Chronicles of a Sleepy Rabite

The alarm buzzed at 6:00 am. After realizing that the snooze button didn’t work (bastards), Sky hauled it out bed while I stalled for 15 minutes. It took a while to pack everything, and by the time all was said and done with breakfast and we gassed up (142.9!), we were on our way at 7:30 am.

I was also having… ah… “issues” in the form of needing to go pee a lot. No idea why, but we had to stop a lot as a result.

Sky drove from Kamloops to Blackpool, and I took over then and drove all the way to Valemount. He then took over until Hinton, where we ate at the crappiest Smitty’s known to man. I’m serious, even when I burn my pancakes, they’re still more moist than the sheets of crumbly cardboard I got for my meal.

This is when we started getting really tired. We basically switched off every hour from then, and I did the last 120 km to Edmonton, having kittens merging onto the Henday and having to negotiate narrow streets in order to park in the front (because our garage door died again — happened the day before we left). I got us home, though, and I started crying when Sum 41′s “With Me” came on.

It was a huge hassle to leave home and drive all this way to take a vacation. We spent, all told, about $1100 on hotels and $1200 on food, gas and stuff.

But I think we really needed this vacation.

We woke up kinda late — 8:30 am — just in time to receive a text message from Alissa wondering if we’d meet her at her place. After taking way too long to pack, we did make it there, where we talked about everything and anything, had our hands “cleaned” by Pan-Pan, and avoided getting our glasses snatched by baby Sophie. Man, I miss you so much, Alissa-chan.

We then went to White Spot for a substantial meal before heading out. Sky drove for about 30-45 minutes before being hit by a wave of fatigue (probably from the healing with the sunburn), and I had to take over driving on a very busy Highway 1 then on the Coquihala, where I white-knuckled it through rain up to the tollbooth. Yes, I drove like a noob, but I managed, dammit. (Now if only I can have the confidence to drive to work on Monday!)

We got here at 5:30-ish, and I maintain that this Holiday Inn Express in Kamloops is miles and away better than the one in North Vancouver. Maybe it’s just the way we are. Anyways, we decided to get take-out from Milestone’s. The place was PACKED and almost impossible to get to, but we came back with food that, while it was good, that was so loaded with onions that it was almost unbearable. I think their chefs have made a pact with the Onion Mafia or something.

Only problem with tonight’s stay is the people above us. Clearly Bigfoot is staying in room 310, because they stomp so hard above us that stuff falls from the ceiling.

Tomorrow’s the long drive home… I just hope we have enough energy to survive such a long drive…

With Sky’s Kentucky Fried Crispiness, we decided to play it safe and do a whole lot of nothing. We went to a bakery on Alissa’s recommendation (they didn’t have the donuts I wanted, but they had some oh-so-yummy chocolate croissants), and I went to get some aloe lotion for Sky.

I got a manicure today, and I was disappointed. She totally botched the polish job — I’m not being overly picky, here, I’m talking whole sides of my nails not painted — and she didn’t spray enough sealant or let anything dry properly so it ran before I got back to the hotel. (The colour suits me, though, so I’ll get something similar when I get home.) Sky, well, baked in his own juices.

We went to a Chinese place for supper that may or may not have been the one recommended to us by Ben and Alissa, and HOLY CATS WERE THE PORTIONS EVER HUGE ARGH. Seriously, we ordered what we usually order in Edmonton and we got enough food to feed China. I’ll eat some for breakfast (shush, it works), but, um, Alissa, if I see you tomorrow morning, I’m bringing the leftovers. Please. ^^;

That was about it. I started packing stuff together, so tomorrow morning, we’re getting up bright and early to finish that up. We need to check out by 11 am, and I think we’re meeting Alissa somewhere, and then we’re off to Kamloops again (where I will probably want Triple O’s again because the fries are so damned tasty).

We had an early start today, and after eating another horrible breakfast (tomorrow should be better — we bought milk and cereal), we headed out to Stanley Park to go to the aquarium.

And here’s a public service announcement to all parents out there: if you’re going to bring your kid to the aquarium, please coach them on the physics of slamming their fists on the glass and what it does to the creatures behind it. Threaten to put them behind the glass if you have to. Hell, it worked for me.

God.

Anyways, lots of screaming brats, so I’m surprised the baby beluga hasn’t keeled over by now. Who is adorable. Luckily, I didn’t grow up with Raffi so I’m immune to that song, so hah. The gift shop was a huge cash cow, but we bought two shirts for us and a couple of things for my parents.

Afterwards, we drove around Stanley Park, and in our quest to find food before hitting the beach, we came across the Sequoia Grill. We had lunch there despite us being HORRIBLY UNDERDRESSED (and it was delicious, but oh-so-pricey), and then we hit the beach.

We got to the Third Beach at about 12:30, just in time for low tide. We settled in, and after tanning for a bit, we took a few walks around the beach. I have no pictures of this part, because I left the camera in the car, but it was absolutely magical.

After an overpriced hot dog (this seems to be a trend here), we headed back… and I felt bumps on my face. Fearing sunburn (which I never had), we stopped by a Shoppers to pick up some sunburn lotion.

And it’s a good thing we did. I have very mild sunburn, which is novel to me since I’ve never had one, but Sky is red as a lobster. I’ve used cold compresses and a whole bottle of sunburn lotion, and Sky is toasty-crispy. We had sunscreen, but the sun wasn’t out in full force, and he felt he didn’t really need it. Bleh. I should have insisted… he kinda fell asleep on my side of the bed, which is fine because I’m just happy he’s sleeping, but he’s going to smart in the morning…

I have some spa treatments tomorrow, and aside from that, we really have no plans. We have one full day left in Vancouver, and while this is a great place, I really miss my cats. ^^;

Because it’s Canada Day, we didn’t really want to go out. But after having breakfast, we started getting cabin fever at around 11:30, so we decided to see what was happening in Metrotown, Vancouver’s version of WEM.

HOLY CATS THE CROWDS. I was idly looking for something I could use for Rhyme’s shorts, but the crowds were so huge that I couldn’t breathe.

• The people at Chapters were dicks (no, seriously, I don’t have X-Ray vision and I can’t see through you at the manga display, and stop pawing the merchandise and buy the damn book — GOD, kids >.<)

• I managed to find Sakura Media, but I was disappointed to find that all of their soundtrack CDs were Taiwanese bootlegs. I bought wallscrolls anyways (I’m pickier with soundtracks when it comes to bootlegs), even though one of the KH ones is definitely fanart, and a few manga that they didn’t have at Chapters (Yakitate Japan, KH2 Vol. 2)
• I took out some money and found the machine only doles out $50 bills, which is AWESOME because no one takes them here

We finally bailed at about 2:30, which is when the fun REALLY began.

We were driving back towards North Vancouver and going through a tunnel when traffic ground to a screeching halt… and stayed that way for an hour and a half until we (and several others) decided to bail by driving on the shoulder. Turns out there was a jumper that closed the bridge for SIX HOURS. We amused ourselves by roleplaying Beat and Rhyme and by reading the manga we bought.

So yeah, not cool. We got a pizza, went back to the hotel and were cranky.

Tomorrow is push timeAquarium, Stanley Park, and beach time.

P.S. Found out there’s a “professional cosplayer” (whatever that means) going as (among others) Rhyme at Animethon. I’m still tempted to go as her anyways, because hell, if ten zillion people dress up as Naruto, I can go as Rhyme, dammit.