Viva Las Vegas!

Mum just called and told me she's taking me to Las Vegas for my birthday in January!

w00t!

Shining like a new mint quarter

I have a job.

There is a lot I would love to write about tonight but I promised myself I would go to bed at 10:30 and now I am pushing my luck.

I have a big post brewing, actually a couple, and I promise, by the end of the weekend, I will post them, but for now I sleep.

I will dream well.

Rat-a-tatting lose your future

The weekend was a blur.

Friday was a mad dash between a job interview and making it to the airport on time. I managed to miss the bus I needed to catch and so I had to drive out to the airport and park my car for the weekend. Much suck.

The flight was good, pretty uneventful. Managed to get myself to the North Shore with very little hassle.

And then the fun began.

I wasn't at Jas's place 5 minutes before the plans were solidified and we were out the door. It was a marathon night of drinking and eating, and generally having an absolute blast. We were mad women with mad skillz. Hall... er.

We should have been in rough shape, but we managed to survive the night and walk home under our own power, without even stumbling. Woke up the next morning and had a great breakfast, and then it was off to the suburbs to see Mum.

Big H was stuck on the island fighting a fire, so I was dateless but I ended up having a great time at the wedding. I wish I could have spent more time with Mum, but it was still a great night.

It ended up being a long night followed by an early morning and a 3 hour wait for my flight.

Now I am back home, and so happy to be back and I have a Billiam with me!

I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

I want to give myself to the water

This weekend I will be going home. If I didn't have to go back, I wouldn't be. I'm going home for a wedding and to pick up my beautiful baby Billiam.



I miss him so much!

I will also get to see the World's Greatest Parents!



They're crazy, but they're mine and I love them.

I'm so joyful that I have found you

There were a few things about my trip I found surprising.

The area around Prince George is surrounded by red forests. There are almost no green trees anywhere. The pine beetle has destroyed every tree in sight. You read about it in the papers, you see the reports on TV, but until you see it, you have no idea just how bad the situation is. The sad thing is, the forest looks beautiful. Tragic beauty. I really wish I had thought to take pictures of it.

Another thing that surprised me was CBC radio. I had forgotten how fantastic CBC Radio One is. Radio One was the only station I was able to get in most places, if there was radio at all. I'm now hooked. It will take a lot to pull me away from it. Radio Two is almost dead to me now, though I'll still listen to Brave New Waves via the internet's Eastern feed.

Here I am, I'm on the scene

So I've now been in Calgary for exactly two weeks. In those two weeks I have moved into my lovely apartment, started working on finding work, been given a parking tag (they call them tags here. It's very odd), driven back down South to Smashed-In-Head Buffalo Jump, seen weather that just blows my mind (the thunder here set off car alarms last night. It rules!), and generally felt under the weather.



It hailed sideways. SIDEWAYS!




The clouds were awesome. And you could see it coming for a good 30 minutes before it hit.

Adjusting to the climate (dry) and the altitude (3400 ft or so), have taken its toll. I’m really tired, all the time, and I’m drying out like a prune. I’m drinking a tonne of water and hand lotion is now my best friend. Though this week I am not nearly as tired as I was last week. I am slowly adjusting.

I don’t have a lot of furniture but I did buy a bookshelf, a dresser, and a couple of lamps. Since 90% of my boxes were full of books a bookshelf was needed right away to unpack. It serves quite nicely as room divider as well. The rest of what I had was mostly clothing, a dresser was needed. It sits quite nicely in my walk in closet (I could live in that thing it’s so huge). So now my apartment is mostly unpacked but covered in debris from digging through the boxes that are left, camping equipment that hasn’t been put away, and just general disorder.

I’m not working yet, and I don’t know many people here but I have fallen in love with this city. I don’t know what it is about this place but I am smitten. I am happier here than I was in Vancouver. The only way things could get better would be if I was working and Billiam was here, and both are just a mater of time.

Random trip bits

This one's for Zee:



This is a store in Skidegate. The Rainbow Gallery. They have all sorts of things from jewellery to paintings, books, postcards.... you name it, they have it.



They pack you in pretty damn close on the ferry to and from Haida Gwaii. This was me on the return trip. I barely made the ferry.



My charming host in Seattle, and his lovely girlfriend. She gave me a going away gift of a beautiful rock made into a lovely necklace with a note that made me cry. She'd only just met me.

Day 23 - 25: Idaho to Calgary

Before I left Seattle I thought long and hard about stopping in Idaho. I had planned to stop, and stay, for 3 or 4 nights. By the time I was set to leave Seattle I was ready to just drive straight through to Calgary. I just wanted to be home. I was tired. Tired of living out of a suitcase, tired of being alone, tired of time not having any meaning, tired of picking up and moving on every couple of days. I wanted to be settled, I just wanted to stop.

I don't know why, but I decided to stick to my original plan, sort of. I decided I would stay two nights and then move on to Calgary. I am so glad I did.

The drive from Seattle was long, filled with traffic, and not a lot else. I always forget how different Eastern Washington is from the West. It’s beautiful in its own way. I really enjoyed the drive.

Northern Idaho is as different from Southern Idaho was Eastern and Western Washington are from each other. It was interesting to be someplace I’d never been before. It reminded me a lot of the Cariboo Interior of BC.

I finally got to where I needed to be and set up camp. I spent the next 36 hours contemplating the last few weeks. I did a lot of thinking about all the thinking I had been doing up to that point. It hit me, all at once, I had done it. I had done what I had set out to do, and I had done it alone. It was a pretty amazing feeling.

Those two nights in Idaho gave me a good deal of perspective. I needed it. I’m glad I didn’t just drive on through. I am very glad that I decided to only take two nights though. I was ready to be home.

I packed up my car, for the last time, and started on the final drive. It was one of the most stunning parts of my trip. Driving through the mountains, coming through Crow’s Nest Pass, across the grass lands, such stunning beauty.

The entire time I was driving I kept thinking to myself, this is my home now. I was so happy. I knew I had made the right choice.

25 days after setting out, I was finally home.

Day 18 - 23: Seattle to Idaho

Seattle. My home. I may never have lived there, but it’s home. Just thinking about it makes me miss it so much it hurts. I don’t feel the slightest bit of remorse leaving Vancouver, but Seattle…

My stay in Seattle was filled with laughter, and tears, pain, memories, joy, and lots and lots of love. I am such a lucky girl to have the friends I have. These are the people that keep allowing me to crash on their couches, in their guestrooms, smoosh their doggies… They are my family.


(I totally stole this photo from Meanie)

If nothing else, I know I am loved, and that’s a pretty damn great thing.

Leaving Seattle was hard. I was on the verge of tears all the way to Idaho.

The drive was beautiful, but long.

Day 15 - 18: La Conner to Seattle

When I arrived in La Conner I knew it would be my first real access to the outside world. I would still be in my own little world, but I would have cell reception and access to the intarwebnets again.

I checked into the inn, and I was stunned with just how fantastic everything was. The bed was so damn cozy, my room smelled amazing, and I wasn’t in the middle of nowhere! Even in the middle of the heatwave my room wasn’t too hot. The only problem I had was getting into bed. It was a very tall bed and I am a very short girl and I have very badly burned legs that screamed in pain when I bent my knees. I managed.

The first thing I did was take a cool shower. After 17 years in the customs line, and all the driving, with the heat, I needed it.

Everything was just perfect.

And then the outside world came crashing in on my vacation.

My room had wifi access so I decided to make use of it and started to download that last couple weeks worth of email.

My inbox contained bad news. Very unhappy bad news.

The world was now missing one very amazing, very talented, very special and very loved person.

It was very hard to wrap my head around. It didn’t make sense, and it sure as hell was not fair.

So I did the only thing I could think to do, I went out for a drink.

I spent the rest of my time in La Conner in a bit of a daze.

I enjoyed myself as much as I could. I had a lovely massage, and a facial, I ate some very amazing food and I spent a good deal of time wandering around. I was pretty much just killing time until I had to leave. I knew that once I got to Seattle, reality would really set in, and I wasn’t quite ready for that.

I took no pictures. I have no postcards. From that point on my vacation was over, now it was just about getting to Seattle and then getting to Calgary. I wanted to go home.

The morning I had to leave for Seattle went by in a flash. The drive to Seattle seemed to take forever.

It was hard, that final drive to Seattle.

Is it raining?

They said there was a chance it would rain.

God I hope it starts raining.

Damn. It’s just a moth caught in my paper lamp.

Day 9 – 15 Woss to Sidney to La Conner, WA

I did a whole lot of nothing for quite a few days. I sat in a hammock, I watched tv, and that pretty much sums up 85% of what I did. Big H and I went on drives after he was off work and I got to see quite a bit of the Nimpkish Valley. We took one evening and went up to Telegraph Cove for dinner. There was a BBQ at one of Big H’s friend’s house with good food and good conversation. We went to Nimpkish Lake and watched windsufers and kiteboarders, we watched sunsets and had excellent conversations. It was exactly what I hoped it would be.

The day before I left Big H and I decided to tube down the Nimpkish River. We were told that it was about 1.5 hours from where we were getting in to where we were getting out. We tied water bottles around our tubes so they could float with us, keep us hydrated without worrying about losing our water. We slathered on the sunscreen, made sure we had t-shirts to keep us covered up, and into the river we went.

The falls where we went in feed a huge pool where salmon gather to rest before continuing upstream. The salmon had just started to gather, which meant the eagles were just starting to circle. It was unreal. We travelled down the river and had an absolute blast. It ended up being a 4 hour trip. It was one of the best days I have ever had. It was worth the horrid sunburn I ended up with.

My sunscreen washed off in patches, two spots on top of my hands, my scalp, odd patches on my shins, a patch on my back and the patches where my arms sat on the tube (which I was allergic to and ended up with a nasty rash to go with my burn), and the very tip of my nose. It was extremely painful, but like I said, it was worth it.

The day I left I slept in, and I took my sweet time getting my ass on the road and I was convinced I was not going to make the ferry to Anacortes in time. To make matters worse I managed to take the long route. When I should have continued on the road I was taking I ended up taking the coastal route and got stuck in some pretty nasty traffic. Lucky for me I managed to, yet again, catch the ferry, barely.

The ferry was another quick trip and I really wish I had paid more attention to passing scenery but I was too tired from having woken up at 5 AM, again. The worst part of the trip was sitting in the line to get off the ferry, and get through customs. It felt like it was about 40 C out, sitting there in my car, with other cars all around me, and the sun pounding us all. The only thing that made it bearable were the various classic cars that were in the line with me. Some classic car club was heading home and there were Packards and a number of Rolls, and some cars I wasn’t familiar with. They were beautiful.

I made it through customs, got to La Conner, checked into the inn and was in total heaven, for about 30 minutes.

Day 7 – 8 Smithers to Woss

I woke up late. I didn’t care. I just knew that I needed to sleep, so I didn’t bother to set an alarm, even if I had to drive 13 hours to get to mum’s.

I made the mistake of checking out of my motel at the front office. I should have just left my key in my room and walked away, but no, I needed to get a postcard for my trip collection.

The owner of the motel was an older gentleman that tried to convince me I should move to Smithers and take over his business. He spent an hour explaining to me how it would all work, how I would end up taking over the business, and how I would own it all when he retired. He was serious.

An hour.

I finally managed to get away.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful. I made it home to mum’s and it was great to see her and Billiam (god I can’t wait to go pick him up at the end of this month!), and it was great to sleep in her super soft, extra comfy, bed. Such a good sleep.

The next morning I woke up, had a shower (oh the joys of running water!) and off I went to catch the ferry to Nanaimo. I basically pulled up to the ferry terminal and drove right on the ferry. The ferry even left on time!

The ferry ride went by in a flash compared to the ferry to the Charlottes.

The drive up to Woss was uneventful. I did, however, get to see yet another deer, and an RV the size of a bus in the ditch.

I was glad to finally get to Woss, knowing I wouldn’t have to move from there for 6 whole days. It wasn’t the same without Chase though. I swear I kept hearing her tags rattling.

Day 3 – 6 Prince Rupert to Masset to Smithers

The first day in ages where I wasn’t up at 5 AM! Yay! 4:00 AM is oh so much better.

Woke up, packed up camp, crammed everything into the car, made sure I had no kitty trying to hitch a ride, and it was off to the ferry. Loaded onto the ferry with no problems, but according to BC Ferries I have never travelled to the Queen Charlottes, my mum has. I find that endlessly amusing.

The ferry was long. REALLY long. It was made worse by the amount of children. It was inescapable. 6 hours of being stuck on a ferry, especially after little sleep, gets old really fast. It didn’t help that the air conditioning was cranked way the hell up.

I met a couple while I was on the ship. They were an elderly couple, from Northern Alberta, on their way to Masset to go sport fishing with another couple. The wife wasn’t looking too hot. She was seriously sea sick. She was not looking forward to spending an additional 3 days on a small ship, fishing.

Once we docked in Skidegate I was immediately introduced to the island’s only traffic light. I chose to not stop in Skidegate and head straight north to Masset. It was a wonderful drive. The beaches along that drive are amazing.

I got a wee bit lost once I ended up in Masset, but I finally found where I was supposed to be, got to my camp site and set up camp. It was nice to know that I was settled for the next few days, especially after driving so long, so far, and being so unsettled.



I started to cook dinner, make a fire, and got ready to settle in. Just as I started to eat dinner it started to rain.

The days tend to run together at this point. It was pretty much the same every day. It rained. It was cold. I was miserable.

I didn’t get to see a lot of Graham Island, at least not what I maybe should have. I didn’t get to see the shipwreck, I didn’t get to see North Beach at Tow Hill, I didn’t get to see the whales that rolled in EVERY DAY because it was all I could do to keep myself warm and dry.

I did travel around the island a lot. I did drive out to Tow Hill in Naikoon Provincial Park, and I found the most amazing café, Moon Over Naikoon Café. The first time I went I had coffee and a chocolate chip cookie, and while I was eating my cookie I met a number of the locals, and a bunch of tourists. What was supposed to be a short stop turned into a very pleasant couple of hours. I also ended up being there while the fresh cinnamon buns came out of the oven and I got one just after the hot icing was drizzled over it. It was perfect.

I saw totem poles, I saw beaches, I saw the ocean, I went to a museum, I saw much, much beauty. It may have rained a lot, but I didn’t let that stop me.

I missed a lot because of the rain. It was just too wet and cold to be out too much, but I am glad I saw everything I saw.

The last couple of days were the hardest. I was tired of the rain, of being cold and constantly damp, and I hadn’t been able to reach my parents for days and I knew I was stuck until I could get the ferry, which only runs twice a week or so.

I finally was able to reach my mum the day before I was set to leave. It made a massive difference in the way I was feeling. When you have nobody to talk to, when you are so isolated from the outside world, and when it is so miserable you spend all your time in your tent, finally getting to connect with the outside world makes all the difference. Once I spoke to her my spirits were lifted and I was ready to face the storm that was blowing in.

The drive home was long, but it turned out to be quite interesting. I left Masset on Saturday, and nearly missed the ferry. I pulled up to the ferry, and apparently I was late because they had already started to load the stand-by vehicles. Nobody told me that I needed to be at the terminal 2 hours in advance, as it was I was a good 1.5 hours prior to the ferry’s departure. The people loading the ferry pretty much ignored me, and when I started to get very nervous about what was going on I finally managed to get their attention and explain to them that no, I was not on stand-by, and yes, I did in fact already have my boarding pass. I was the third to last vehicle to get on. I was not impressed, but I was glad to be going home.

Another 6 hour ferry ride topped off with 4 hours of driving made for a late night. I got into Smithers at 2:30, stopped at the first motel I saw, and slept like a log.