Thanksgiving Weekend recap
This year's festivities weren't too bad!! Wednesday I started early by skipping out of work at noon and having
lunch with my mom down at the Supermall. I had won a $100 gift card to Dress Barn (the worst name for a fat-girl
clothing store ever!) that I needed to claim, so we made lunch out of it. I came home and got started on
pre-Thanksgiving prep. Dinner was to be at my mom and stepdad's house, but I had volunteered to make the
turkey, stuffing and gravy. I LOVE to entertain, and I would host every year if I could! I made my now-famous
turkey roulade, cornbread suasage stuffing and gravy from homemade turkey stock. Which I thicken with gingersnap crumbs.
Amazingly enough, everything turned out just right, and we left for my mom's exactly at noon, like planned.
I was amazed that I hadn't f*cked anything up. :)
Dinner was uneventful, just hanging with Mom, my stepdad Ray, his oldest sone and his grandaughter who's 19. We played a few board games and left.
The next day, we took a can down to the train station and waited to start our big trip. Here was the basic plan:
Take the train to Vancouver and cab to our hotel, stay two nights and train back. I LOVE taking the train and will use any excuse to take it.
Besides, I want to bring my new laptop and play some games with Erik, read my new book and play cards.
We got a screaming deal, too. 2 RT tickets and 2 nights at the Ramada right on Granville for $290, total. Score!
Well, the super-cheap train tickets should have been my first clue. When we got to the station, there wasn't a sign for Vancouver on the podium. I asked around a bit, and was told, "It's a thruway." As if that's supposed to mean something? Turns out, it's a fricking BUS to Vancouver. Nowhere on our ticket or one the website does it say a bus, because I never would have booked it if it was. I get carsick easily,
so I wouldn't last very long on a bus! We hemmed and hawed it for a bit, then got on the bus. It took me about 10 minutes before I just flipped out. I couldn't use my laptop, read any of my books or anything. I knew I would just fume I asked Erik how he felt about driving, and he said it would be ok! So we got a refund (didn't even have to complain, the agent at the counter said this happened a lot).
and took a bus home, then hopped in the car and started driving!
Aside from the FOUR HOUR WAIT at the border, our drive was uneventful. Yeah, that's not including our drive time, that was four
uninterrupted hours of waiting, in which we drove exactly one mile to the border. I was understandably cranky by the time we made it to the boothm, so when the border agent started asking me rapid-fire questions, I got stuttery and flustered. That landed us a trip to the office, where we had to wait in another line so they could take our passports for 10 minutes and make us sweat. By the time they let us leave I was ready to scream! We made it to our hotel by 8 and sacked out after dinner. Our hotel was in the West End area of Vancouver, which is our favorite part. Tons of clubs and shops, and everything's open late.
We did a little sight-seeing the next day, then went to a private party that night. The drive home the next day was really uneventful!
Only a 45 minute wait, and the US guard was actually nice.
It was wonderful to get away! We definitely need to take more weekends away with each other.