Today was a really long driving day for us....not. We lounged around this morning in Richmond, BC getting breakfast at the hotel and being drawn into a few cooking shows on the Food Network. Once we collected our things and packed up the car for the last time this journey, we drove a quick fifteen minutes to meet our landlord.
We were busy settling in. After meeting our very nice landlord we got a quick tour of our basement apartment. It's small but clean and comfortable. We loaded everything in and then walked around to get a sense of our surroundings; we're definitely paying for the location because it is fantastic. Everything is walking distance including post office, bank, groceries, and tons of great places to dine. We are looking forward to our future months here.
The Eatery is a sushi place that we ate at during the 2008 World Ultimate Frisbee Championships and it is currently an easy walk from our place. Where to go for lunch was an easy decision.
Lunch gave us some more energy to plug on and collect groceries, sign up for our club card at said grocery store, and collect our bus passes for the next few weeks. We carried our purchases home, something we have not done in a long time, and got to organizing the new place.
The comforts of home, once established, can be taken for granted when everything is already in place and within reach. We soon began to realize what was missing in our home. I forgot my towel and there doesn't seem to be any around not even a dish towel. I used a frying pan to boil some water for my tea, that was a first. We don't seem to have a sauce pan or a microwave... I guess the fact that there is no kettle or coffee maker is assumed at this point. And the last realization is that Vancouver is unusually chilly at the moment and we can't seem to get a good amount of heat flowing through our apartment. We know the temperature will change but until then we are bundled up good.
For dinner tonight we went to Yeager, a pub down the road from us so we could watch the Canucks vs. the Ducks.
I guess this concludes our American road trip. I was extremely pleased with how this journey turned out and it will be an experience I will always remember. Peter and I planned for the worst aka car trouble, not finding a hotel, illness, loss of insulin, etc. We are very happy that nothing on our worst case scenario list occurred and that we arrived safe and sound!
Things we learned along the way:
-BOOKS ON TAPE! I know there are some people out there that are just not interested or feel the reading is too slow or that it is hard to pay attention and I was one of those people. However, to get through a long road trip and not kill the person you are traveling with than a book on tape is a must. (go for Game of Thrones)
-Hotel coupons: We discovered this our second day on the road. Stop at any rest area and there will be some free booklets to pick up. These have day of hotel rates so you do run a risk of not finding a place to stay but that only happened once to us. These coupons are better than an AAA rate can get you.
-Stay Active: We couldn't always find a hotel with a gym and when we could they were not always the best. I would recommend hiking/walking any time you can especially if you're touring around a new city. Getting moving really helped me to get through day long drives.
-Stay Moist: Water and lip balm! It was crazy how dry I got on the road. I didn't realize it until later but I become a little dehydrated on the road which caused my lips to chap and energy to just go down. Keep those handy early on.
-Relax: Stress is the worst when traveling. Always know that there is an alternative solution and breathe.
We would like to thank our amazing hosts and friends we saw along the way, thanks to Kevin in Austin, Aunt Joan and Uncle John in Santa Barbara, and Eric and Chelsea who came out to spend time with us. Thanks also to Honda and Garmin for helping us travel safely across America. And big thanks go out to my husband Peter who was a wonderful travel companion and who kept the journey fun and entertaining.
Our next road trip will be in May when we drive across Canada. We don't have a book for the great north so any food suggestions would be much appreciated.
Until then, stay warm!
Lexi
p.s. Stay tuned for a weekly photo from Vancouver!
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