told to make our way to the pool area where we’d be told a bit about the anatomy of a dolphin. After we got through the “bookwork” we’d get to interact with our dolphin. I was elated!
As soon as they brough the dolphin into the tank, I started tearing up.

Good thing I warned my boyfriend before hand.

I was thrilled that I FINALLY did this excursion. The last time I cruised I had it booked then cancelled because I couldn’t afford it. I spent the four years after that regretting it nearly everyday. They did a little extra for us at the end including a dolphin show with like 6 dolphins in one tank, and we got a juicy, wet, fishy kiss from none other than a smelly, disgusting, but sort of cute sea lion!

… yeah, it was gross! LOL

After our fun, they fed us one of the best quesadillas EVER. It was so good, even my boyfriend who hates guacamole and salsa with tomatoes and onions ate it…happily. It was quite tasty. We bought our really expensive photos and boarded out charter back to the city to continue on with the day.
We strolled down the Malecon, the Puerto Vallarta approved shopping district. I scoped out some super amazing $2,500 diamond earrings…which I didn’t buy, and we were harassed every five steps to either go into a restaurant for a free drink, or a jewellery store for a great deal on tanzanite, or by a taxi driver wanting to take us anywhere we wanted to go.
Instead, we ate at Bubba Gump’s shrimp company after we bought stuff for the kids that changed colour in the sun…seriously, I shit you not. Google Del Sol.
Bubba Gump’s was amazing. I’d eaten there once in Anaheim and loved it! I also got a souvenir glass. The restaurant was based on Forrest Gump, with a ping-pong paddle menu and the movie on repeat all day every day. Our server knew more about hockey and Canadian teams than most Canadian hockey fans I knew…and I instantly gave the guy a huge tip once he said he thought the Edmonton Oilers sucked!
The whole time we were eating there was this massive black thundercloud coming into port, finally we choked back our meal and made a beeline to a taxi so we could get back to our ship. It just started raining. Once we got back onboard, it was like the sky opened up. My boyfriend and I sat on the 14th deck and had a drink while waiting for our scheduled dinner time at 6:00p at Chops Grille and watched a flash flood happen in Puerto Vallarta. The rain was bucketing. I’m sure we could watch that all night, but it was time to make our reservation for the specialty restaurant.
At Chops…that was the first time I’d ever had lamb. Not sure if I’d ever order it again, but at least I tried it 🙂 My boyfriend being a meat and potatoes kinda guy….had the steak. As we pulled away from port, they were firing off fireworks and we began heading back north. The next two days at sea we did what we could to take in the boat as much as we could. I took part in a sodoku tournament and won bronze…don’t judge me!!!! We also took part in 80s tune trivia and rocked it (we didn’t win, however) with another couple; Les and Letty, played ‘Name that TV Theme song’ (and didn’t rock it) and took in the last formal night together:

September 12, we had to say goodbye to our amazing ship, but our vacation was FAR from over. We were taking the car and driving to St. Helens for a day or so to visit my Americans and our favourite volcano. While we were there, we started looking at animal shelters for a dog. We weren’t going to get a dog before the trip but we promised ourselves we’d start to seriously look on our way back home. Animal adoption in the States was next to impossible, because they wanted to check out your yard before you adopt, and the process would’ve taken closer to a week to finish which was obviously unrealistic. We though maybe Vancouver shelters would be different but no. They were just as hard, which sucked because we saw some really awesome dogs at the BC SPCA.

Finally we relented and realised we’d probably have to purchase our furry friend. We went to a few pet stores, before we found Pet Habitat and met Baxter…we fell in love!

Baxter accompanied us home on our 17 hour car ride…and did remarkably well. He got sick in the car once during a windy stretch but he was a great companion. He cost an arm and a leg, but he’s a purbred American Cocker Spaniel….born in Quebec June 8. He’s already started to fit in well in his new home. 

All in all, we had an excellent trip, a few hiccups near the end, which resulted in a new battery, but we both had an amazing vacation. Now thoughts turn to our next big adventure!!!! Time to start saving!

It was so worth the 400 plus days we spent counting down!

We are blowin’ this popsicle stand!!!

The day has FINALLY came….we leave like now!!!!

As soon as my boyfriend comes home, changes, grabs his sunglasses and hauls the one bag we’re bringing we hit the road!

417 days have come and gone!  Some more quickly…some so painstakingly slow we wished like hell we’d booked earlier.  But it’s here and it feels glorious.  We’ve earned this vacation, with my new promotion and the way we’ve been working, this vacation has now turned into a celebration.  We’re gonna have a blast!!!  It’s here!!!

Today I ‘dolled’ myself up in preparation for this cruise!  I went for a manicure, pedicure, haircut and I bought a full set of gel nails!!!! I felt like in some way, regardless of the awesome cruise we’re going on, I needed to treat myself.  My own private celebation for all my hard work these last 7 months.

I earned this vacation and it’s gonna be a good one.  Toodle Loo.  Hasta la Pasta.  Chow Mein noodles!  I’ll write when we return!

Mexico….here we come!!!!!!!!!

Almost There

It’s officially 4 days, 19 hours and 4 minutes until we leave Terrace!  Which means that 7 days 19 hours, and 4 minutes from now our cruise ship will be sailing away from Los Angeles.  It seems like such a long time ago we were talking about booking this cruise, then we booked it, then we bitched we wouldn’t save up in time.  Well we did and one week from now we’re off! 

We’ve added a couple of bells and whistles to the cruise in the form of Deadliest Catch Live and a side trip to St. Helens!  I’ve been missing my volcano tremendously this year!  But we get to see it briefly next month.  What a vacation.  I hope my boyfriend has a blast!  This took a lot of planning and care….and stress! 

I’m so glad we’re almost gone!

47 days left….C’mon September!

So as the title says, we only have 47 days left…to be more exact 47 minutes, 8 hours and 38 minutes~! 
I cannot wait for this cruise.  It’s bought and paid for….completely!

Passports came in in record time!
We’re waiting on our flight manifests which should show up in the next few weeks and the evening of September 2 we are OUTTA HERE! 

Mexico bound!

I’ve never been much for wishing summer away, but I am so friggin exhausted from the work I’ve been doing at work that I can’t help but hope this vacation would just hurry up and get here.  It’s a damn good thing my boyfriend and I are soaking up every ounce of summer we can by camping lots and I had my kayak out on the water for 3 hours last Saturday.  We might get it in the water a little later on today.  I’m doing mornings, so I’m off for 12:30p

I flew down last week for my neurosurgical consult with Dr. Adrian.  I didn’t take much out of it except a few new stretches and he doesn’t think it’s surgical…which is a relief.  Now I just need to keep working on building up strength in my back by using the elliptical…essentially dropping weight and going to the gym.  I was also told to continue with physiotherapy and acupuncture since that seemed to help. Dr. Adrian also gave me his card so that I can call if things take a turn for the worst and he’s able to set up a spinal in PG if necessary.   We’ll see how things go over the coming months.

…working hard or hardly….Ya…no I’m working hard!

So my useless boss got fired April 13th…did I mention that earlier? I don’t think I did. Anyway, he’s gone, and I’m doing the work (AGAIN!!!) however, I was doing his job the entire time he was here, so that hasn’t changed.  I just wish the pay reflected what I do.  And YES, I have applied once again!  This time I hope the company realises the merit of sticking close to home and hires me.

Other than that our May vacation came and went too quickly.  We went to Calgary to visit my boyfriend’s Grandmother for four days.  I actually saw my Dad twice, which was nice.  He actually verified what I already knew; that things between him and Mother weren’t well, they weren’t in love and they each considered themselves more of roommates than in a relationship.  Which really pissed me off.  My Father has been pretty much a non existent entity in my life since they got back together and I find out that it was all for NOTHING.  I’ll feel like the used trash the neighbour’s dog eats within our yard!  Maybe I’m being a bit too dramatic.  I am truly glad we got to see each other again and catch up, but still.  I get ignored for a roommate??? I hope life turns around for him, he’ll one day be truly happy and he gets rid of the Bitch for good!

After Calgary we drove home at break neck speed and hopped a flight to Vancouver for the weekend where I proceeded to get absolutely smashed and end up so hungover I threw up in public on Commercial Drive.  There was one part of it that’s just so funny NOW that I can’t help but laugh, but I was truly mortified at the time.  We had left the restaurant (where I did not eat) and I was feeling ill, I figured all would be okay if I just kept walking and breathing.  Finally the horrible realisation set in that I was not going to be able to hold it back and I was on the busiest street in East Van….Commercial Drive.  I asked for a back alley and the one I got was occupied by a Cop arresting someone. Go figure!  I don’t think the Officer noticed, and even if he did, I’d just feign the flu!  I didn’t actually start feeling better until I managed to hold down some Wonton Soup at the airport.

So our cruise is now officially paid off….still waiting for the cheque to leave my account though, but it is paid off!  What an amazing feeling.  July 17th, 2009 we started the booking and now it’s done.  All we have to do is wait for our new passports, book our excursions and we embark in 94 days. Time is now moving so fast I’m afraid we won’t get it all done in time!!!  But man oh man, we are soooo excited.

I finally got an appointment with a neurosurgeon for July in Vancouver.  I fly down for the one day on air miles.  It’s funny…I have spent the last 5 years driving everywhere because I hate to fly and this year in 8 months time I will have taken 4 roundtrip flights (February for my future sister-in-law’s 29th birthday, May for our Vancouver weekend, July for my Vancouver appointment, and from Vancouver to LA for our cruise in September).  For the record, I still prefer to drive, I just like the speed of flying!

Quiet Week

The deposit has been paid, part of the finances are covered, and time keeps winding down.

we leave in 394 days, 3 hours, 09 minutes and 55….54….53….52…51 seconds!

Things have been relatively quiet on the home front. My boyfriend’s daughter celebrated her 11th birthday last Friday, so it was a party in her honour complete with a Hannah Montana Ice cream cake, punch, presents, a circus and people who care about her. I spent part of the day (I was home for 12:30p because I was on mornings that week) decorating our apartment in bright colored balloons and purple and pink streamers. She had a blast, and my boyfriend had an aneurysm….his baby girl is getting older and he doesn’t like it. Not sure if it was that or the fact that his ex-wife was in the same room as his new girlfriend…could’ve been a slight mix of both!

Either way the day went well, and she’s getting older, and taller, by the day!

May I have your attention please

May I have your attention please:

We depart on our cruise in:

403 days, 11 hours, 36 minutes, and 28…27…26…25…….24 seconds!!!

That’s all…thank you for attention in this very important matter

More plans

It seems at least one post in every 3 or 4, I wind up discussing a future travel plan I have come up with and this post is certainly no different. Except this isn’t a volcanic trip or a geologic trip, oh no…it’s a Mexican Cruise!!!

Holy Schnit I am so excited….as I write this we literally have 415 days 2 hours 6 minutes and 54 seconds to go. It is a huge amount of time to wait, which SUCKS, but a trip like this should not be thrown together. How it happened was kind of funny actually…I just saw a picture of a cruise ship online and that got me thinking about going on another cruise. I did one with a bunch of family back in 2006 but there were more low points for me as opposed to high points, and I’ve always wanted to go on another with someone I wouldn’t find myself avoiding all the time. So yeah, I just asked my boyfriend where he wanted to go, he said Mexico, I started plotting in stateroom choices, potential dates, and found a cruise package that is pretty cheap as far as cruises go. My boyfriend and I embark on a 7-night Mexican Riviera Cruise through Royal Carribbean September 5, 2010 at 5pm.

Two people in an Oceanview Stateroom is $889 per person, so $1,778.00 for two. We’ll be on deck 2 with a window overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It’s good because even though we’re close to the water, we’re not up high enough that the happenings onboard will be heard. We got a sweet deal on airfare as well: $653.00 each roundtrip from Vancouver to Los Angeles including transfers because LAX is an hour away from the cruise ship terminal….so that means we don’t need to worry about how we’re going to get from the airport to where we need to embark, that for two people is $1,308.00. Some guy from Royal Carribbean will literally have our last names on a card picking us up from the airport and taking us back again once the cruise is over. That takes a load off of my mind. Insurance for two people is $260.00, that’ll cover us medically, should our baggage get lost or if we have to cancel, we’ll get a refund or credits back. Gratuities for the week is $137.50 for the both of us…all together our trip will cost $3,485.00, not including alcohol on board or shore excursions…we are so stoked. Now if only Sept 2010 would just get here already. But now we are in Savings mode! The cruise my family did back in 2006 was the same cruise only a different vessel at a different time of year. We went the week before Christmas so there was tons of caroling on board and Christmas-y stuff. We were on Vision of The Seas, our ship in 2010 (Mariner of the Seas) will be quite a bit larger with a frickin ice rink on the 4th deck! So essentially we can ice-skate in Mexico!!! When my family left in 2006, we left December 15th on Via Rail and made it to Prince George where we stayed at Esther’s Inn. We then flew from Prince George to Vancouver via Westjet and took Continental to Los Angeles from Vancouver. We stayed in a hotel in Los Angeles by the cruise ship terminal and boarded our vessel the night of the 17th. On our way back, we did the same thing, staying in a hotel in Prince George then busing it Greyhound back to Terrace. My boyfriend and I decided to save costs by driving to Vancouver (literally $100 one way in fuel), staying at his sisters for the night then flying out from Van the day of the cruise. That way we’ve just saved two hotel costs and transportation to Prince George, plus I’m sure my boyfriend’s sister would appreciate a car for the week! This is gonna work out great! So we’ll be embarking on Sunday, September 5th at 5pm and beginning our cruise which will make it’s first stop in Cabo San Lucas sometime the morning of Tuesday Sept 7. We’ll check out the sites for a bit, do some shopping, maybe take in a sea excursion. We’ll be back on the ship that night and making our way to Peurto Vallarta which we’ll dock on Wednesday, Sept 8. Then on Thursday, Sept. 9, we’ll reach Mazatlan. Friday and Saturday, Sept 10 and 11 we’ll be at sea making our way back to Los Angeles for Sunday, Sept 12.

So literally it took 24 hours to go from jokingly making a cruise plan to having prices down for ship costs, airfare, travel and medical isurance and gratuities with a travel agent to help….we book at the end of the month, and I already have my half of the deposit! Mexico here we come!!!

Roadtripping!

We leave tomorrow!

And I cannot wait anymore…really. Now that it’s just about there, I just want to go!

The itinerary is set. We’ve notified the appropriate people of when we’ll be around and now we just have to wait for time to pass….ugh!

So, here’s where we’re heading:

Thursday, May 21: We leave Terrace at roughly 5pm…RIGHT after work, and we head East towards Calgary. We’ll be travelling through Jasper and the Columbia Icefields at roughly 3am…that is if we haven’t pulled over and slept by that point!

Friday, May 22:Now we could potentially wind up in Calgary sometime in the morning…depending on whether or not we drove all night…or we could wind up in Calgary sometime mid-afternoon…either way, we’re in Calgary!  We can either sleep the day away or go visit people!  I opt for the second option, but our bodies may not agree!

Saturday, May 23: Today we watch my younger brother graduate…this day will be a very hard day for me…but like it or not, it has to happen!  Ignoring it or hoping it skips over won’t make it go away!  I am sooo proud of my little brother for being able to finish what he started!

Sunday, May 24: We have a mass dinner planned for this night at the Keg…instead of chasing down multiple people, this is a way for those multiple people to come to one place!  Brilliant huh?  Here we’ll have more time to visit or shop, or both!

Monday, May 25:Embark for Yellowstone Nat’l Park.  I’m shooting for bright and early so we get to West Yellowstone around 9pm (ish), enough time to set up camp in the park and get excited over what the next day will bring.  I decided against going by way of Lethbridge and Coutts, Alberta only because it’s so effing boring a drive….So I opted to take my boyfriend through Waterton Lakes National Park in Southern Alberta and Glacier National Park in the States….it’s much more photogenic!

Tuesday, May 26:At some point I will need to phone my brother and wish him a happy 19th birthday!  The punk can FINALLY drink in BC now…lol…oh yes and I’ll be giving my boyfriend the grand tour de Yellowstone…I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!  I hope we’ll have a full day and a half here!

Wednesday, May 27:Spend half the day  in the park again before we officially hit the road and head back West!  This time we’re Washington State bound!  Quickly!

Thursday, May 28: Travel…should arrive in Washington State sometime by supper….hopefully!

Friday, May 29:We are at Mount St. Helens, ya baby!  Oh and a mass dinner party planned for this evening as well!

Saturday, May 30: Still at St. Helens….my boyfriend and I will be finishing off our stint as volunteers……we’ll either spend the night at the mountain or head north and see Seattle’s sights!

Sunday, May 31:In Seattle, checking out the sights!  I hope to take my boyfriend on the Seattle Underground tour this time around.  I thought they permanently closed the tours because they were unsafe…turns out I was wrong!  Thank you to the Copperside customer whio informed me otherwise   😀

Monday, June 1: In Vancouver terrorizing the boyfriends sister, or we’ll all be deliquents!  I guess it all depends on who’s crazier this time around her or us!  Oh yes and we’re officially inviting ourselves over to crash at her place.

Tuesday, June 2: In Van, visiting friends, family, others!

Wednesday, June 3: In Van….begin travelling back home mid to late afternoon!

Thursday, June 4 Travelling…arrive back home exhausted!

Friday, June 5th</span>….Boyfriend is regrettably back to work   😦

Saturday, June 6th  I am regrettably back at work   😦

So there you have the itinerary….not quite set in stone, but pretty close. Visiting family and my favorite volcanoes…it’s gonna be a blast!…no pun intended

World Travellers…well just Washington State..

So we made it back!

My car lasted roadtrip number, I dunno, maybe 11??? I lost count after 2007!

What a great trip!
We left Wednesday after work. I picked my boyfriend up from work and we departed down highway 16, eager to get the hell outta dodge for the week. I’ll tell you, I was so looking forward to this trip I could’ve done backflips Stateside…well you get the gist!

From Prince George south it finally felt like we were on vacation! For some reason, ANY time I take a trip, I don’t actually start to relax until AFTER Prince George. Maybe it’s because I’m still within “turning around” distance, in case work calls! LOL. It has happened before, except I was in the Hazeltons when it happened, so it was just an hour and a half backtrack.

So anyway, we made it to Vancouver Thursday afternoon, in time to see my best friend quickly…whose house was an absolute embarrasment. In her defense, she did apologize first, but ya, it was a disaster. I was quite embarrased this was the first impression she gave my boyfriend! It’s funny though…a little sidenote…..she and I have grown apart since high school, yet we’re still best friends. But have seriously run out of things to talk about. It’s a wonder we still keep in touch. Either way, when I saw her house, I was beside myself. I was really hoping she’d be a little more organised for her first meeting of the man I love! Anyway….moving right along….

We made it to my boyfriend’s sister’s house and proceeded to sit back and explain our situation for a few hours. It was really awesome meeting someone who’s such a big deal in my boyfriend’s life, and one that unconditionally “got” what we did and why we did it. He talks about her often and I can see why. She’s a stand up person who welcomed me with open arms. In amongst all the bullshit that’s been happenening, a friendly face is very welcome!
She was celebrating her birthday the following day, so my boyfriend took us out for a really AWESOME dinner at the Keg. I’d never eaten there before, but it was fantastic! Great food and man can that place cook steak! Her boyfriend and friend joined us and we all had quite a few laughs. I had a glass of wine with dinner and aparently I was slurring my words just a little by the end of dinner….so I must’ve had fun.
After dinner we headed back to his sister’s to crash for the night, but not before watching some medical mystery drama/documentary….docudrama! Seriously in this episode a woman was born without arms, and another was violently thrown off her horse after it and another horse collided head on…both animals died on impact…horrfic! The show was interesting enough, but by the end of it, I was plain beat. We had finished the first leg of our super journey with lots more to happen the following day.

All night long I could hear seagulls.

We woke up at 7 to the sound of the gulls by her apartment, which confused me at first until I was reminded we were only 6 blocks from the ocean…but seriously what kind of devil bird goes off like that at night? After a quick shower, we got ready to hit the road again, this time Stateside. After Bertha (our GPS) got us away from East Hastings and in the vicinity of coffee, we were on our way! We crossed the border just after 9 Friday morning! Bring on the I-5.

Somewhere in there, we realised neither of us brought a digital camera! $%&!

It was at the downtown East Side where I purchased…wait for it…..a disposable camera…the first of 4 for our trip.

My poor boyfriend had to see my stress level go WAYYYY up as soon as we hit the freeway. In my defense however, there was alot of ridiculous people on the road. Even in Vancouver…seriously WHAT is sooo difficult about driving in the right lane and using the left to pass???? I passed more cars on the right on Friday, so I was quite stressed out in the rushour traffic, then to top it off…I had a serious case of “get-there-itis”, which I get from my Dad by the way!
The main reason for our trip was so I could sign some paperwork the University for some reason could not send up to me…..something about security, some things they are not authorised to post mail to Canada…which is fine. I’ve gone to school a few times, it was nothing new. The only difference is, I had my new boyfriend along for the ride and wanted to make a good impression. But my usual quirkiness kicked in and I got SOOOOO turned around on my own damn campus, we got lost until we found the Medical building which turned out to be kiddie-corner to the Geosciences. My campus and U-District is so big, it has it’s own zipcode…..we have 30,000+ undergraduates, 12,000 postgraduates, and staff of 8,000. That’s just the Seattle campus, there’s still Tacoma and Bothell. My boyfriend and I live in a town (which they mistakenly call a city btw) of 12,000 people with the population diminishing up to 14% every year. U-Dub adds that plus more to it’s campuses each semester! The place is frickin’ huge, and I’ve spent maybe a total of 2 weeks on campus since I started my E-Learning program 4 years ago.

Anyway, it’s one thing to not know your way around campus but trying to depend on buildings you’ve never seen, much less heard of, to direct you where to go is just silliness…take a lesson from this blonde. And the more we walked the more turned around and confused I got. Thank goodness, my boyfriend distracted me with a squirrel photo op, which I was able to use as a cunning ploy to snap a shot of his really cute butt…don’t tell him though 😉
Once I tracked down where I was supposed to go, we came in the complete opposite side,nice walk though, I sent my BF on picture taking duty while I handled the paperwork…within 20 minutes we were trying to find our way off campus…quickly. I had parked my car in an illegal zone, and hadn’t counted on us getting so lost. Thanks to the map and some quick landmark memories, and the power of positive thinking, we found our way out, got in my car (which was still there UNTICKETED thankfully, and headed back south. But we still had some time, so I suggested we head to Pike Place Market, and check the place out briefly!

We used the GPS to locate the market and after parking my car, we were checking out the sights on the waterfront and having lunch at Ivar’s Fish Bar. A first for my boyfriend. I showed him the Showbox where little Blondie saw her favorite band for the first time live since forever! I also drove him past El Corazon, the nightclub where little Blondie met her favorite band for the first time ever! And to think I could’ve seen ’em in Spokane instead….I highly doubt had I went to Spokane I would’ve had that opportunity. Using the disposable cameras we got, one of which was almost full from the UWCampus shots, we were snapping some photos at the market. Guess what???? I got a fish thrown over my head! Not joking. Pike Place Market is where the famous fish throwers hang out, and I got to be the lucky one standing beneath the action…except we had used all the film to this point…no photo op!
Still it was a laugh and I can only imagine what my face looked like as they were hucking a fish over my head….yes I flinched. But wouldn’t you?

By 2:30 we were on our way south again, but not before construction is Seattle’s downtown core fudged us up. We ended up getting turned around, but I remembered a part of town we were in and were able to make our way out. Then we got hit with the traffic! 4 lanes, 60-70 miles per hour and not once, twice, three times, but FOUR times we came to a standstill on one of the busiest freeways in the continental United States. No wonder I was frustrated! But we made it, safe and sound, and just in time to curve outside Centralia to a beatiful Mount St. Helens on the horizon. She was pure white against a beautiful blue sky. It was at that moment I realised I was back at my favorite place in the world! Now I just had to keep driving the other hour or so to actually get there.

Once we hit the SR504 (Spirit Lake Highway), it felt exactly like I last remembered it. The summer of 2006 I soent there had conditioned me to take that drive in what felt like absolutely no time. That drive (52miles, 86km one way) now feels like just a few minutes for me. We were racing against the setting sun, I wanted my boyfriend to see the place I yak about so much, but we were losing time quickly!!!! Needless to say, we made it in the nick of time, not enough to snap a decent photo, but we got there, and he got to see what I was talking about. We got about 12 miles away from the volcano, normally during the summer months, we’re 5 miles away, but because of the snowpack at such high elevations (3,500 meters was how far we got to, you can get as high as 5,000 meters) weran into snow and that curbed our ability to go any further. But no matter, you could see the valley and even with thesetting sun, it was just as breathtaking as the first time I ever went there….September 2005! I was sooo ecstatic the man I love got to see my special place! I promised him a more daytime thorough view the next day, and we headed to see my second family, who we’d be crashing with for the next couple of nights. We made it in time for dinner and next up there were lots of laughs and of course I got to introduce my boyfriend to my Americans….this was literally his first real engagement with Americans, I picked the best ones I think. These people are all kinds of kickass and awesome. My boss from 2006 and his family put us up with open arms, like they always do. Even my good buddy T was there for the night…all my favorite Americans under the same roof with the exception of a couple of people who will be seen this Spring when I head back.

That night after dinner, 5 of us (my Boyfriend, my boss’s kid, his “other kid”, my buddy T and I) all headed up a forest service road to go for a walk. There was definetly wine at dinner, I was a smidge tipsy so the walk was totally welcome. We got stoned and stargazed…random!!!! LOL. My boyfriend and I couldn’t find the constellation Caseopeia, that was the one we couldn’t find. But hands down, a great night. We chit chatted, laughed, sang stupid songs and generally wreaked havoc on the St. Helens vicinity.

*Blog break in: My boyfriend is putting my DVD’s away alphabetically. LOL. He so good to me!
So we hung back at the boss’s place and watched a ventriloquist tape they had put on, while checking facebook to see what other scandals may have erupted while were were gone…you know the whole day and a half we’d actually been gone. Sure enough, nothing was happening. We chit chatted, laughed a bit more and hung out with the plethera of animals that would also be crashing there. 4 cats and 1 rambunctious dog! That plus 6 people…..it was definetly a FULL house! Our hosts blew up our air mattress and we prepared to settle in for the night. I was beat, and I’m sure so was my boyfriend. But we were at Mount St Helens.

The next morning we got up WAYYYYY to early and I was WAYYYYY too eager to see the volcano in daylight, so we drove the 14 miles uphill to see the old girl (she’s 40,000 years old!). In more ways than one my dream came true and my boyfriend saw firsthand what being up there can do to me…lol. Sweet memories! Just another notch to etch in the “WHY I LOVE THAT VOLCANO” belt! After we checked out the volcano, we headed back down to our hosts home who were just starting to wake up. They started cooking us this awesome eggs, bacon and french toast breakfast while we made plans to go for a lesurely mile and a half circuit to the Sediment Retention Dam at St. Helens. All the times I drove down the 504, I never did make that hike, so we made it that day. And what a beautiful day it was. We took tons of pictures of everybody and of the structure…which is amazing period. It’s purpose is to reduce the sediment flowing into the Toutle River after the 1980 eruption….because any extra sediment that flows downstream just adds more load to the riverbed, add water to raised banks (this is the WET Pacific Northwest, there’s tons of moisture)…you get widescale flooding…potentially without that dam, Toutle, Castle Rock, Longview and Kelso would’ve been wiped out a LONG time ago.

After the walk, us younger folk (sans my boss and his wife) took off to Longview/Kelso to do some shopping and to show my boyfriend my old stompin’ grounds. We hit up the American establishments; Target, Macy’s, and oh yes…BURGERVILLE! An old 50’s-style burger place. This was my boyfriend’s first experience with Burgerville…and man oh man, those were some damn good burgers! Throughout the afternoon though, I started to get more and more exhausted, I wasn’t feeling all too great. I’ve been dodging a cold that just won’t go away, but I toughed it out nonetheless.
After our quick excursion, we headed back “up the hill”, where a really awesome spahgetti dinner and the latest Al Pacino and Robert De Niro movie awaited us! Well the dinner combined with me not feeling so shit hot and the magnitude of our drive and the jam packed days so far…I crashed….literally. I might’ve seen maybe a half hour of the movie! According to my boyfriend, I didn’t move a muscle until I woke up….only to rejoin our air mattress and fall asleep again.

Sunday, we woke up far too early again. I was seriously hoping to sleep in at least ONE day during the vacation. Today, we’d be leaving our hosts to head to T’s going away party, which was the third big agenda on our “must-see/ must do” list besides my school paperwork and seeing my boyfriend’s sister!
T’s family lives in Edgewood, WA, roughly an hour and a half, maybe two hours up the I-5 towards Seattle. Our borrowed GPS kicked all kinds of butt, there’d be no way I could find that place without it…high five argumentative GPS! We made it, enjoyed Moroccan cuisine (T is deploying out to the Peace Corps for Morocco for 27 months at the end of February), and socialised A LOT! Well, I was desperately seeking some alone time with my boyfriend at this point, so I made up an excuse about us having to head northbound a little earlier than expected, we decided to stay at a motel instead of his parents house. By this point we were so exhausted about living in other people’s houses, the change was very welcome. We watched Destroyed in Seconds and Riot Rampage on Discovery channel before we headed to IHOP for a late breakfast. (At like…9pm) The boyfriend has never been to Internat’l House of Pancakes before, so we had to go! The food was incredible!

*ANOTHER BLOG BREAK IN- We are watching SpongeBob Square Pants on DVD and eating Kraft Dinner……awesome! And I am officially ten minutes from turning 26!
Well we made it back to our motel and slept. Finally, I slept in until the alarm woke me at 9.

Bring on Monday morning! The agenda, revisit Pike Place Market and check out the Space Needle…but first before all of this….I needed my morning pick me up.

Ho-kay…so we swung by a drive-thru java counter right by our motel and the largest size they advertise on their menu board is a 24oz cup of coffee. So we got up to the window and I asked for the biggest size not thinking ANYTHING of it….what did I get????  An ABSURDELY large mug, umm 48 ounces. Oh My Goodness. It even came with a straw…lmao. That coffee lasted me until AFTER the Space Needle trip. I was heavily caffeinated, and my boyfriend thought I was even more nuts than before. Even other customers commented on the size of my cuppa joe! But whatever, it woke me right up….I was ready for the Needle.  We made our way to Seattle’s most famous attraction, and got our tickets for the ascent. It’s funny, as you make your way to the elevator, you are literally moved to a cue line in front of a backdrop of the Seattle skyline for a photo, no permission. They take the photo, give you a piece of paper and move you along. We made it to the top and took tons of pictures. I could see the University, Mount Baker, Glacier Peak volcano, Seattle P.I, Lake Washington, hell we could even see Safeco (aka Qwest) Field. After the Needle, we made our way to Pike Place Market where we had lunch and walked around the market, which seems to have more hidden floors and hallways than I think I even knew about. The place is massive, but all in all we checked out the sights! But it was time to make our way North.

We hit the road and hit up Jack In The Box in Olympia, and Arby’s in Bellingham, before we crossed the border roughly 5 o’clock Monday night. Back on Canadian soil! We made our way to say hello to a friend of mine and a cousin I’m on good terms with before saying one last goodbye to my boyfriend’s sister. It was raining in Vancouver, the first precipitation we’d seen since we left Terrace Wednesday. Even that day there was nothing but a bright blue sky…we lucked out. But we got it triple hard on the way back…rain and tons of snow! It was an unnerving drive back home, but we finally made it back Tuesday at 5pm. I’m still catching up on my sleep.

Phew…even re-writing this epic adventure has made me exhaused! There’s probably more I’m missing, but for now here’s the bulk of it…any new additions I make will be obvious! I’ll bold them since I clearly wrote a novel here. What a great trip, I’m glad my boyfriend got to come with me and see the place I can’t stop talking about!

May will be my next big adventure!!!! Stay Tuned
Me