Alison and I decided it would be great fun to rent a car and drive to Canada to meet up with our Canadian friends we met in Turkey! Jon and Caroline joined us for the road trip making it 3 women to 1 man. Did Jon really know what he was in for??? If he did, he may not have left England!
We were going to spend New Years in San Francisco but our party plans with fellow hashers fell through so we decided to haul on up to Vancouver and spend it there. Two days of steady driving, through blizzards and rain, we made it to the boarder. Jon learned how to put chains on tires, and then learned how to take them off a half hour later when the snow turned to rain. We had a most entertaining meal stop at Dirty Dave's Gay 90's Pizza Place, somewhere in Washington. How can you not stop to eat at a place called Dirty Daves? We had a long wait at the boarder, surrounded by cars filled with 18 year old kids heading to Canada to drink legally. Boy did I feel old.
In Vancouver, we partied at a club called Ginger (in honor of my sister-in-law) and drank fine margaritas until the year 2003. For once, Alison and I were dressed appropriatly for the occasion as we had bought cute new dresses and shoes just for the holiday. No jeans or black flip flops tonight! Highlights of the evening were the passing out of fortune cookies to random people, Alison pulling out fake money from between my breasts with her teeth, and finding the last cab in Vancouver at 3 am to get home.
The next day we picked up our Aussie friend, Mark, at the airport and all 5 of us drove to Victoria to meet up with Marnie and Karla. Mark never got the email that we were meeting him, so you can imagine his surprise at seeing our faces as he went through customs! Being a world traveler himself, he could appreciate an unexpected ride in a car rather than have to figure out the bus schedules. We met up with Marnie and Karla, and then we all drove to Marnie's parents condo in Mt. Washington to go skiing and snow boarding. Her parents were just diamonds (my new British aquired compliment). They made us dinner, and we thoroughly enjoyed their company. I snowboarded in a blizzard, and Karla wiped out so bad she broke a pole. We also had to do a bit of sledding, later that night, with plenty of beer. What a phenomenal time! Everything you hear about Canada is true. They do have lots of snow (12 feet!) and say "eh" a lot.
After saying good-bye to Marnie's parents, Marnie, Karla, and Mark, we drove down to Seattle and Portland to sightsee, then on to the Oragon Dunes, and the National Redwood Forest. I finally got around to seeing the second Lord of the Rings-Two Towers movie, and enjoyed it more than the first since I recognized all the scenery in New Zealand!
Now we're back in San Francisco at my mom's. It's been good to be in the states and spending time with my mom and Jon again. After seeing Jon off, we'll be heading down to LA to spend some time with our friend Jeremy (who we met in Greece) and then off for South America.
I got so many Christmas and New Years greetings via email, it was just impossible to respond to them all, but thank you everyone for sending them. I have a mere 2 months left before I must face reality again. Your emails help keep me stay grounded and make me feel loved. Thanks!
Love, Carla
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