The Long Drive Home

We were checked out and on the road by 7am. We were losing another hour of time, which didn't help, and turned out 17 hour drive into 18 hours. I'm not sure how we did it. We stopped as little as possible. Only to change drivers about halfway through. I got to be the lucky person to drive the many, many toll routes (8 tolls in all) through Chicago. These tolls are stupid. There was one that cost us $0.30.... WHY BOTHER? The majority cost $0.80. It was silly. I think it took us about 3 hours just to get through Chicago. The traffic wasn't bad, it was just so big and we were bopping from one highway to the next, thus having to pay different tolls.

It was a very, very long drive. When we got to Port Huron, Michigan, it marked our border stop as well as the halfway point. We stopped at a White Castle for supper. Andre's always wanted to try it. We each got 3 mini burgers, fries and a drink for $2.99 each. This White Castle was a tiny little stop, not much bigger than a chip truck (no sit down room at all, primarily used as a drive-through). We were attended to by a frightening looking lady with thinning dyed red hair and missing teeth. Behind her in the kitchen was a large black girl who talked like she was from inner city Detroit. She talked like Precious... it was kind of funny to meet a real live American who actually talked like that. The "red"-haired woman didn't have much of an accent, although she kind of whistled through her teeth holes as she talked.

The food was disgusting. The burgers were soggy and the meet was grey... Andre said he loved his, but I think it's just because he was getting his hopes up. The fries were cardboard and I only ate about 2 before throwing them out (yes, *I* actually threw out fries).

We stopped at the duty free on the way to the border (the whole reason for coming back through the states!). We bought Andre's 2 bottles of scotch. Getting through the border was a breeze, although Andre felt he needed to complicate things by stuttering and explaining exactly which kind of scotch we were taking back and exactly how many litres the bottles were. The border guard doesn't care, she just cares about "2 bottles of alcohol". So that's how I interrupted Andre's monologue, and she answered "have a good day", as Andre was still going. I have practice with the border... Andre obviously does not, lol.

The drive from there on was pretty uneventful. It was all along the 401, which Andre is very familiar with, so it was smooth sailing from there on in. We got home at 3:30am and were greeted by Dan and Bella. Dan had agreed to pick Bella up from the sitter's before they went to bed, since it was a last minute decision to drive home in 1 day.

And here we are, home sweet home. I look back to our time in Sudbury or Winnipeg and feel like it was ages ago. I'm sort of thrown off to think that it was all part of the same trip from which I'm just returning home.

Mall of America

Our plans for the next day were to visit Mall of America, so we got up early to beat the rush of people.

For a huge mall, I must say that the parking system is very well organized. Each area of the parking garage is organized by the name of a state. We parked in Hawaii. The mall is pretty huge, although it wasn't that much more impressive than other malls. It was very neat looking. I kind of reminded me of those narrow alleyways in New York where you might find laundry hanging from apartment to apartment. The stores were kind of like that with their "balconies" being the walkway for shoppers. There are 4 major department stores in Mall of America: Bloomingdales, Macy's, Sears and Nordstrom. We didn't end up going to all of them, just Macy's. We went to all of the little stores, however. We didn't go on the roller coasters, though. I really wanted to. :-(

We stopped for lunch at one of the many sit-down restaurants in the mall -- Another BBQ place called Famous Dave's. From the looks of it, it's a pretty big chain down there. It was pretty good, although not as good as Dickeys, and about twice the price. Which is still pretty darn cheap.

We were about to leave empty handed (me? leave a mall empty handed? I think not) and I popped into a store and found a lovely crocheted sweater for $15. It looks nice on me, I think. So I bought that. We also stopped at Macy's because they were having a huge kitchen sale. We bought a cast iron pan and a non-stick skillet. This is a fancy-pants skillet. It was originally $100, but they had put the wrong tag on it, so we got it for $40. Woot woot!

We stopped at Chili's for supper on the way home. It was close to our hotel. It was pretty good. Andre said his burger was excellent and I had the fajitas.

We decided that we were going to do the 17 hour drive and go home the next day. We hadn't yet booked a hotel on the way home and we were starting to feel homesick. We went to bed really early in preparation for our long drive.

En route to Minneapolis

As I write this, a week later, I can't really remember anything spectacular about the drive to Minneapolis. The scenery changed from desert to a little bit more green. It was still prairie, though and reminded me a lot of Winnipeg. Which, I guess makes sense since Minnesota is just underneath Manitoba.

We stopped somewhere along the way to eat at a Cracker Barrel. Andre said that this was a staple for him when he and the guys drove down to Florida, so we tried it out. I loved it. It was all home cookin'. I ordered the Chicken fried Chicken. It sounded pretty American and I was all for American experiences. It was just a piece of breaded, fried chicken breast. A huge piece at that. I had it with green beans, carrots and mashed potatoes. There was a white chicken gravy on top. It was also served with a corn muffin and a buttermilk biscuit. I really want to make it sometime. It's not that it was really all that good. The chicken was a bit tough, the veggies were canned and overcooked, but it tasted like a grandma from the south would make. They also had a little gift store attached to the restaurant, an "old country store". Well, food and gift shops are my two favourite things, so I was in heaven. Andre ordered the catfish skewers. He said they were very good.

As we drove into Minneapolis, we were assaulted by a huge thunderstorm. It started out with seeing a lovely rainbow at the side of the road. And then black clouds, and a ridiculous amount of lightening. The sky was sparkling like a Christmas tree. It was very hard to see through the rain, but Andre was a trooper and did very well.

We finally arrived at our hotel, another surprise hotwire purchase. This one was a Sheraton. Again, we got a room with 2 beds, but oh well. Our room was actually very interesting. It was what they called a "Cabana" and it was on the 2nd floor, overlooking the pool area... and as a result, there was no window to the outside world. The room was very, very humid and smelled strongly of chlorine. Andre put a towel underneath the door that lead to the balcony so that the smell wouldn't be so bad. We could have lived with that, but there's more horrible things about this hotel... I thought maybe I'd like to make a phone call using my calling card. I looked at the phone to figure out how to dial out, and it said it would charge me $2, plus $0.10 per minute for the privilege of using their phone (to dial a toll free number). Local calls were $1.50. That made me mad. But it didn't end there... I decided to load up the internet to post a blog posting... it wanted me to give a credit card to log into the internet and informed me that it would charge me $5 per hour of internet usage. Rediculous. At one point on our trip, I really really wanted to order room service, just for fun. But the continental breakfast cost $19 per person.... I think not. Does a muffin and a bowl of fruit really need to cost that much? Oh, and the bottle of water in our room cost $4. I had half a mind to drink the water, and then fill it up with tap water and put it back... just out of spite.

So we decided to get out of there. The chlorine smell was bad, and there was a TGI Friday's in front, so we went there for a late night snack. We ordered an appetizer platter. Andre ordered a beer and actually got carded. This is very weird, because at this point, his vacation beard was huuuge. But, I guess his baby face is visible, even under all of that fur.

We headed back to the hotel and went to bed. The chlorine smell had dissipated a bit after Andre blocked the door. But, since the pool was still open, it was still very, very, loud with kids screaming and splashing. The pool was supposed to close at 11, but there were still people in there at 11:30.

Mount Rushmore

We slept in a little bit the next morning, just because we could, and then leisurely headed out to see Mount Rushmore. It was about 20 minutes away from our hotel. As we got into the actual town around Mount Rushmore, it was so strange looking! It almost reminded me of Clifton Hill at Niagara falls. Tons of bright lights, big signs, souvenir shops. You can tell this town survives solely on tourism income. As we were driving up to Mount Rushmore, you could actually see the mountain, but we decided to do the whole thing and park and walk around the park. I was so shocked at how SMALL it actually is. In movies and shows, they picture the carvings to be the size of the actual mountain but in reality, it's only about 1/8 the side of the mountain. In the top corner. Yeah, it was pretty cool, but I was disappointed about the size. Also, I've seen it so many times in movies that I felt like I had already been there. Either way, if you're American, it definitely something you need to see, because it's a very patriotic thing. As a Canadian, though, I didn't think it was that great, mostly because I didn't get the significance of it.

So we been there'd and done'd that ... and yes, I got a T-Shirt for my quilt and we pushed off. We weren't there more than an hour and a half. That's my kind of tourism! On the way back, we stopped at this drive-though animal park that we saw on the way in called Bear Country USA. We didn't know how much it cost, but we decided if it was under $20, we'd go, but no more than $20. It looked so neat. So we drove up, and after the girl at the gate told us it'd be $30, Andre glanced at me and promptly handed the girl $30. I know how much Andre loves bears, so it was probably worth it. The drive-through took about 30 minutes. We saw huge moose, wolves, buffalo, deer of all kinds, lynx, bobcats, fox,... I'm sure I'm missing something. It was a lot of animals. Towards the end, though, there were lots of bears. TONS of them. They were just walking alongside the car. One even decided to cross the street in front of us at a very leisurely pace, so we actually had a huge lineup of cars behind us as we waited for him to cross. They were very cute.

After the drive through, there is a little zoo that you can get out and look at. They call it Babyland because it's where they keep all of the baby animals. They were so adorable. The best part is that we saw a little baby black bear climbing a tree and then he had a rough time trying to figure out how to get back down. He tried going bum first, head first, but no matter what he did, he couldn't figure it out. His tree was sort of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree because he had chewed so many of the leaves and branches off of it, which left very little to help him climb. It was so adorable.

When we got back to the hotel, I decided to go relax on the sun deck in my bathing suit while Andre went to get the oil changed on the car. Of course, when I decided to do this, Mother Nature decided that she'd let the clouds make a special appearance. This was our first experience with American clouds. Seriously, not one thus far (the fog over the ocean doesn't count, I've decided). Needless to say, I didn't get a tan.

When Andre got back, we went out for supper. We were going to try out a Chili's, but stopped short when we saw a place called "Dickey's BBQ Pit". That was what we were in the mood for.

So we went in, and the place was packed... good sign. They had a special on, $1 pulled pork sandwich. So we did that, and each added a side dish. I had potato salad and Andre had the fried okra. We're starting to realize that Americans by default eat A LOT. Not only were our side dishes served in huge cups, but the drink (we asked for a "regular") came in a 32oz cup! Also, some people (average looking people) were getting 2 or 3 sandwiches. Also, a "meal" came with a sandwich and 2 sides (not just one), so the Americans were adding 2 side dishes on top of their 2 sandwiches. If that wasn't enough, if you ate in the restaurant (you could take out, it was like a fast food place), you got to serve yourself to a gigantic pickle (more like a cucumber) and ice cream for dessert. So we got 2 sandwiches, potato salad, fried okra, 2 large pickles, a drink and 2 servings of ice cream... all for $8. It's a good deal to me! Not only was it cheap, but it was really tasty too!

We waddled back to our hotel. I decided I wanted to see if there was my favourite dollar store, Dollar Tree in Rapid City. Sure enough, one had just opened in May. So Andre, being the good sport that he is, humoured me and we punched the address into the GPS. This address took us on a wild goose chase because there was no Dollar Tree when Susan said we had reached our destination. Andre was determined to find it, because he had seen a map on the computer when I was looking up the address. After stopping at 2 malls, we finally went back to where Susan told us to go and looked around some more. Sure enough, it was there. I stocked up on dollar store medicine to re-stock my pharmacy at home. Things like Aleve, Rub A-5-3-5, Polysporin, Expectorant, etc. You can't get these for $1 in Canada!

After we were done at the dollar store, we went back to our lovely hotel to pack it in for the evening. We had a long drive ahead of us.

South Dakota - Day 1

Our stay at the Super 8 came with what they call a "Super Start Breakfast", which was served from 6-9am. We must have been jet lagged, because we didn't wake up until 8:45 and had to boot it to the main building (yes, we were in an offshoot building at the Super 9) for our Super Start. This breakfast lacked a bit of imagination. It consisted of a counter with a couple of bags of no name cereal (looked like cheerios and cornflakes), a dish of some dried-out looking pastry, a bag of bread and a toaster. No fruit or anything. There was also juice and coffee. Now, when they say a "Super Start", I was thinking something a little more substantial. Oh well, we had our breakfast, and packed up the car and were once again on our way. It was a long drive, but with speed limits of 75mph (that's 120kmph!), it didn't seem so slow.

The scenery was similar to that of Manitoba, but more desert. It was pretty flat, but very brown and very dry looking. In fact, we haven't seen a cloud in the sky since we left Canada. And I'm not exaggerating... not one cloud. It was perfect blue sky the whole way through.

The road was flat and straight, but along with the lightening-speed limit came a couple of problems. As we were driving through, we saw a crumpled up Porsche on the other side of the highway that was being cleared off. It looked like it took quite a tumble into the ditch. Also we saw an older RV that was burnt to a crisp. Nothing but its wire frame and charred upholstery were left. There were tons of emergency vehicles and lots of ambulances. I hope no one was hurt. The RV had been pulled to the side of the road, so I assume the driver had enough time to get out.

As creepy as that was, we also saw a lot of really neat things. Like dust devils. I don't think I've ever actually seen those before, but they're big whirlwinds in the middle of a farmer's field. They look like tornadoes, but they don't reach the sky. We saw as many as 5 in the same field. It looked really cool!

Andre would also like me to inform you that he saw a badger at the side of the road. Yes, he pulled over, but as he got out of the car, the badger ran away. I didn't actually see the badger, so I couldn't tell you whether it was real or not, but if Andre says it, then it must be real.

When we got to our hotel, we were surprised. We had booked it on Hotwire, so we didn't actually get to choose the place, but we got a Holiday Inn -- our favourite. This Holiday Inn was unlike any I've ever seen. Not only was it huge, but it was so elegant! It was round, with an atrium in the middle that extended to the ceiling where there were skylights (10 stories up). In the atrium was a lounge and a restaurant and the reception area. The elevators had twinkle lights and exposed glass that looked into the atrium and there was a waterfall that ran all along the side of the elevator that trickled from the roof to the ground, into a different bowl at each floor.

Our room was just outside the elevator doors on the 4th floor where the fountain bowl was. It was also next door to the ice machine. I can see why it was the hotwire room... it had to be pretty noisy. We got into our room and were astounded at the size of it. Of course, because we booked on hotwire, we didn't get to choose what kind of room we got -- so we ended up with 2 beds, but it didn't matter. It was a huuuge room and very pretty!

We settled into our room and decided to go for a late night snack. It was 10:30pm at that point. We decided to hit up a place near our hotel called "Taco John's". We got there late enough at night that they had their late night special of 3 tacos for $2, so that's what we did. We were starving so we each got 3 tacos. Cheap dinner! They were pretty good tacos... reminiscent of Taco Bell.

We headed back to the hotel to take a dip in the pool and hot tub, which closed at midnight. This is the only hotel that I've seen that has a pool open that late, which is nice. Usually the pool is packed with kids until closing time.

Washington to Montana

I assume I somehow deleted the post below because I specifically remember writing it... I'm going to try to remember it now.

We left our cozy motel in Washington at 9am, said our goodbyes to to the Korean lady and set off. She sent us off with lots of breakfast... muffins, danishes and fruit again. It was very interesting driving through Washington. From my perspective, there were two parts of Washington: the lush, dense forests and the desert (once you pass the mountains). It was just a sudden change of scenery. In Canada, I noticed that this kind of change in scenery was actually denoted by the seemingly arbitrary province lines. Ontario which is hilly and rocky (Canadian Shield) gives way to Manitoba, which is pretty flat, which gives way to Saskatchewan which is really flat, then there's Alberta which is desert-y, and BC which is foresty and mountainy. I think these province lines were drawn with thought and consideration.

The American lines are a different story. So when I saw the change of scenery, I immediately thought we were in Idaho, but as it turns out, we were not. Once we did get to Idaho, we stopped for lunch. We really wanted to try out Sonic, because we see it so much on TV, so we punched it into our GPS. There was a Sonic in some little town that I don't even know the name of in Idaho. Now, let me explain Sonic to you. We thought it was just an ordinary, super cheap fast food burger place. But it's not. It's an old-school car-hop drive in. You pull into a parking spot which is equipped with a drive-through menu on both sides. You push a button on the menu, and a person answers the speaker and you place your order. A few minutes later, someone comes out with your meal... and yes... they are on ROLLER SKATES! How cool is that? Andre and I weren't sure if you should tip them, but the guy was sort of lingering and kept asking us if we needed anything else, so Andre quickly went into his pocket and grabbed whatever was inside and gave it to the guy. Turns out it was a $1 bill... but thankfully American money all looks the same and I don't think the guy noticed that we shafted him right away. We felt a little sheepish, so we quickly ate our gigantic burgers and got on the road. We didn't have lunch until 2pm, so we were good until we reached our motel in Montana.

We got to our motel in Missoula, Montana around 9pm. We stayed at a Super 8 this time, because our booking of hotels in the states turned into a frantic "oh my god, there's nothing left" exercise. After a quick check to see if the local KMart was open for a T-Shirt (it was not), we went to Safeway to pick up a couple of groceries for the next day.

We headed back to the hotel for the night, watching HBO. I'm glad that most of our motels had HBO for free.

For some reason, I had high hopes for Montana. I had these images of myself and Andre going into a little western diner filled with locals eating their pie and them recognizing that "yer not from 'round here". And then they would proceed to make fun of us Canadians and then tell us old Cowboy and Indian stories...

I think I watch too many movies. No such luck.

Our Super 8 was dank and dingy, although it was actually quite clean. It was a half-basement room with the window high up on the wall which I think made it feel that way.

W

Twilight!

We woke up this morning quite early for the continental breakfast served in the little motel office. Andre went while I was in the shower, so the Korean lady sent Andre up to our room with a tray filled with muffins, danishes, fruit, granola bars and water (she fixed my breakfast for me). We ended up eating most of it for our lunch. Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch?

We headed out to Forks right away. It took about an hour and half of it was on a gravel road. We suspect that it was in the process of being paved. If not, then there is no way that Edward stormed down that road at 100 miles an hour! It's a windy road with mountain on one side and lake on the other side.

It was very strange to be travelling to the city that has the most number of overcast days in the continental US and there not be a cloud in the sky. It was 18 degrees and completely sunny. Not even a hit of cloudiness.

Forks is actually a very pretty little down. Actually, it's apparently a city according to the sign outside. Upon entering the town, we were bombarded with various Twilight-themed gift shops. Every store had something that was Twilight related in its window. As you go further into the town, it's not as crazy. I saw the High School. It was under construction but from what I could tell, it's exactly as described in the books. There are several different little buildings and an Administration building in the front.

We also stopped at the Hospital where "Carlisle" works, but it wasn't anything special. We couldn't find the police station, so we just continued on to "Luby Beechie". We were excited to spend the sunny afternoon at the beach. Once we got to the beach we saw the strangest sight... The beach (and only the beach) was shrouded in a very, very thick fog that made it look like the sky was overcast. It was very cold and very windy. The water was frigidly cold.

Regardless of the weather, it was still pretty cool wandering on the beach. We didn't find many treasures on the beach, but there was lots of really cool bone-white driftwood.

We decided to leave Luby beechie and go to Rialto Beach in La Push. I figured we had to go to La Push... complete the Twilight experience. We got back onto the road and it was full sun and much warmer. But again, once we got to the beach, it was really, really foggy and cold. We were going to go to First Beach (Twilight beach), but we figured it was the same deal. The Korean lady tried to explain something about "after 6pm until 9pm" something something. We're now wondering if she was talking about the fog.

So we left La Push and headed back to Port Angeles. We had dinner reservations for 6 and it as already 4:30 and it takes an hour to get back.

We had a lovely pasta dinner at La Bella Italia, which in the book, is where Bella and Edward have their first "date". I almost ordered the mushroom ravioli, but got the tortelini instead. It was quite tasty. We were able to walk there from our hotel, so we had some local wine with our dinner. Yum!

And now we're back at the motel watching HBO and relaxing. We have a long trip tomorrow! TTFN!

! On the way to Forks. Beautiful


At Ruby Beach.


The sign coming into Forks.




Upon entering La Push.

Andre at the beach in La Push. Look at that beard !!!

The island and Victoria

We got up nice and early on Thursday morning so that we could tidy up our area at Patty and Rachid's. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 10:40am and it was first come, first served so we had to get there early.

The ferry was a fun experience. I was shocked at how organized the loading was. We were on the boat and on the deck in about 5 minutes. It was fun to see the boat push off into the water. It got really cold and windy so we spent some more time underneath.

The drive down the island was pretty uneventful. It was town after town after town, but they were all quite pretty. At least from the highway.

Once we got into Victoria, we went for lunch at an Argentinian restaurant called Santiago's. It was right near the ferry so we could go right when we were done. I had a chicken dish with tomatoes and lemon and the most delicious potatoes. It was sooo tasty, but the service was awful.

We got to the ferry around 3:00pm, just as it was leaving. I remember checking the ferry times online and it appeared that they were every 30 minutes, but it appears I was looking at the wrong schedule for the wrong ferry. The next ferry was at 7:30... ugh. So we had several hours to kill in Victoria. We wandered around the harbour where there were lots of little artisan vendors (mostly native) selling their various crafts. I could have easily spent lots and lots of money but you will be happy to hear that I didn't spend any. Aside from a souvenir T-Shirt from the souvenir shop, we escaped Victoria relatively unscathed.

It was finally time to go through customs and get onto the ferry. We were boarding the ferry around sunset so that we got to see the sun set over the Straight of Juan de Fuca. The ferry itself wasn't nearly as nice as the BC Ferry. Getting on and off the boat took ages and it left about 30 minutes late so we got to Port Angeles quite late.

When we could finally see Washington on the other side, we were hit with a very strange sight. There was fog clouding the entire coast, making it look like an overcast. It was very sunny before.

We checked into our motel, and the desk was manned by a small Korean lady. I knew she was Korean because there was a bible in front of her that was in Korean.

She was very friendly in her broken Engrish. She gave us a bunch of comprimentary travel-sized deodorant, toothpaste and bottles of water. She immediately asked us our plans and started highlighting different places on a map of the Olympic peninsula. She told us there was lots of lovely "beachies". She said we should go to to the "Luby Beechie" (Ruby Beach).

So we went up to our room. The room, although furnished with ugly furniture was immaculately clean and had a huge bathroom. For the cheapest motel in Port Angeles, it was great!

We ended our day off at the only restaurant that was still open in Port Angeles. It was very cool and very delicious. It's called Michael's. It's in the basement of a shop and it's set up like someone's basement with exposed rafters, wood paneling, book cases, etc. Very very cool.

That's it for today!

On the ferry to Port Angeles.

Victoria Harbour

On the BC ferry to the island. It was windy!!

At the Argentinian restaurant. I loved the decor.

The sunset from the Port Angeles ferry. Beautiful!

Vancouver day 2

We woke up this morning nice and early (not as early as Rachid and Patty, they were already gone!). We decided to spend the day in Stanley park because we were told that is the #1 thing to do in Vancouver. That is also where their world-famous aquarium is. So we drove through the crazy Vancouver traffic, paid our $10 for parking and headed to the aquarium. There was a 20-minute lineup outside, but we finally got in. Upon entry, they snap your picture in front of a green screen where you can later purchase that picture for a mere $20... not today.

The aquarium had a special "4-D" Theatre in it where you watch BBC's Ocean movie. The movie itself is 3-D, so you have to wear those rediculous goggles. The 4th dimension is that it is interactive. Whenever there's a splash on the movie, you get sprayed with water. The seats vibrate according to what's on screen, wind blows and even bubbles blow in the theatre. It was pretty cool (and free with admission, so a bonus!).

We saw some dolphins doing some tricks and lots of fish. All n' all, it was reaaally worth the $27 it cost Andre and the $21 it cost me (I still have a student ID -- woop woop!), but I'm glad we did it.

After the aquarium, we wandered around Stanley Park and went to one of the little restaurants for lunch. Nothing spectacular, but acceptable. We then went to the totem pole park (within Stanley park) where they had tons of massive totem poles. They also had a fabulous native crafts gift store where I could have spent lots of money. I bought a couple of native art greeting cards.

We then went down to the water, and I was picking along the shoreline for treasures. I found a crab carcass... that was about the only cool thing. I didn't keep it... what would you do with a crab carcass?

We then left Stanley park and went to the pier near Rachid's place. The breeze off the ocean was very nice on a hot day. It was about 26 degrees and very sunny.

Our dinner was a sushi platter. You haven't had sushi until you've had Vancouver sushi. All of the fish is freshly-caught, and there are some decent sushi chefs around too. The sushi shop was just below Patty's studio. Patty is a wedding/fancy dress designer and she's been doing enough business to open up her own shop/studio. She still works her full-time day job and teaches a class at the Institute of Design on the weekends... I don't know when she finds time to do anything! But her dresses are very cool and they're all made with eco-friendly materials (again, how Vancouver!).

We ate dinner at Rachid and Patty's friend's house. Their friends weren't there, they are actually supposed to be house-sitting for a few weeks, but since we've been here they haven't been staying there. Their house backs onto the river and the yard is beautiful. They have a huge deck with a hot tub and heat lamps if it's too cold, etc. etc. etc.

Right about when we were ready to finish the dishes, Rachid somehow locked his keys inside the house and we had to figure out a way to break into the house. Andre was using a camera and a large stick to try to break in the front door through their peep window (see picture). Finally, I found a ladder under the deck and there was a window open upstairs so Andre climbed into the window like a monkey (the screen came off easily). I had had this idea about 20 minutes before, but no one listens to me! Shortly thereafter, the father of one of the people who live there stopped by to see if everything is alright. I don't know if he saw us trying to break into the house or if it was just random and just wanted to make sure the cat was being fed.

After that, we headed home. Rachid and Patty headed back to their friend's house to spend the night, so we won't see them before we leave. But we said our good byes before they left.

So here we are. This concludes the Canadian leg of Ash and Andre's Awesome Adventure, tomorrow, we're in Port Angeles!

TTFN

Me being a Vancouver Tree Hugger. Look at the size of this tree!


Our sexy 3-D Goggles at the Aquarium Theatre.


Andre in the river at Rachid's friend's house (sorry, it's sideways)


Rachid and Patty


Andre and Patty trying to break into the house

Vancouver!

We left Auntie Gayle's house yesterday around 9am, our usual departure time. We had such a wonderful relaxing time and it was kind of sad to go.

The drive from Vernon to Vancouver is breathtaking. Going through the mountains is such an enjoyable drive. It was one of our shortest trips, and we had to make our 5-hour drive into 7 (because Rachid wouldn't be home from work yet) so we dilly-dallied and stopped many times along the way... including Wal-Mart in Kelowna. When we went to the grocery store in Vernon, I saw that they had Cherry flavoured Crush. I love all things cherry, so I was very excited to see this. Newfoundland is the only province with pineapple Crush, and I figured BC had their Cherry Crush. Why I didn't buy a whole case there and then is beyond me, but I didn't... and I'm cryin' over it! We've stopped at a number of grocery stores and gas stations looking for this Cherry Crush with no luck (like I said, we were dilly-dallying).

The best part of our dilly-dallying is that we stopped at a winery in the Oakanagan. Grey Monk (translation from "pinot gris" I found out) Estates winery is in Lake Country, which is about 40 mins outside of Vernon. We went on a tour of the winery, saw how they made their wine and then got to do a tasting afterwards. The best part about it all is that it was all free! We're so used to being nickeled and dimed as tourists and finally something was free! It was all because they wanted you to spend their money in their wine and gift shop... which we did. We bought some souvenirs for Andre's family, a T-shirt for my quilt and each a bottle of our favourite wine.

We got to Rachid and Patty's around 7pm and were welcomed into their lovely apartment in North Vancouver. They told us to hold off on eating so that we could have a BBQ when we got there.We had organic burgers along with a bottle of the wine from Grey Monk. How Vancouver!

It was very nice to catch up with them. We hadn't seen them since they were in Ottawa for their wedding.

We were set up nicely on their pull-out couch. It was actually quite warm in their place but we didn't seem to have any problems with sleeping. Andre seems to have almost gotten over his cold by now.

A little friend chillin' in the shade of the grape vines at Grey Monk Estates.


Our fabulous cheese platter that we ordered for lunch (it was the cheapest thing on the menu at $17! Needless to say we shared it!).


The barrel rooms at the winery. These ones contained Port-style wine.




A lovely view of the mountains outside of a rest stop.

Beautiful British Columbia

Our drive from Big Valley to Gayle's house was absolutely beautiful. There were gorgeous mountains, lakes that were insane colours (green, blue, purple). The roads were in the mountains and very windy.

We got to Gayle's house and met her new Korean students. They didn't know a word of English and they kept bowing for everything. They kept staring at me, and Gayle says it's because they don't see blonde hair in Korea and it looks very strange to them.

This morning, Gayle took us to some local hotspots for natural beauty. We saw Kal lake, a crystal hotel owned by Mr. Swarovski. Really, the only way to explain these places is to show pictures, which I haven't put on the computer yet, so you will see those later.

Andre unfortunately has developed a cold and is feeling a bit under the weather. As usual, he's been a great sport. But, here I am, typing on my computer and listening to an audiobook in the Oakanagan sun, I can smell the sweetness from the apricot trees and have a great view over the mountains. This place is great!

Tonight we're going to check out a resort that is popular for skiing. Gayle likes to take her exchange students there. I'm not sure if they will understand what is going on, but we will see.

Pictures to come!

Big Valley, Alberta

Our plan for Saturday was to drive up to Stettler, Alberta to ride the Alberta Prairie Steam train. It’s a neat old train where there’s entertainment, and they explain Alberta’s past to you through dramatic representations, etc . I was so stoked to go on it. So we got to the steam train, and apparently you needed to make reservations in advance and the train was all full so they couldn’t take us. I was devastated. We were in the middle of nowhere in Alberta now with nothing to do all day until we met up with my aunt and uncle. So I called Dayle and she said she’d meet us in Big Valley at 3:30. Jade works at the museum there (which really is just a room with a bunch of old stuff, it doesn’t look like a museum at all) so we popped in to say hi, and then Andre and I wandered around Big Valley. 5 o’clock rolls around, and still no sign of Dayle. There were a bunch of people displaying old steam engines in the little town square, so we saw all of those. We bought some fudge from the fudge shop. Finally around 6 o’clock, we see Dayle. Ed was working in the field and wanted her to wait for him. We visited the rest of the town with the Slootweg clan and went for ice cream. We left around 7 o’clock and drove to Dayle and Ed’s place. Ed showed us around his place. The house is so nice. Dayle is such a great decorator! Everything has a rustic theme to it, she has old wooden soda crates and country signs on the walls. The house itself is a log cabin. It’s huge, so I guess it’s not really a cabin. But very, very cool. The only thing is that it’s so picture perfect that it doesn’t look at all like a family of 6 lives there with 4 kids. It’s magazine perfect.

Ed showed us around the yard. They have lots of animals (Ed’s a farmer). They have a big cage outside with about 15 bunnies, a dog who also lives outside, a bunch of cats, and a horse for each kid plus a couple of extras, chickens, doves, etc. etc. They have a huge garage with 4-Wheeler ATV’s for everyone in the family, there’s a fancy Hummer in there too and huge faming equipment. Lots of really cool stuff. They have huge gardens, and even an extra house on their lot.

Once thing I was surprised about is how well the kids all get along with each other. They’re always playing with each other outside. Austin (my cousin) is an absolute monkey. He’s always climbing up walls, trees, barns. He can do crazy backflips on his trampoline. He jumps on his trampoline, and then grabs onto a branch in the tree, climbs up the tree, then jumps out onto the trampoline. It’s nuts! Brooklyn is very talkative and always has a cat or bunny in her arms. Brody keeps to himself, but he’s very pleasant. Jade is shy and kind of awkward, but a tomboy at the same time. She has a really fancy souped up car that she’s very proud of.

Dayle made us all dinner (local roast beef on buns..mmm!). It was about 9:30 by the time we ate, which appeared to be normal for them. After dinner, we went outside for a bonfire, which was nice. I was very tired from staying up late the night before, so I slept like a baby.

Now, we are on the road, en route to Gayle’s house, which is 8.5 hours away in Vernon BC. The terrain out here is really cool. Either it’s badland-y with sandy hills, or fields with animals.

Until next time!

The Tubmobile, which is a home made car made out of an old bathtub. It runs and everything.

The Alberta Prairie Train, the one we were supposed to go on.

Calgary Day 2

On Friday, we had a packed day. We slept in a little bit and after Nana made us some poached eggs, toast and ham, we set off to go visit Grandpa. By the time we got there, he was already seated at his lunch table. We visited with him until they served him his lunch. He was wearing a cowboy shirt and his cowboy hat (and of course his cowboy boots and he almost looked like a little child sitting there in his wheelchair. We took a picture together, and Grandpa hid his newspaper under the table so that he didn’t look like someone “who is always reading the newspaper”. The funny thing is that he is a man who is always reading the newspaper. As we were leaving he shook Andre’s hand and told me “This man’s my friend now, so you’d better take good care of him for me.” We then left, and I did what everyone told me I’d do but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t do: I bawled my eyes out. It was conceivably the last time I will ever see my grandpa. I’m glad he was able to meet Andre.

After we left Grandpa’s home, Andre and I went to Tony Roma’s. They don’t have them in Ottawa, I don’t think so we wanted to try something that was different. They had some pretty cheap lunch specials and Andre was able to have his Rib Tips that he’s been dreaming about ever since Montana’s took them off the menu. They were as good as he remembers, but he likes Montana’s apple butter sauce better. Although strangely, the BBQ sauce that we have in our fridge right now is actually Tony Roma’s brand and Andre loves it.

After lunch, we went to Heritage Park. This is a place that is set up like a prairie town from the early 1900’s. There are little stores and there is also a car museum for old gas pumps and cars. It was really interesting but very expensive. The admission was $20, and that didn’t include any of the rides or the steam train ride around the park. Needless to say, we didn’t spend the extra money to do any of the extra things. While we were there, we got downpoured on for about 10 minutes so we took shelter in the Baron’s Snooker hall. They actually had a place with our name on it! After the downpour was over, it was beautiful and sunny. That seems to be common here. Short downpours, and then beautiful weather.

When we were in the old post office, a girl dressed in an old Sherlock Holmesy kind of outfit had a magnifying glass and asked Andre if he was stealing any mail… I told him he should have whipped out his badge and asked HER if she was stealing any mail, but he was too modest for that.

We bought some bread from the old time bakery to give to my Auntie Dayle as a hostess gift. She got married at Heritage Park so I know she’ll like it.

When we were done Heritage Park, we were supposed to go to the Calgary Stampede with my friend Cristin, but she bailed on us after we had already purchased our tickets. We went anyway, and we spent a lot of time in the Indian Village where they were having a Powwow dance competition. I loved watching the intricate outfits that the dancers had. We stopped for dinner at the bannock stand, and had bannock hamburgers. They were delicious! Bannock is a native bread made from flour and water. Usually it’s roasted over a fire, but this place deep fries it, so it’s similar to a Beaver Tail when it’s done (but not sweet). They put yummy gravy on the burger too, so it was very flavourful. We toured around the stampede, but didn’t go into any of the exhibitions that required extra money (a theme in our trip). I have never seen so many cowboy hats, plaid and boots in my life! Everywhere you go in Calgary, you will encounter a cowboy/girl, not just at the stampede. Little kids run around in oversized boots and hats. It’s very cute. We took in a couple of rounds of bingo, and then we left to visit Cristin at her house. It was nice to catch up with her. We didn’t get home until pretty late.

We’ve been on the road for a week now, 2 weeks to go!

Grandpa and me at his lunch table

Indian Village at the Stampede

Bannock Burger at the Indian Village at the Calgary Stampede.

The Baron's Snooker place at Heritage Park. Back then, every pool hall (snooker) had a barber in them, so you could go for a shave and play some pool at the same place.

Andre and I tried to take a picture with a gigantic horse at the Calgary Stampede but we scared the beejesus out of the horse and he ended up making a big stink afterwards.

Calgary

So, the main point of this trip has been accomplished. Today, Andre got to meet my grandfather. Everyone had been preparing me for the man I would encounter when I saw Grandpa so when I actually saw him, he was exactly as I had expected. That didn't make me any less sad, but I was prepared. The one thing I was happy about is that his sense of humour, albeit dulled, is still the same. He was shooting a lot of little wisecracks. They were a bit difficult to understand, but it made me happy that he was still my grandpa that I knew and loved.

We got up at the crack of dawn to go for a Stampede breakfast at Grandpa's home. There was a man singing and playing the guitar and some ladies line dancing. We then brought grandpa home for the day and stopped at Nana and Grandpa's old house at high Point. I have a lot of memories of playing in the back yard of that house with Mike. The new owner has let the house go, and now it looks pretty shabby, sadly.

After we came back, Nana and I started lunch. We made soup and sandwiches (I'm a little sick of deli meat sandwiches, but I didn't say anything). We started eating lunch around 12:45, and by about 3:30, grandpa decided he had had enough. It took him that long to eat, but he was able to do it by himself and not make too much of a mess.

Andre and I took the dogs, Dusty and Princess out for a quick walk, after the dishes were done. It's a very nice neighbourhood. I decided to lay my head down for a couple of minutes and ended up sleeping for a whole hour. I guess I was tired! I was woken up by the arrival of Brian and Theresa and their girls. We visited with everyone and I helped Brian look at some old pictures trying to decide who our great-great-grandparents were. Brian's trying to do a photo family tree, so he was getting grandpa to identify some of the people. Almost all of the pictures said nothing on the back to help us, which was frustrating. Andre came in very handy using his investigative skills and we were able to figure out which man was the husband of the woman Grandpa identified to be his grandmother.

After dinner, Grandpa was taken back to his home, and I'm sitting here in the kitchen writing my blog. I think Andre and I will go to the pub with Brian later... ahem... I mean "out for a walk" (yes, I know we already went for a walk today, but it was legitimate).

Dusty

Princess

Grandpa and me

Enroute to Calgary!

Our last night in Winnipeg was pretty nasty. There was a huge thunderstorm with hail and tornadoes and everything. Okay, the tornadoes wasn’t actually in Winnipeg, but a small town outside of Winnipeg. We spent the evening in the hotel. The thunder kept me awake most of the night. It’s good that Andre prefers driving because I’m pretty zonkered.

We left Winnipeg around 8am, leaving behind our grand plans for a Salsbury house or Room Service breakfast. We just guzzled down a Yop each and hit the road. On our way out, we stopped at a Tim Hortons in Portage la Prairie. There was something strange with that town. All around P-la-P, it was pretty sunny with fluffy white clouds. The minute we got into P-la-P, it was BLACK skies. And I mean black. I was afraid we’d get caught up in a tornado!

We got our timmies as fast as we could and booted it out of there. Our next stop was in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. If you don’t know the significance of Rouleau, Saskatchewan, AKA “Dog River”, Saskatchewan, let me enlighten you. There is a Canadian show called Corner Gas that takes place in Dog River, Saskatchewan and it is filmed in Rouleau. Andre’s a huge Corner Gas fan, so we had to stop. It’s only about 30 minutes outside of Regina. There were a number of hardcore Canadians that were stopped in Rouleau while we were. The show was cancelled last year, so they don’t film it anymore. The set looked quite deserted. But, it’s such a small town that they’ve kept most of the Dog River signs and such as a tourist attraction, which is very smart. They’ve even taken “Rouleau” off of the Grain Elevator and kept “Dog River”. There are a bunch of buildings in the “downtown” that still display their previous TV set incarnation. A very sad looking café, which was once the Dog River police station still says “Municipal Police” on the front. Most of the businesses that were used at the TV set are just abandoned buildings, or they’ve been turned into souvenir gift shops to sell Dog River and Corner Gas paraphernalia. But, we still bought a Corner Gas T-Shirt for my quilt. J

We stopped in Swift Currant to have a birthday dinner at Boston Pizza. We were going to eat our sandwiches, but Boston Pizza sounded better. It made us an extra hour later, but it was worth it!

As we were coming into Calgary, there was such a beautiful sunset, we took a picture of it out the car window.

The lovely Sunset coming into Calgary on the Cowboy Trail

Andre at Corner Gas

The set of Corner Gas

Cows at the side of the road. The looked friendly.

The angry sky over Portage la Prairie.

Winnipeg Days 2&3

On Monday, we had plans to meet with Ted & Lorna for lunch at Earle's. Andre and I decided we didn't want to pay for parking at our hotel, so we went to shop at Polo Park. Andre bought some new "kicks". His shoes were worn out, so it was time he got some new ones.

We met with my Uncle Ted, Auntie Lorna my cousin Marcie and her husband and kids for lunch. The menu there looked really good! It was really nice to see everyone again, and we both enjoyed their company.

I took Andre to Assiniboine park afterwards. I really enjoyed going there as a kid. We saw the flower garden, sculpture garden and went to the zoo and saw all sorts of animals. The weather was perfect: 25, sunny and a bit breezy. After the zoo, we stopped at Sargeant Sundae, which is across the street. We ordered the banana-vanilla swirl ice cream and it was delicious!

After that, we headed back to the hotel where my friend Katryna and her boyfriend Todd picked us up to go for dinner. We went to Moxies. Andre and Todd got along well, and it was really good to chat with Katryna and catch up. We then headed to a bar where we met up with some more friends of mine from middle school. They all are still friends and hang out often. It was great seeing them again.

This morning, Andre went out to the mail depot to check it out. Again, we decided to be out of the hotel by 10 so that we didn't have to pay for parking. Andre was picked up by one of the postal inspectors out here, so I had he car. I just drove around and went out to the mall where Katryna was working. I did a bit of shopping and said one last goodbye to her.

When Andre was done at the mail depot, we went to The Forks. He didn't seem as thrilled with it as I was. I love at the little artisan shops and there were a number of things I'd love to have bought, but Andre keeps reminding me that we're on a budget trip... which is true. We bought some souvenirs for Andre's family. We only ended up staying there for about an hour and a half, which is less than I would have liked, but we were both very tired from our late night and waking up early.

We got Gondola pizza for dinner. It is still by far the best pizza that I've ever tasted. Andre agrees that it's wonderful. And now we're going to have a quiet night in the hotel. We might even order a movie.

Tomorrow's a really, really long drive out to Calgary. I think we'll leave around 7:30am so that we can get out to Calgary at a decent time. At least we'll going through another time zone and gaining an hour.

And now for some pictures!

A peacock at the zoo. They just roam free all over the place. Once when I was little, one escaped and it ended up in our backyard.

A dragon made out of flowers in the English Flower Garden at Assiniboine park.

A photo taken of us from the footbridge at Assiniboine park.

Brooklynn, Lorna, mne, Marcie and Austin

Winnipeg - Day 1

We got into Winnipeg at around 5 o'clock local time. We gained an hour when the time changed (bonus!)

The first thing we did after we checked into our hotel was to go visit my old house. The street was a lot narrower than I had expected and not quite as I remembered it. We went around Silver Heights and looked at my old schools and such.

We had dinner at Salsbury House. It's a restaurant that is only found in Western Canada. Our Nips (burgers) were yummalicious. We ate them all up. We also got some pie for take out.

Our our way back to the hotel, we decided to make a surprise visit at my uncle's house. Thankfully he was home! Andre got to meet both of my dad's siblings and we got to chat a little bit. Poor Ariana was sick, but she was still talkative. I really hope we don't catch whatever she had.

We're now at our hotel and we just ate our pie. Now it's time for bed! And some photos!

The view from our hotel.

Andre and his Sals.

The delicious Pie.

Ariana and me.

Ariana, Me, Julie, Ian and Linda.

En Route to Winnipeg

We left the stinky town of Thunder Bay around 9am on search of Persians. For those who are not from Thunder Bay and don’t know what the delectable pastry goodness that are Persians , let me enlighten you:

My first encounter with Persians were at DA Moodie after March Break. There are several staff members who are originally from the TBay area and every time they came back from a visit home, they brought. Andre had never heard of these before and I don’t ever recall seeing them in Winnipeg either. They are sort of like a cross between a cinnamon bun and a donut, but have pink icing on top. Not like donut icing, but buttercream frosting. They are delicious.

Kyla (one of my colleagues) told us where to get the best Persians in town (a place aptly named “The Persian Man – it has a funny caricature of a man holding a plate of Persians), so we drove out to that shop. Unfortunately it was closed on Sundays and we realized that our search for Persians might be a little bit more difficult than originally anticipated. We drove around for a bit to find a bakery that was open at 9:30 of a Sunday, but our search proved to be fruitless. So we gave up at stopped at a Robin’s Donuts for breakfast. Andre had never been to Robin’s Donuts, and the west is littered with them, so we stopped in. Our search for Persians was over… they had a huge tray of them in their display! Hoorah for Robin’s Donuts! They didn’t last long enough to take a picture of them … but they basically are a cinnamon bun made out of donut bread with pink frosting. They weren’t as good as those from The Persian Man, but they definitely did in a pinch!

On the way to Winnipeg, Kyla suggested to stop in Kakabeka falls. It’s actually an Ontario provincial park with a big waterfall in it. So we did that. Here are some pictures from our excursion. It was pretty windy!

As I write this, we are en route to Winnipeg. The roads are getting visibly flatter and straighter. At the side of the road, we will see some mountainous areas followed by a flat meadow. The Canadian Shield is giving way to the prairies!