the sisters have left the country

Hello everyone!

I had a wonderful time visiting Sara this weekend. My friend Chris picked me up on Friday evening & we hit the road. Chris was going to see his sister in Vancouver BC and Sara's place in Bellingham is just a few minutes off the freeway. I got to Sara's house at 11 PM or so and hung out with her & her roommate Micah.

Saturday morning I woke up and ate cereal and watched Saturday morning cartoons with Micah. Sara and I grabbed some sandwiches from the local co-op and drove to Bellingham Bay. We ate our lunch in the woods overlooking the water and then walked down to the beach. It was windy on the water but incredibly sunny and beautiful. I love the crazy rocks there and the islands off in the distance. Heavenly!!!

We went back to the house & got ready to go up to Canada. Unfortunately Sara had a flat tire (discovered at 5 PM Saturday evening). Her only option to get it replaced that night was a long, long wait at Walmart. It was eventually fixed and we hit the road a lot later than expected. It's only 50 miles and there was no wait at the border so we got there pretty quickly. We went to her friend Raj's house. She's who we stayed with at Christmas also. We all had some wine and talked before heading off to bed. In the morning I hung out with Raj's kids. Aiyesha made pancakes for the first time and they were great.

Sara & I spent much of the day at Granville Island in downtown Vancouver. There's lots of shops and galleries which we checked out. We got lox and cream cheese with capers on croissants for lunch which we ate on the waterfront looking at all the skyscrapers across the water. As we were walking back to our car we walked over a bridge next to a marina. We saw a bald eagle land on the top of one of the sailboat masts. Incredible...a bald eagle downtown in a major city! It was really cool to see that!

We drove around and by sheer luck found an incredible viewpoint that Sara had been too a while ago. The city was in front of us with the mountains surrounding it and the water sparkling in the afternoon light. Vancouver is a spectacularly beautiful city! From there we drove to the University of British Columbia campus. We walked along cliffs on the water and checked out the huge totem poles at the Museum of Anthropology. It was gorgeous! Afterwards we drove back to Raj's house where we had dinner with the whole family before heading back to the States around 8:30 PM.

We got into Bellingham and met up with Sara's roommates. He wanted to take us to Boundary Bay Brewery for some clam steamers. Unfortunately the kitchen was closed by the time we got there. Sara & I went back to her house and picked up her growler to get beer at Boundary Bay to bring back to her house. We enjoyed the tasty beer and watched a movie.

Monday I was picked up by Chris and we drove back down to Portland. I had such a great time visiting Sara. She took me to some really incredible places.

Now I'm busy busy busy with packing and moving. I found a place to live last week and Camille and I are so very excited about it. It's the 1st floor of a big old house. We have a sun porch, a huge basement and a back yard!! We'll get the keys and start moving this week. I will be completely moved by the end of this weekend. My phone number isn't changing (it's a cell) and I will send an email letting you all know my new address. We have an absolutely HUGE living room so we definitely have room for guests! Please come and visit me!

I'll be posting tons of pictures today and tomorrow so please take a look!

Let me know how you are and what you've been doing!

xoxo,
carolyn