Out On The Town.....:-)

I have spent several years living in the Southwestern part of the United States before moving to BC. So, when you move to a place like British Columbia where there is always more rain than sunshine, it can be quite an adjustment. I have NOT adjusted after nearly 5 years. When you can actually go and do something without feeling like a drowned cat is rare. Most of the time, I just brave the weather with Scootard or I would never go out for most of the year. This particular morning, we had some business in the "Big City" and decided to get going and try to make the best of things..

I love being by the water and I especially like looking at boats and yachts as well as RV's and other modes of travel.  Even though it was over cast outside, the marina was still beautiful....:-)

Strangely enough, I don't like it when my clothes get wet.  I figure if I have to do the rain thing, I should at least have an umbrella.  I didn't have one with me so I decided to take the pics from the car.

I did finally stop raining after a while, but we were on the move again.  I love to ride through the down town areas of big cities to see what they have done to beautify their surroundings.  I'm sure this has been there for a long time, but I don't remember seeing it before.
 

Cityscapes always make great pictures if you have the right camera to take them with.  They are especially pretty at night when everything has slowed down and people have settled in to their homes.

And this is a movie set that we happened upon while driving around.  I don't know what the movie is going to be or who is in it, but we got there just in time to see them shooting a scene where an older man was having a conversation with a younger man that turned a little rough.  They shoot a lot of movies in Vancouver or White Rock and places like that.  If you look at the guy in the "ribbed jacket" on the left, you can see him holding a long microphone or whatever that thing is.  You can also see the shade screens that they are using.

  

Here is the scene that they shot where the older guy got rough with the younger.....I wonder what this movie is going to be called and if it is in French or English......hummmm.
Oh well.... I guess I missed having my name in lights that day! ha

We were near a historic place called "Gas Town".  This is a statue of Gassy Jack Deighton.
He was a Canadian bar owner.  He most have sold a lot a liquer to get a bronze statue of himself erected!
He died at the age of 44 in 1875.  

We made our way out of Gas Town and I took some pictures of other things I thought nice.  Scootard wanted to take fountain pics......:-).  I can imagine just sitting there and letting the water run over your feet.  That is if it ever gets warm enough here to do such a thing......:-(.

Some one had the idea that this would add to the beautification of Vancouver.....I find it a bit confusing.....

One of my favorite things to see are the lions that sit at the entry way of the Lion's Gate Bridge......  I just happen to be able to get this picture without car pollution.

And I remember the first time I rode Ms Vicky across this.  It seemed like I held my breath forever before we got to the other side.  It doesn't look too bad right now, but at the time I was on it with my scooter....there were a LOT more cars than what you see here.

We finally decided to go for lunch some place and decided on a place called Lonsdale Quay ( pronounced Lonsdale Key).  I know.....weird.  I like all of the stores and shops here......

I wanted to sit outside as I find the water very calming and beautiful.  But if a Canadian says "if you go out there, the wind is going to suck the heat right off your bones".....you might want a table inside! haha

So, we settled down at a table right by the window and I asked about this boat.  It's a fire boat thingee.  Coming from the SW part of the United States, I don't see these unless I'm in Canada or some other coastal town where they have a lot of marinas.

by now, we were starving.  I had a typical lunch.  I know some of my friends don't eat animal products.  I haven't gotten there yet although I have tried and almost starved to death.

Scootard ordered some Spanakopita  which is a greek dish of spinach, feta and spices in filo wrapping.  Not enough protein for me although I would eat this with something else.  

I looked around a bit and then we had to get going as we still had the rest of the day ahead of us for running the business.

We made our way through the city and finally headed back home......

I'm glad it finally stopped raining, the sun came out for a bit and the day ended with warmer weather than when we started out in the morning.....:-)

see ya next time!

The Last Miles of the Way...:-)

Morning came early and we had a couple of appointments we had to keep.  The first one being at 7:00am!  Yikes!  So, we headed off into the fog of Washingting to get things done so that we could finally make the last leg of the trip home.

It would have been such a hassle to try to drag our trailer around everywhere we went.  So, we left the trailer and went to take care of things and then came back to the hotel and had breakfast.

Now, you gotta realize that we are spoiled and are used to having our French Pressed Coffee with.  But there was no time for that.
 

We slammed down breakfast and made out way through the city.....

 Its a very uneventful drive toward Canada unless you want to stop at some of the stores or outlet malls along the way.  We didn't.
 

As you can see, traffic was exactly buzzing yet.  Unless of course they were going in the other direction.

You know you are in the Northwest when you have to pay this for gas.  And we weren't even in Canada yet where it was going to be $6.25!

After six months of driving around, we have had to change our tires and have had to have our oil changed 4 times since we have been gone!  It was cheaper to get it done BEFORE we crossed the border.

and then we continued on toward Vancouver....

Now, it started getting interesting in regard to the traffic....ha.  Seemed like everybody was trying to get back into Canada.  I don't think we saw ANY US tags for a few miles.  The US/Canada border was in view!

We had so much stuff in the car, we made sure we had the declaration form filled out and on the door of the
car before we reached the border.

And the next thing you know, we were in another country! Wow, what an adjustment this was going to be after so long of living in my own country.

When you have been gone for 6 months, your refrigerator is going to need a lot of help.

It took us longer than what I wanted, but we made sure we had what we needed so that we would not have to run out and get something later.

 after taking care of that, we were back on the road with a few other errands to run before making our two hour trip back home.

when we finally got into our own town, we were met with this......geeze.  You know at this point you just want to get home and NOT live out of a suitcase for a few days....:-(.

after a few grueling minutes in traffic in our town, we made it home safe and sound!  What a ride this has been....:-).

And so our journey has come to an end...:-).  Thanks for going with us all of this time!  We will see you again soon with another adventure...:-)

God bless you!

Grants Pass, Oregon To Seattle Washington!

Changing from one climate to the next can be challenging.  Especially if you are like me and don't like to be cold or wet; or cold AND wet.  Oregon was the foggy place I expected it to be much like Seattle.  And given the time of year it is, I didn't much expect it to be warm.  But the fog can be unnerving when you have to drive it.  I was glad Scootard was the driver! haha

We passed through this little historic town called Coburg which was littered with antique shops.  We stopped at this one to see what was inside.  I'm still thinking "garden" even though the car was just about packed to the hilt and the "garden" was back in Oklahoma....:-)

It was very "girly" inside if you know what I mean.  A lot of antigue trinkets and stuff.  But the lady was very nice and very knowledgeable about the history of the house which was standing in that very sopt since 1896.

Ok...gotta go!  We need to get to Washington since we told some friends we would meet them for dinner...

The sign said, "Oregon Thanks You".....so I said ''Your Welcome"....:-).

We finally got to Washington.  I remember being in Tacoma riding Ms Vicky.  It was my first long distance trip on a scooter.  We were headed for Portland on that trip.  I have a blog about that one too!  sheesh.  What a ride that was!

There were a lot of bridges along the way......I like bridges....:-)

And before you knew it; actually many hours from when we started out in the morning, we made it to Renton, Washington.  We stayed at the hotel on our long scooter ride to Portand.  It was weird to be back by way of car this time.

The sun was setting by the time we got checked in and called our friends to let them know where to meet us....

We headed for a very popular resturant that we had eaten at a few times before.  The food is usually very good but often too large of portions to finish in one sitting.  I was glad the fire place was on as it was quite chilly outside.  We had to drive to a city called Tukwila, Washington to get to it.

Our friends were running a bit late because of traffic, so we decided to check out the menu while we waited.

Yay!!  They made it...:-)  Thanks for meeting us on such a short notice!

.
I decided to order something I had never seen "put together" before.  I order a jerk chicken and sweet potatoes dish with mango salsa or something like that.  It was very good.  I don't know everyone else had.  I was face first in my own food! haha

This restaurant is also known for its huge deserts...

That is ONE piece of cake.  If you want to take it with you, it goes into something that resembles a shoe box! Chris bought a piece once and it took him two days and help from two people to finish it.  I rest my case.

 So, we ordered this instead...ha.  These was pretty large serving sizes as well.  It took all four of us sharing both deserts to finish them.  I think when we left , there was still one piece of cheesecake left.

And so, after some great food with some great folks, it was time to say goodbye, get some sleep and head for the border the next day.

Stay tuned!