Mmemorial Day

Oh the long weekend. How I love thee?  As a contractor I only get 2 weeks of vacation a year - which isn't very much - and REALLY isn't very much when you have a 10 day cruise scheduled later in the year that will eat up those two weeks.  So the three day weekends makes me happy.

About a thousand years ago, our little group of friends who all played volleyball headed over to Wenatchee for a volleyball tournament. We camped. If you can believe it.  We drank. Shocking I know. And we played volleyball.  Blueberry and I ended up actually winning our division that year in women's doubles.  I did say it was a lifetime ago right.

Anyhow, the t-shirts we got for registering for the tournament misspelled Memorial Day to be Mmemorial Day. Every sense then, I say MehMemorial Day.

I had a relatively lax weekend.  I spent part of my weekend making really bad decisions about what I put into my mouth that will ultimately end up on the scale and the hips somewhere.  This eating healthy thing is hard work. And while I'm okay with my decisions, I still feel frustrated at how quickly I can, and will, make those rotten decisions. Ugh. Work in Progress. I know. I say it to myself all the time.

Though this time I didn't try to blame anyone else, like Blueberry, for a change. Even though she was the one who MADE me go to the movies yesterday and MADE me get a popcorn (with butter) and MADE me go to the new Buffalo Wing restaurant in the hood and MADE me order a cheeseburger...I didn't blame her once.  Snicker Snicker.

Seriously, while she was with me and while we had a good time at the movies, I am well aware of my decisions and what they cost me.  On the bright side, I did manage to get to the gym Sunday and Monday.  I can't remember if I went Saturday or not.

So this weekend...let's see what did happen.

Last week my kitchen sink faucet broke.  Its a good thing for a couple of reasons.  I hated the faucet that was on there (but be careful for what you wish for) and I didn't have to pay to replace it - well pay money. I paid for it by not having a sink to really use for a couple of days.

Mrs. Landlord and I went to pick out the faucet on Friday. Mr. Landlord would be along later to replace the faucet.  Mrs. Landlord let me pick, within reasonable cost, the faucet I wanted.  I really wanted one of those touch ones but opted to not fork over any of my money and just get a nice stainless steel one with a pull out sprayer. 

Mr. Landlord got there and proceeded to unhook the old faucet. Which sounds easy on the surface. And was easy for about 80% of it. Then we got stuck. And by "we" I mean him.  While Mrs. Landlord and I were "helping" him, we couldn't figure out why the old faucet would not come off the sink.  Mr. Landlord thought he had everything unhooked etc.  So we opted to head to Home Depot and ask the experts.  Armed with more information, we headed home.  Sure enough, there was a rusted c-clap and a very unwilling to move nut.  With the patience of a saint, Mr. Landlord was ultimately able to get the two off.  Then it was dinner time.

Saturday they came back over and Mr. Landlord installed my new faucet.  Blueberry and Princess Lori came over too. We ate tacos. We chatted. We laughed. We made vision boards - well Mrs. Landlord did and Blueberry cut out pieces of paper for hers.  It was a good time.  They all left and I went to do the dishes. No cold water.

I got under the sink and couldn't find the turn on valve for the cold water.  In fact, I could only see one valve and it was on. So I sent Mr. Landlord a note and asked.

Sunday my friends from the North and owners of my favorite two golden retrievers came down to visit. P&S have the two most lovely dogs every.  2yo goldens are full of piss and vinegar, but my word they are beautiful dogs.

This is Oggy. I think.  He's a trouble maker.  He finally settled down, but he was up and about and smelling everything. He knew there was a cat in house, but couldn't quite find him - thankfully, for Pookie's sake. 

This is Rowan. He and Oggy think they're lap dogs.  In fact, at one point of the night, Oggy was laying on the back of my couch. On. The. Back. Hilarious. Rowan's the more "mellow" of the two, but he still has some trouble making abilities in him.

Ahhh the whole family.  The other two non furry ones are my friends P and S. They love their dogs, and spoil them rotten. Which is how it should be.

Yesterday, Blueberry and I went to see Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp saved the movie. It was just ok and without Johnny Depp it would have sucked.

And now today I'm back at work. Trying to make a plan for this week and plan on making good, healthy decisions.  I have upped my work out routine to now be interval training on the elliptical.  My word that kicks my a**, but it's worth it. And when I'm done, I feel good.  That is, after all, what its all about.

Happy Birthday Sparky

Its hard to believe that it's been a year since I drove Sparky home.  I remember the day like it was yesterday.  I had purchased Sparky the week before and she had to be shipped up from Vegas.

That week of waiting was agonizing.  I imagined car accidents with the truck carrying Sparky flipping. I imagined her getting up here and not liking her. But I mean how could I not.  I had seen a photo and what's not to love.

The dealership had her all wiped down and sitting pretty in the show room. It was love at first site.  Immediately she was  named Sparky. 

I drove Sparky home with the top down.  The weather was questionable. A typical Seattle spring day, clouds high in the sky and sun showing through.  As I drove across the bridge to Redmond from Seattle, I knew this was the car for me.

That was 365 days and 8700 miles ago.  (Side note: My last mustang I drove only 3700 miles in a year. You think I like driving Sparky more?).

Happy Birthday Sparky. Here's to another several years!

Hey! You over there!

Since my last post about the true rules, and since finishing the book the Happiness Project, I've been trying very hard to pay attention to happiness. Not only in myself, but all around me. 

I do believe, and always have, that happiness is something we create for ourselves.  We're not always in the mood to be happy, and sometimes forget it does take effort.  And being happy, once you've done it for a while, isn't that hard.

Facebook seems to be a place to witness the unhappy. It might be the time of year, the week, the  month, whatever, but since I've been paying attention to the happiness around me, I've been somewhat surprised at the unhappiness of my friends. 

There are those friends who by and large are happy and were just having a bad day.  I get it. I've been there.  The boss drops a bomb on you and you're forced to stay late. Or you missed a deadline for reasons you can't control, and the boss notices.  Bad days happen. 

Yet I've noticed that some of my friends are consistently putting negative feeling comments in FB.  Do they not have anything happy in their lives? Or have things been so bad that they just can't see happiness?  I wonder about those friends and what I can do to help them. I have noticed that unhappy people don't particularly want help, advice, or guidance from happy people.  So I'm left wondering how I can help make them be a bit more happy? 

What makes me happy? A ton of things make me happy. There isn't enough time in the day some times to think of all of them.  I have been trying to think of three things every day that makes me happy. You wouldn't think it'd be hard, but let me tell you, when you're having a bad day, it's almost impossible. It's like scaling a tall building without any ropes.

Yesterday I had what I call a "I-can't-get-enough-food"day.  I ate my calories, and I was still hungry.  I wish I knew what caused that.  I could. Not. Stop. Eating.  Which of course, bummed me out. I was doing well most the day. I worked out - hard. Sat down on the couch to read and got hungry. Ate dinner. Didn't feel satisfied so ate some more.

You know low calorie snacks are good and help keep your calories on track - except when you eat several of them.  Princess Lori said to me one day after I mentioned the Nature Valley Thin Crisps are only 80 calories each, she asked, "How many in a box?" I said, "10." Her response, "then that's 800 calories for me. I'd eat the whole box."

And that's what yesterday was like. 

Still I made my list of three things that made me happy yesterday - as I sat discouraged on the couch I came up with one instantly.

1. Food.

I have tried to not duplicate what makes me happy so I really had to think hard. 

Then as if someone upstairs heard me (I think it was Grandma Spaid) I saw out of the corner of my eye Pookie fall off the back cushion of my chair.  In slow motion I saw him slip, then SPLAT on to the ground.  I laughed so hard my sides ached.  I couldn't catch my breath. As he walked around the side of the chair he was all, "I meant to do that." attitude. OMG...that cat!  I got the gut shaking giggles and had to call the MomUnit to report what the cat had done. 

2. Pookie

Still I was at a loss for what my third one for the day could be.  I remembered I had taken photos of the Sunday dinner crowd so decided to check them out.

3. Smores

Sunday dinner I did S'mores for dessert. Dinner was a disaster, thankfully S'mores saved the day.

Can you come up with three things daily that make you happy?

Examine your True Rules

I’m reading this book right now from Gretchen Rubin called The Happiness Project.  In this book Gretchen decides to try to be happy for a year. She puts together a plan with goals for each month and works her way through each one. As she does she discovers how easy, at times, being happy really is.  

The book goes into great detail about her goals and how she attempts to achieve them. Along the way she discovers that some goals aren’t worth keeping up, while others changed her life. 

Towards October in the book (the book is broken into months) she discusses what she calls “True Rules.” Basically mental “rules of thumb”. These are your everyday rules you use to solve problems or to comment away things.  She also says that while we hold them as true they may not be true and may be holding us back from seeing the real truth. We so completely believe our true rule that we don’t pause to consider their validity. 

Now, true rules aren’t always wrong. That’s not her point. Her point is stopping to consider if they are true or that you’ve just deemed it so. And should you continue to live your life by following them.  

She lists a few true rules as well as some from her friends.  I found many of them were also on my list as well. It took me a couple of days to come up with my list, and I find, even today, that I’ll spout something off and think, ”That’s a true rule of mine.”

1.     What would my mother do?

2.     Always smile and say hello.

3.     Change is challenging and good.

4.     Always plan then execute.

5.     Plans don't always work out. Be flexible.

6.     Choose the bigger life.

7.     Things have a way of turning out for the best.

8.     Get some exercise every day. (This is obviously a new one for me.)

9.     I know as much as most people.

10.  Listen first, then comment.

 What are your true rules?

Lipstick and other such fancy stuff

The sun was out in Seattle this weekend.  You know what that means right? It means every one and their dog was on the road and out and about doing something. My weekend was entirely too exhausting and now I need some rest.  Besides losing my 20th lb, which was exhausting and exciting on so many levels, here's what else took place in the life of Jenn.

My back deck was green. Not from paint or anything fancy like that, but from moss. Seattle buildings, cars and people, tend to have this green slimy mossy covering on them.  If you let it go it can be a beast to get rid of.  I had let the deck go for long enough.  Plus, the sun was high in the sky and it was HOT (well for Seattle) what better time to clean the moss off. The deck looks good now. It still needs another good scrubbing, but it'll do for now.

The cob webs were getting out of control too. I'm pretty sure, if it were possible, I could weave the cob webs that I dusted or swept up into a nice dress for myself.  There were THAT many.  Now Redmond has a few displaced spiders who's homes have been destroyed.

The laundry mound is now nothing but an empty basket.  Not only did I do TONS of laundry, but I actually folded it and put it away.  What a concept, I know.  It was odd to get dressed in my room today and not sneak downstairs and get dressed in the downstairs bathroom.  It was way more efficient too, I might have to start working on doing this every week. 

Because it was so nice this weekend, all the windows in the house were open.  By opening them, I was able to see all the gunk, dirt, and dead bugs on the windowsills.  They all got a good wipe down too. I don't think I got them all, but most of them are at least clean for now.

Sparky and I took to the streets to meet the Landlords for dinner on Saturday night.  We drove 15 miles out of our way to get to dinner.  It was sunny, remember?  We ate at this dive-ish bar in downtown Bellevue called The Spot on Main.  Not a large menu, and my meal was gross.  The waitress - who had seen better days and was using makeup to hide the weathered life she had - informed us that there was no chef and the wait staff was fixing the meals.  Oh boy.  I ordered a burger and figured, how hard could that be? Apparently difficult.  It was gross.  I ate it, but it was gross.

I had to have Breakfast with the Pantry Goat too.  It was another glorious day so I drove out to West Seattle to pick her up. We weren't sure where we were going to go, but we headed into Seattle. She suggested Pike Place Market for breakfast.  My inclination was, "Are you kidding? Pike Place on a sunny Sunday that happens to be Mother's day?"  The hoards of people I knew we'd be fighting just didn't seem appetizing.  Still, I stuffed that thought away and decided to go with the flow.  We found parking that required us to do some exercise to get to the market, so at least I'd be working off the breakfast I was about to have.

We settled on the Athenian.  Turns out this was the restaurant Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner sat in in a scene from Sleepless in Seattle.  In fact the stools they sat on have plaques indicating as much.

I didn't even realize this restaurant was here. I've walked past it a hundred times and never noticed.  It's an old structure that had some great views from upstairs.  Decent food, but nothing WOW'ing about it. 

After dumping the goat off at her waterfront villa, I headed home. I wanted to put another good scrubbing on the deck and get some more stuff done around the house.  Blueberry and her brother came by and got his stuff I'd been storing in my garage out. Well, most of it.  In the process, Blueberry was moving a mirror then started to drop it and in her attempt to not drop the mirror and break it incurring 7 years of bad luck, she chose to fall to the ground and catch it. In doing so, she tagged the back end of Sparky and gave Sparky a little ding.  She, apparently, thought my wrath was better than 7 years bad luck from the mirror. I let her live, but barely.

Okay so it's just a small scratch.

The Pantry Goat needed more food so she came over for a proper burger last night.  My burger itch hadn't been scratch on Saturday so I needed something to get me through the week.  Surprisingly, with all the crap I at this weekend I managed to not gain an ounce back. Woot.

Lastly, I cleaned out my bathroom drawers last night. I don't have much in my drawers and found the bottom drawer almost completely empty.  But I did find some lipsticks I hadn't worn in forever. Some time ago I stopped wearing lipsticks. Not sure why, but I remembered at my friend Lourdes' Celebration of Life her sisters talking about how Lourdes said to always have "lips" on cuz you never know who you'll meet.  I decided last night to start wearing lips again.  Thanks Lourdes for the reminder.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to figure out how to take a nap today AND work at the same time.

Goal #1 accomplished: 20 lbs LOST

5 months ago, I weighed 273 lbs. 

Gulp.

That’s really hard to type and put out there. But there it is.

Two hundred and seventy three pounds!

It was after my annual Tucson Christmas trip that got me thinking. Plane rides had become increasingly uncomfortable for me. I never know just how small the seats are going to be and whether I will “comfortably” fit into them.  This trip my fears came true. Not only were the seats smaller (at least they felt smaller) but this time I had to ask for a seat belt extender. I was officially mortified.

When I returned home from Christmas I decided it was time.  So I took my first step. I stepped onto the scale.

As I stood on a scale in my bathroom, I saw the number. 273 lbs. I knew I had to get into shape. I had to make myself healthy. Although, getting into shape and getting healthy for me at that moment meant a massive life overhaul.

I felt lost, and scared, and fat. 

I was at the crossroads of being almost 300lbs and choosing to live a healthy life.  This change would be hard. I had lost that ability to say to myself, “yeah I’m big, but I’m not going to ever be that big.” I was teetering on the edge of being “that big.”

From as far back as I can remember I was overweight.  Bigger, than chubby, if you will. My weight gradually rose from birth through the college years, through the 20’s, 30’s and so on. It has always defined who I thought I was and more importantly how I felt others saw me. 

Being fat was all I knew.

As I stepped off the scale, I didn’t have to ask myself how I had got there. I knew.  At first, my mind went to the obvious- the food. I loved food. The pastas, the meats, the breads, the pizzas, the chips, the fast food, all of it. Then my mind went to the genes- we’re big people.  I played the blame game for a bit. It was easier to blame my family genes than to take accountability.  

I knew the truth, though. 

I didn’t become obese (God I hate that word) because I loved food or because my family was big. I became obese because I was making all the horrible food choices, for all the right reasons. Over the years I trained myself to use food to supplement my life and my emotions. I loved food and food loved me. When I was feeling insecure or anxious, I could control the food- the kind and the amount. When I felt nervous, food reassured me. When I was anxious food soothed me. When I was sad, food lifted me up. For every.single.emotion I could turn to food and food would love me back.

At 43 years old, though, food didn’t love me anymore. My dependency on it needed to come to an end. Desire to change on that cold day in January standing on the scale, is what brought me to make the decision to change. It brought me to the Redmond Athletic club. It brought me to Jenny Craig. It brought me to the realization that I can make the right choices about my health and my diet.

What’s been helpful for me, I think, is living one day at a time. I try not to look at the big picture, the many, MANY pounds to be lost that are looming over me. With 100+ pounds to go before I reached the finish line of weight loss and good health, it was very easy to become discouraged. I just try to get through the day feeling my best and knowing that I just kicked [insert the day] in the pants. There have been times when I think, “Oh my God, I can’t eat another Jenny Craig meal and not have Dorito’s ever again.” But then I asked myself, “Can you do it today, Jenn? Just today?” The answer was easy. Yes. Yes I could.

Eventually I’ll arrive at my goal weight – whatever that weight is. My journey to that point will likely be at once the most agonizing and gratifying experience of my life. And being smaller, almost half my size, will be terrifying. How do you maintain a weight you’ve never known? How do you live moderately? What is normalcy? The answers to these questions are a mystery to me. I have no frame of reference for my new body because I only knew two modes: overeating and dieting. Learning to maintain my weight will be as hard as losing it. But that story will have to wait. 

Lastly I wanted to thank everyone that’s been cheering me on.  I don’t tell you every day, but your up-lifting and kind words do keep me going.  I keep them in a folder in my email so on the days I’m feeling discouraged, I can pull them out and feel your strength.  At the end of all this, we’ll celebrate. With low-cal food choices of course.

No Matter What They Say – it Ain’t EASY!

Recently I had a discussion with a friend who’s trying to lose weight about a “get skinny quick” diet she tried and failed at.  She was a bit discouraged that this new diet promised instant results and said it was so easy you didn’t have to change your eating habits.

It got me thinking about the diet industry.  In general, it’s mostly a lie.  If you flip through any magazine in the grocery store line, you’re almost guaranteed to see some ads for losing 10 lbs within a week. Or you’ll see words like “easy”, “fast” and “simple”.

Here’s the truth, it ain’t easy.  There is nothing easy about losing weight.

Because here is weight loss in a nutshell: eat less and move more!

Period.

I read recently on a blog a method that the writer was using to lose weight. She had lost 135 lbs and has kept it off so I figured she knows what she’s talking about.  Her basic theory is find a calorie range that you can eat daily and that doesn’t make you suffer with hunger pangs and allows that you are consuming less that you are burning just by living and exercise.  She recommends finding your BMR and working toward a healthy number.  I searched Google and found a couple sites that you just type your numbers in and it’ll tell you. Beware though, it’s scary.

She goes on to do a math calculation that makes a ton of sense to me. Once you’ve figured out your BMR based on your current daily activity “consider eating 250 calories less than that per day. If you also try to burn an additional 250 calories through exercise each day, you will be eating at a deficit of 500 calories daily- this kind of deficit leads to 1 pound of weight loss in a week’s time (1lb= 3500 calories, so 7 days of burning 500 calories creates 1lb of loss).”

Did you see that? A light bulb went off over my head.

Eating less is only one part of the equation of course. Moving more is a big part of the whole plan.  Finding something you enjoy doing for an exercise and do it.  Do it more!  Do it consistently and do it more often. 

This, friends, is straightforward. Tried and true.

Ignore the magazines.  Ignore the hype they promise.  It is not easy. Weight loss will never be “easy”, “simple”, or “fast”.  You will never be able to “indulge” the way they promise.  If you want it, you will have to put in some serious effort. And sometimes all that effort doesn’t pay off the way you expect it should.  But don’t be discouraged.  Just by making that little step to eat less and move more, you’re already doing something great.



I can only speak about my own weight loss, because, let’s face it, it’ll be different for each of us. Our amount to lose, our age and our environment will dictate the weight loss journey being different.  When I started this journey in January I was motivated by health and a little by fear.  I was afraid my health would decline increasingly and I’d eventually be poking myself every day with a needle full of insulin.  I was also fearful that if I didn’t make a change I’d be 300lbs in a matter of months.  I’d just continue to get bigger and bigger until bigger eclipsed biggest – I couldn’t risk getting to that point. I had to make a change. I really had no choice – it had to happen.

My first month I was extremely motivated and enthusiastic.  Everything was a challenge and every one of them I embraced and tackled without hesitation.  I wanted this … badly. 

Focused, determined, eyes narrowed, head down, I went for it. I didn’t pause to really think about the long road ahead. I had a goal – 20lbs by March 31^st.  I could surely make it.

What I didn’t expect was how hard it would be? 10 years ago losing weight was way easier.  In my 40’s losing weight is more of a challenge.  My first weeks I saw weight loss that I wasn’t necessarily happy with. I expected bigger numbers each week. But I didn’t let it deter me.  I made the connection that I was older and anything that was increasing my weight was progress to me.

But then, after I’d been at it for a while, I started to slow. In progress, in patience. The vigilance, the exercise- they wore on me. Newness evaporated and I began to feel bored with the whole process. I shuddered when reality reminded me , “Um, well gosh, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but… you’re going to have to keep at this for another 12-18 months. Give or take forever.”

What happened next, just after I silently called myself a quitter, a loser, all manner of bad names, was a simple enough thought:

Oh, it’s just going to suck for a while.

Yes, that. Just that. A heady dose of reality.

It was a revelation. Because for once, I realized that weight loss wouldn’t be like taking up running as a new hobby, and it certainly wouldn’t come with a map or course directions. It would be like a marathon, where miles 10-20 just purely, uncompromisingly suck.

Once I said this to myself, everything seemed clearer.  I recognized the distance, the real strength that I’d have to maintain. I recognized that I probably wouldn’t like it. But I knew, that at the end of the journey it will have been all worth it.

I’ve allowed myself “free” days and know the reality is that my social life revolves around food.  I don’t find anything wrong with that, and it will most likely continue to be that way.  There have been times, dozens upon dozens, when I wanted a bag of Doritos. When I wanted to sit on my couch and eat and eat and eat to my favorite TV shows. When I didn’t want anything to do with willpower or her cousin moderation. When I didn’t want one scoop of ice cream when I knew Ben & Jerry offered pints.

There’s just no denying the hard parts. The 4:30pms when you’re midway between lunch and dinner and no amount of fruit will ever satisfy like bag of chips. The afternoons when you’re setting the pace on the elliptical and your legs feel leaden. The look of the small portion on your dinner plate – and wanting to maybe make two dinners. The times in the coffee shop that you smell a just-baked muffin and you sigh realizing, unfortunately, that you can’t eat three, hot, with butter. The times when sheet cake is splayed in front of you and you know that ‘just a sliver’ won’t cut it.

These are the minutes, the hours, when I need to brace myself and just ride it out. Because, really- how you act when times are just peachy is nothing compared to how you act when times are rotten. The peachy times don’t say as much, anyway, about your strength or your determination. These moments where you feel your weakest, when you’re absolutely certain that you’d rather give up than keep going- they’re going to come.

Perhaps if all who wrote about health and weight loss acknowledged that it would be hard as hell, we’d have a more realistic approach. We wouldn’t sprint out of the gate because we’d not want to run out of steam midway. We wouldn’t swear off food groups because we’d realize that life feels less full when we take things away.

I wonder if we went into the journey knowing the side effects, the hardships and hurdles- if we wouldn’t feel a bit more prepared. More apprehensive, maybe, but prepared. I wonder if we’d be kinder to ourselves and others, knowing that it’s difficult, it’s long, and it can feel unforgiving.

If it were ever easy, we’d be there by now. We wouldn’t start and stop and start again. We’d be content and living on easy street.

If there was no struggle, no strain, we wouldn’t feel so accomplished at the end. We couldn’t be so proud. It’d feel less special. So there’s merit to pointing out the hard parts. Weight loss will come with equal parts struggle and strength. And each will change along the way. You’ll know that it doesn’t stay hard forever. You’ll also know to buckle down when those hard parts come, sure that relief always follows. You’ll know that I felt it too, and that it gets better.

I have .8lbs to my first goal.  I’m so close and so determined this week to push through this .8lbs.  I’ll celebrate slightly this weekend, and Monday morning I’ll start my second 20lbs goal.

Vancouver BC or Bust

In 1991 I graduated from WSU. I moved myself and my belongings to Seattle Washington – more specifically Bellevue.  Since then I’ve moved over 25 times and have traveled and seen the world.

What I have not done is seen my own backyard.

Vancouver BC is just a short 3 hour (with the border stop) from Seattle. And yet, it’s sat allusively up North mocking me. Teasing me for not coming to visit. 

“It’s too far.” I’d say.

“There’s no one to go with” was another excuse.

Until now. Finally.  Vancouver no longer is on my “places to go” list.

I purchased an EXCELLENT deal from GroupOn for the PanPacific Hotel located on the water front in Vancouver. Well, one of the many waterfronts. That town is surrounded by water – not at all different from Seattle.

The GroupOn was for the PanPacific Club and it got us a kickass room on the 23^rd floor with our own private concierge, happy hour every night, HUGE continental breakfast, and our own private visitors every night.

When I bought the GroupOn in February I started planning.  I am of the breed that I MUST know what all my options are for a destination so I can then decide what I’d like to do. Blueberry is of the breed of “wait until you get there.” We travel well together for this reason. She usually just hops on to whatever I have found and recommended. It’s a win-win really. My Control Goddess gets to plan and do what she wants, and her Sit Back and Follow Goddess gets to do fun stuff.

I had a list.  And I was willing to be flexible because I am, after all, older and more relaxed about some things. This was Blueberry’s birthday trip so I had to allow for to add/remove as she wanted to.

We left Lynnwood at 8:30am. Vancouver playlist playing loud, top up cuz it wasn’t quite warm enough yet for Blueberry, coffee in hand and we were off. We hit the border in what felt like no time at all.

Once across and into Canada we stopped at the Visitor center to visit their Canadian bathrooms and to just look around.

That’s when Blueberry stumbled onto this brochure for Capilano Suspension Bridge.

I had seen this in my research and avoided it like the plague. I’m not a heights person and I’m especially not a heights person when there’s a 250ft drop below you.  The tourism folks there were offering a discount and Blueberry really wanted to go. So we signed up.

Once in Vancouver proper we were a bit early to check-in so we hopped on the free shuttle to Capilano.

Now, despite my whining about the height and the vertigo and the absolute certainty that I was going to plunge to my death, this place was pretty damn cool.

The suspension bridge  is 450ft long and was 250ft high.  They “said” it’s the strongest and safest suspension bridge in the country.  I’d like to know how they test the safety part….but I digress.

On the other side of the bridge was this Tree Walk.  It was basically pretending to be a squirrel with no hop and you walk from tree to tree on these mini suspension bridges.  You ooohhh and ahhhh at the scenery and walk to the next tree.  It was pretty cool. And the bridges between trees were only like 2 stories high give or take, so I was okay with that.

 

 

We sauntered around a bit and checked out the other nature around on that side of the bridge and then I, like a drunken sailor, wandered back across. See the bridge is moving from everyone walking on it, so you can’t exactly walk straight.  I have a hard enough time as it is, I certainly didn’t need any more help.

The “newest” attraction out there is the Cliff Walk. It’s a 20inch plank to walk on that is extended 30 feet from the cliff.  I think the idea is to scare the pee out of most people, but to maybe also give them a slightly different view of where they’re going to plunge to their death. (Did I ever tell you drama was my middle name?)

I may look relaxed...but I'm anything but.

The thinks she's so funny!

Gulp!

We were starving by the time we finished this and decided to just grab a quick bite at their “grill”.  Upon seeing that a burger…just a burger, no fries, no drink, no nothing, was $12 we opted to split curly fries.  Puck had to have some too.

Back at the hotel, we checked in and started to wander the city. We didn’t get too far before we were asked if we wanted to buy a Hop-on and Hop-off bus tour.  I LOVE these tours.  They make seeing a city so easy and allow you to decide what you really want to check out.  So we bought a two day pass that we’d start to use on Saturday.

We managed to walk our way up to Robson Street – their major shopping street apparently.  On our way I marveled at their architecture. 

Vancouver is a city of skyscrapers.  Not just business skyscrapers, but apartment skyscrapers too…everywhere.  In their downtown section, there was an abundance of glassy, shiny buildings mixed in with old world brick buildings.

The Marine Building.

This building had a single line poem from a British author all around it. It was very cool.

Saturday morning after stuffing ourselves on the supurb continental breakfast they offered, we hopped on to see Stanley Park.  According to our bus tour guide the park is the “jewel” of Canada.  It’s just 100 acres larger than Central Park and boy was it beautiful.  It offered us some great views of Vancouver as well.

Shakespeare's Garden in Stanley Park

The bus was a little bouncy and I, for whatever reason, was starting to get a little motion sick. I never get motion sick, but this time I was. We “hopped off” and took a little ferry (I mean LITTLE) to Granville Island –which – it turns out – isn’t really an island.

The Granville Island Market was awesome. I wish I had felt a bit better because it’s a photographers heaven. So many things to shoot.  The flavors in the air, the shops, the people, it was just fantastic. 

Picking out chocolates.

Leaving the market we had our maps in hand. Blueberry had the bus tour map and I had just a regular old map I had picked up at the hotel.  We were trying to find where to hop on the blue line. The earlier line we were on was the red line and only did Stanely park. We now needed the blue line to do the rest of the tour of Vancouver. Blueberry and I stared hard at the map from the bus company and couldn’t figure out WHERE we needed to be.  The street names were cut off, or non-existent which made it difficult to figure it out.  We walked a full block circle to determine that where we had started was where we needed to be.  We asked 4 people, we argued with each other, I determined we both read maps very differently and it was raining.  I’m surprised we both survived that.

Finally, the blue bus came along and we were off again.

We drove through Chinatown and got off because Blueberry wanted to see the Police Museum (YAWN).  But it was her birthday weekend so we did it.  Well, she did it, I sat in the lobby and waited. 

After that we walked up to Gastown and found a happenin’ little place called PickinPah – the guide book I had suggested this little bourbon bar for lunch.  We were hungry so we stopped for lunch.  We didn’t want to eat too much because it was late and we had dinner reservations at the Italian Kitchen.  Still, I ordered Mac N Cheese and Blueberry ordered a bowl of chili.  After about half way through, Blueberry noticed the dessert menu on the wall and saw that it said, “Deep Fried Mars Bars.” She turned to me with a goofy smile and announced we HAD to get dessert. 

The most delicious Mac N Cheese.

It doesn't look like much, but it was SOOOO good.

The chewy, gooey inside...

OMG…that’s all I can say about this dessert. It was SOOOO…. DAMN…. Good….
We finished our walk through Gastown and stopped to see the famous Steam Clock.  Apparently this clock operates by steam power. Which is pretty cool.

The Gastown Steam Clock

On our way back to the hotel I noticed the building that was in my guide book that offered an observation deck on the roof. So we went inside and bought tickets to the top. 

Again with the heights.  I’m fine if I’m inside an enclosure and can look out (not down), but the mode of travel to the top was a glass elevator!  I do not need to see the ground beneath me grow smaller. Blueberry, on the other hand, is leaning into the glass door looking down shooting photos. Ugh.

Once on the top, we got a great view of Vancouver from above. 

I survived…barely.  With shaky knees we walked back to the hotel to “freshen up” before dinner. 

The Italian Kitchen inVancouver is by far, one of the BEST restaurants I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating in. Top 10 easily.  The food was delicious, the dessert was AMAZING…and the cosmo…well you see what it was.

In the end, I loved Vancouver.  It’s a beautiful city. Clean, friendly people, lots of little dogs everywhere, and an all-around good time.  I’ll be going back there.  There’s more I need to see and do and photograph.

So glad I did this for Blueberry’s 22 again birthday.  Or as our cousin Kara put it, her 19^th anniversary of her 25^th birthday.

All the photos are here.