A smooth travel day!

OH MY ---- what is old? That's a great question. Remember when we were kids, and our parents were OLD! When I thought that, they were way younger than I am today. Being old is no longer the same as it was before! Thank goodness, and I have no intention of ever being old—my body will start to fail me (OK—so it has a wee bit), and my mind will start to go (maybe), but I will never consider myself old. 

It's only when you put a number to things that you start to realize - wow - 45 years married or a 50-year reunion - well, that just stops and makes you think! 

I don't tell people my age, although some of them try hard to guess. What does it matter if I'm 60, or 65, or 70 or 75? It doesn't matter to my friendships. I'm just me! 

OK - on a scale of 1 to ten with ten being chaotic, my travel day was a minus 5. Nothing happened - it was so smooth that it was almost unheard of! And that's a good thing. WAIT -- that's not true -- there were a couple of tiny glitches, but I had to dig deep to find them. 

I was a bit hesitant to leave Miss Murphy because of her anxiety, but she seems to be holding her own, so that is good. I had time to give them a walk together in the early morning before I left for the airport. 

Murphy, in her typical self to be FIRST, was pulling on that leash like she was in a race to get a juicy steak at the end. Why? Why can't she just walk normally when I walk them together? I could feel all the good being undone in my body because she hasn't been pulling lately. But they were happy to go for a walk. They won't be so happy this morning. 

MOM - hurry up - it's a race, and I need to be first! 

But I had to laugh because I typically wear a waistbelt to put my important documents in. I hate carrying a purse when I travel. OK - so I hate carrying a purse ever! So into that small pouch goes my passport and NEXUS card (never travel without either), and then I go through my small card holder and pull out only the cards I may need when traveling - health card, driver's license, debit and credit, and my Aeroplan card, although that information is in my app. You would think by now that I could remember the darn nine-digit number! OK -- I must check where the number is in the app and then leave that card at home. 

When I was putting stuff in my travel pouch, I found the last boarding pass. Hmmm -- I seem to favor seat 17D on planes! 

17D - my favorite seat

I have another small pouch that I use to walk the dogs. I can easily put my phone in it (I can put my phone in the other one as well, but it's tight), and I have poop bags for the girls. I put that one on too and reminded myself not to forget to take that pouch off when I got back to the house. 

Yep—you guessed it—I forgot to do that (saying goodbye to the girls, hustling the bags out the door because the Uber is close by, and I ended up at the airport with both pouches on). No worries - I used both. I don't care if anyone thought differently about me. It's no big deal, and I had my shirt tied around my waist because it was HOT at the airport and hot on the plane. I rarely ride on a plane in only a T-shirt. Above the waist - you get that! 

We had a lady pilot, and she was efficient. OK -- that's probably just the way things happened. The plane was loaded quickly (not one of the big ones), and we actually pulled away from the gate one minute before we were supposed to. I saw the notification that my bags were being loaded on the plane. OH -- wait - I forgot that small detail. 

When I went to print my bag tags at the kiosk, I got a boarding pass, but no bag tags. So I went to another kiosk. The lady beside me said she didn't get bag tags either, and she was watching me to see if I did something different. Neither of us told an Air Canada agent, so it will be a while before that machine got flagged as "ran out of paper!" Shame on us!!!!!

There seems to be an issue with the automatic bag drop. It sometimes has trouble reading the tags. I got lucky (again), and it only took two tries to scan my large bag and once for the small one. And then I was through security in a flash. All told, it took about ten minutes to get from the Uber drop-off at the front to beyond security. 

I watched the sixth Harry Potter movie. Oh boy -- they are getting dark! I have a hard time hearing with my tiny earbuds, but it was enough to keep me entertained, and I also slept well because I didn't sleep well the night before. Well, it wasn't that I didn't sleep well; I couldn't get to sleep. Too excited to see Bear, I suppose!!! 

Just for old times' sake, there is the tile in the Vancouver Airport washrooms. I think it's the best tile around. I checked the tile in the Toronto Airport, and it's boring. So boring, I forgot to take a picture of it!

Vancouver washroom tile

OH—I forgot to tell you what happened before I left my house. I went downstairs to have a quick peek to see if I left anything. No, but I picked up a few things and put them on the cutting table because those will be a priority to deal with. I put the two pet mats on the cutting table so I can fix the ends on the serged seam. Hmmm - I heard a clunk, and because they are filled with fabric scraps, there shouldn't be any noise. 

Then I started feeling one of them and OH MY --- I seem to have thrown my Chaco-liner in one of them and serged it up! I'll have to fix that when I'm home. 

OH—my Chaco liner got stitched into my pet mat.

Then I retrieved my bags at the airport, which didn't take that long, and off to the car rental. Let's just say that cars are expensive here, and I was told that's because it's summer. Well, it's summer in other places, and the prices are not that high! 

BUT, the agent at the car rental called someone to find my car for me. Yep—they had a car, but no idea where it was parked, and it took the guy a few minutes to find it and drive it to the pickup area. 

And then I drove to M's house so I could spend the afternoon with Bear. 

HEY -- Grandma came to see me!!!!!

He was freaking out when he heard me come in, but then he freaked out when Dillon came home from work. It took him quite a few minutes to settle down. I decided to sit on their gorgeous back deck and continue figuring out the error in that pattern. I wanted that off my plate. 

The view from the back deck

And I did!!!! I figured it out and sent off one last email to the designer. I have now put that pattern to bed, and when I'm home, I need to get the twelve blocks together, find a border, and put it in the "to be quilted pile!"

Once that was out of the way, it was time to do some exploring. Bear and I headed out to find some lunch. I chuckled because they live in an older neighborhood where the houses are being torn down and rebuilt. And they still have door-to-door mail delivery!

You've got mail!!!

Can you imagine how much exercise the mail person gets? All those hills on the streets and then to face this kind of walkway to all the houses? Down the steps from the street into the yard and then up the steps at the house, then back down and repeat at the next house. This location is not for the faint of heart or those afraid of steps! When you look down from the back deck, which is on the second floor of the house, it's a long way down!!! 

The walkway at the front of the house

We have to go down a relatively steep hill to get to Marine Drive, the main drag close to the water. There are several cute (not cheap) restaurants along that strip, and I found one. 

Going for a walk with Grandma!!!!

While they have dog-friendly patios, I'm not so sure about dog-friendly in the restaurant. I just grabbed him, took him inside, and ordered my food. Since they offered to bring it out to me, I'm assuming they don't like dogs in the restaurant. 

I've been here with M before and OH MY -- look at the desserts. They had small tarts that were $14 for ONE TART. I didn't buy that, but I did buy something as a treat. 

Yummy treats

I had avocado toast with salmon, and it was to die for. It wasn't super big, but oh my --- very yummy. 

Lunch - avocado toast!

And that little guy is a chick magnet. He gets comments everywhere he goes, and I think he knows it, and that just makes him even cuter!!!! 

We walked down to the beach and walked along until we got to the leash-free part. Some of the bigger dogs were having a grand old time in the water. I wonder what my girls would do? Lexi would probably take a wide berth, but Murphy might venture in. A couple of retrievers were having a heyday!

And then Bear and I sat on the rocks, and I ate my pain au chocolat! Yep -- that probably threw my body into a sugar tailspin! But it was a treat, and that's the first and last treat of the trip! 

Eating my pain au chocolat by the water

I mean - look at how cute he was sitting. This was when I was eating my treat. I didn't have treats for him, but he was a trooper. 

Grandma - I'm a good boy and deserve a treat!

Then we walked back to the house. I carried him up the hill because he was getting tired by then, but he did amazing! We sat on the back deck and snoozed - they have the same type of chair as I have in my gazebo. I took a call with my colleagues, read a bit, and just messed with my phone. The weather was glorious, and it was so nice to just relax and not have anything to do. Well, I suppose I could have done a bit of prep work (just exploring) some of the stuff I'll pass along today, but I think I got all that down. 

If you think gas is expensive back home, think again! 

Price of gas - over $2 a liter!

And in the neighborhood where M lives (on a hill), there are some houses I would never consider buying because of the driveways. I mean they are STEEP. This picture doesn't do justice to the pitch, and of course, the streets are narrow with no sidewalks and lots of trees - hedges, so visibility is crazy. 

Steep, narrow, and winding driveway

I wonder why giant hedges are a thing here? That is one thing I remember from coming out here as a kid -- why all those giant hedges? 

Giant hedges for privacy

While there are highways here, they are few and far between. To get to M's house from the airport, you have to drive right through downtown Vancouver. I spotted this building on the way to her house, and managed to get a picture on the way back. Can you imagine living in that cantilevered space? No thank you. It was dizzying just to take a picture. OH GOD -- when I was here last fall, I also took a picture of this building! 

Would you live in this apartment?

Dillon and I went out for dinner last night. M wasn't around yesterday because of work, so we had a quick visit and then I was off for a long drive through the traffic to get to my hotel. It wasn't that bad, but an hour drive through traffic? Not fun! When I arrived at the hotel, I brought in my bags and went to bed - I was exhausted with the time change! Bridges are bottlenecks!!! 

Every time I drive over the Lion's Gate Bridge (and I probably mention it in the blog), I'll never forget the time when I was riding my bike to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, in 2010. We started in Vancouver, and I remember riding through Stanley Park and seeing that bridge in the distance, knowing we had some steep climbing to get to it, and then we had to ride over it!! I need to go back to my old blog pages and remove them, because I fear they might disappear one day. 

I noticed that breakfast is no longer included in these hotels - Holiday Inn. Well, I'm not sure what price breakfast is, but I'll stop at Tim's. 

Oh shoot—I need to find a photo editor on my laptop that will crop photos. So I can't do that. In that case, I'll just share ONE word of wisdom today, which I think applies to many of us. 

What do you think? This is perfect!!!  OK—I Googled how to crop the photo, but that didn't work! Hmmm—as for the hobbies, I have one for keeping me in shape, and the other two? They just blend together. Do I make money? I do, but it never seems like much, and I'm OK with that. It's just fun!

Thank goodness Dillon and I were chatting throughout the day as he alerted me to buying movie tickets. Can you believe that I bought the tickets for our Christmas Day movie yesterday? Yep—tickets for Dune 3 in 70mm IMAX were released yesterday, and I managed to get decent tickets for Christmas Day. That's insane!!!!

August 17th was National Thrift Shop Day, and I found this video. It's very interesting and short, so be sure to take a peek. It's interesting how fast fashion has changed the world. It's not just fast fashion; it's all the stuff at the dollar store that has mostly become one-time use. That is very sad and so bad for our environment. 

I had no room in my sample suitcase and I mentioend that it weighted in at just under 50 lbs. I had to put the three puzzles in the my clothes suitcase and I dropped off two of those yesterday. I now have a lot of room and the suitcase is much lighter! 

And on that note, I need to get moving. I have to get ready for today, find breakfast somewhere, and then check in for the next flight later today. Yes—this trip is a whirlwind. 

If you are in the Langley, BC area today, be sure to pop out to Castle Sewing Center and say hi, check out the New PFAFF creative icon 3. 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!