Full Moon 20110811
The growing moon wowed our sights as we walked back to the car in Vancouver. It’s our first day in Canada and reunited as a family after a 5 day separation.
One of my friends is careful to refer to her last camping expedition as a trip versus vacation since she’s under no illusions of relaxing. She’s just moving her life with 4 kids to another locale. I think that’s a wise attitude. Preparing for this trip has been emotionally exhausting and the logistics a bit monstrous.
Complicating factors:
It’s a different country.
Unable to use phone due to expense.
Husband away.
Still having to work and care for kids by myself while completing lots of packing.
My Mom’s knee injury and juggling doctors appts.
Will the parents come?
How to communicate and connect while in a campground not able to use phone?
How to keep thoughts in my head while I’m constantly interrupted?
Unable to communicate well with Wayne while he’s busy with Siggraph, staying up later than me.
A sick, exhausted husband.
Laura hitting her tooth and freaking me out. I did not want to go to the ER.
Both kids stressed by travel today and acting a bit out of character.
I had dreams of leaving early to go play on Granville Island when it’s not snowing. Alas, it was not to be. I found setting timers not an intuitive process. I braided hair, repacked the food box, and myriad other tasks. The girls finished Rango from the night before, a rented treat via Papa.
We finally left at 1pm. It worked out ok for timing naps so the girls were awake for the border crossing. I raced down the road to my audiobook by the pioneer woman. It’s not great, but it kept me awake and had me reminiscing about my romance and wedding to Wayne. It made me anticipate our reunion more.
The skagit valley faded away to the hills before Bellingham. We didn’t stop. The girls were slow to sleep. Laura cried about being too hot (likely a symptom of needing to nap). When they finally slept, I didn’t stop. I skipped the beloved Ferndale McD’s for sleep.
We stopped at the final rest area. The girls awoke. I tried to ply snacks in them and get them to run around. Both my girls that camp, started screaming about bees (none swarming, just a few lazily wandering among flowers feet away). I pegged it up the strangeness of new places. So we got in the car and headed to the border w/awake children, the state I needed them in.
I was worried after I read I needed notarized permission from my husband to take kids across the border. Wayne didn’t think it was a problem, but my mind flitted to worry.
It wasn’t a problem. Traffic was the problem. I’d left late enough for the lovely timing of a good nap before the border, but late enough for a long wait at the Massey Tunnel. I prayed for no need for bathroom breaks. Movies work wonderfully in such situations for distraction.
When I made it into South Vancouver environs, there were calls for bathrooms. I scouted out my backup, Chapters. I had no Canadian money. I parked illegally and ran in.
Then off to Wayne. We found the parking by the convention center at 900 Cordova at 5:30pm. I was disoriented and hadn’t grabbed a map. Any smart phone activity was expensive. We were texting to google voice to a dollar per minute. I came up with no view of the water and turned around. I called for Wayne.
We reunited! I found a sick, hoarse, beleaguered husband, exhausted after a fun, but draining conference of little sleep. His cold had wreaked havoc. He was happy to see us and us him.
Wayne whisked us to the Old Spaghetti Factory, the first time with the kids. The decor was fun with a trolley car in the middle of the Gastown location. It was very nostalgic to finally take the girls there. I think the food is ok, but you know what you’re getting. There was some grumbling about no French Fries. This is the staple food for restaurant, but I wanted to hold it in reserve given our likelihood of eating out a lot over the coming days.
By meal’s end with Spumoni, we were all spent. It was a long walk back the car. It was hard to tell who was more cranky with tiredness, sickness, footsoreness, and travel-induced fatigue. I took some quick photos, but evidentally I missed the convention center’s beauty with it’s views, torch, and gardens. I will have to return to that place that entranced Wayne who’s such a veteran if convention centers and not lightly impressed.
The full moon was our companion to the car and beyond. We drove thru a very sketchy area getting to the Burnaby Accent hotel. It made a nice home. No pool, no breakfast, but nice, soft sheets for sleep, the balm we all needed.
My packing paid off. The take off to the hotel was smooth with minimal bags. We enjoyed my picnic kit for breakfast with added apples from the front desk. This was the only fruit we had since the US. That’s a glaring absence from my kids menu since most of our meals include it.
20110812 Friday Fraser Valley & Kamloops
Slept till 0800! Fed girls with picnic supply and apples from front desk.
Some brief organization.
0930 in car. 0950 on highway.
1051 enjoying sinking into vacation mode and the rhythm of the road. Slipping thru Fraser Valley along bucolic farmlands of strawberry and endive.
Even the graffiti in Canada is gentle- cute, cartoony turtles.
Popkum is a quaint name.
Ahhhhh! Mountains appearing.
Getting bearings since we’re without our trip leader. My assumption that CA Hwy 5 might be desolate and devoid of services is proving correct.
Well out of the city, we stopped at Hope, where all roads divide.
1130 amazing gas station. Had some produce! Lovely bananas! We indulged in dips (split between 3 girls = 3/person) and a Klondike for Wayne and his sore throat. It was our pre-lunch snack and rest stop before entering the no man’s zone of the Coq.
1300 Merritt. Definitely in high desert. We picked this place from the map as a better stop for groceries and lunc than Kamloops. With limited data on our iPhone, we relied on the old fashion method of our eyes. Which of the four exits to take? We chose the one with meager sign advertising city center, but only an A&W or Subway. Those seemed less than useful. This meal was our planned dinner given Clearwater’s tinyness. Subway can be good, but has little to interest the girls.
We drove and explored the main drag. I caught site of a pharmacy and then a new, fancy grocery called Cooper’s. So we settled on A&W, which is my new favorite fast food joint that’s not a major chain like McD’s (that’s actually a title to a chapter in my upcoming book). A&W now takes up an affectionate corner of my heart that has other residents like the Varsity of Atlanta or Dick’s of Seattle. I’ve added Bob’s Burger’s of Skagit Valley and beloved Burgerville of North Oregon/Portland. A&W feels like an old, tired Arby’s. I like neither roast beef nor rootbeer and both these chains wrap themselves around these food types to stand out from masses of fast food. Often the restaurants feel tired and dated.
Tired was not this place. It served us well. I studied the confusing menu of burger names like Mama and Uncle. There was no clear description of what those were. There were big photos, but it was hard to tell what was actually there. Was the white layer an onion or mayo? What’s a Whistle Dog? Is it a hotdog Laura would eat? Do they have kids meal? The poutine with fries was clear on the menu. The others remained mysteries.
I figured it all out. A whistle dog is a hotdog wrapped in bacon and mustard. The burgers were very good as were the onion rings. The kids did have meals and got “dunkaroos”, cookies dunked in icing.
It was an enjoyable meal.
1530 Kamloops is a big town. Glad we found shopping and food in Merritt. It came at the right time and was the right size for exploring and finding shopping and lunch.
Leaving “the coq”. Aka Coquithalla highway-5 from Hope to Kamloops.
Following the North Thompson river. High desert is disappearing to more farmland again. The green of Clear Valley is clear.
Clearwater came quicker than expected. We stopped at the I (visitor info in Dad’s vocab) for maps. We ran into folks from Ft Murray and talked about the tarpits. Morine Lake and Enchanted Forest and Jackson painted pots were suggestions.
We settled in at the KOA cabins. We found a lovely dinner home at Double R Pizza. A pleasant husband and wife team on a rural street off the main drag making pizza. The girls got to used chalk on the outside cement walls.
I took the girls swimming for an hour. They are improving!
The full moon was rising again tonight.