Saturday, March 25, 2006

Moving Day Approaches...

Moving Day is fast approaching. We get the place on Monday and this weekend has been about cleaning, organizing and packing. Not the most exciting way to spend the weekend, but there you go.
I have also spent a good portion of the day trying to sneak up on Scout to cut her ridiculously long nails!! She hates the clipper for some reason. I don't know why because I have never given her a bad experience with it. Anyway it is now 340 and I have been trying since 100. I have managed to clip 1.5 nails, so at this rate I still have quite a bit of time to dedicate to this endeavor!!
It's a beautiful warm sunny day here today, which means that our place right now is surrounded by a huge lake from melting snow. If this continues we might have to rent a boat to move instead of a truck!!

Saturday, March 18, 2006

We're ba-ack!!

We made it back from our journey last night, only to come home to -20 and blustery snow!! We thought about just staying on the plane and seeing if it would take us back to warmer weather without anyone noticing we were still on it, but we missed our little Scout, so we had to get off!
I ran into a few people in the airport that I know from work and they promised me it would be raining here by Monday so lets hope they are right!!
We arrived in San Diego late Sunday night to pouring rain, but when we woke up bright and early on Monday (about 630) it was nice and sunny! We decided to spend our first day at the zoo, so after some breakfast we took a cab to Balboa Park for some zoo fun! We spent about 7 hours at the zoo and managed to go to every single exhibit!! We saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my, and gorillas and hippos and giraffes and koalas and all sorts of cute cuddly looking things, and scary nasty looking things as well! It was a very fun day and our feet were really aching by the end of it! We took a cab downtown to a really interesting shopping centre called Horton Plaza. All the malls in San Diego are outdoor malls because it rarely rains there. We ended up finding some dinner and then decided to see a movie to rest our aching feet.
On Tuesday we took a trolley tour of the city, which started off in Old Twon (the original San Diego) from a few hundred years ago, which is a really ocol area of town and only a ten minute walk from our hotel. We then went to the harbour where we went to the maritime museum and went on an old russian sub, which was kind of scary, the Star of India, which is a really beautiful ship, and then they were borrowing the ship from Master and Commander so we went on that one as well and saw all the movie props and stuff, which was cool. After that we headed down to Seaport Village which is a collection of interesting shops and eateries and fun looking around there. We also stopped for some Ben and Jerry's ice cream!! YUMMMMMM!!!!
AFter that we headed to Coronado Island, which is across the bay from San Diego and not really an island, but that is what it is called. It is a gorgeous area with beautiful homes, and one of the top ten beaches in the world!! SO of course, we had to take of our shoes and socks and walk along the beach. It was so nice!! At the end of the day we took the trolley back to Old Town and looked around there some more. We went to the first graveyard in the area and it was really interesting to read about the people there. We had dinner at the Cafe Coyote, which was ranked the best restaurant in San Diego last year. It was very good, but VERY filling, and I ended up bringing half my dinner home with me!
Wednesday we took a trolley to Mission Valley, where one of the best malls is, and we did a bunch of shopping. I managed to find some clothes for the next few months and Chris got a couple of things at Old Navy. It was another outdoor mall, and very nice. We spent part of the afternoon by the pool at the hotel, and then did some more walking around the area our hotel was in. That night we had dinner with some old family friends whose kids I used to look after when they were babies in Winnipeg. They have grown from sweet, happy babies, to very smart and wonderful kids. We had a great night chatting with them and catching up.
Thursday was our last full day in San Diego and we started if off by going back to Balboa Park where along with the zoo there are also many many museums. We decided the Museum of Man looked the most interesting and spent the morning pottering around there and looking at all the things it had to offer. In the afternoon we walked from the park back down to the harbour front where we found some lunch and then took a two hour harbour cruise of the north and south bay. It was a very nice day to be out on a boat and we really enjoyed it. That finished by about 530 and we then walked ourselves back to Seaport Village where we caught a cab and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe San Diego. We decided to pig out on our final meal in San Deigo and managed to make it through from appetizers to dessert! They had to roll us out the front door, and we decided to do some walking before getting a cab back to the hotel!
The next morning brought us to Friday where we packed up our bags and took the shuttle to the airport. ALl of our flights were on time on the way back and we made it back to Fort St John by 830. All in all it was a very fun trip and we really enjoyed it. We're thinking we should plan a fun trip every Spring Break!
It is now Saturday morning and Scout is back at home and happy about it! She was very excited to see us when we came to get her this morning! SHe is now happily sitting beside me chewing on her Kong.
So ends a good vacation. Now it is back to the real world with laundry and cleaning this weekend, an apartment inspection Monday, a visit to the lawyers about house stuff and of course, back to work!!!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Spring Break is Here!!!

Chris, Scout and I have survived the last week of work and have made it to Spring Break!!! Today we are busily getting organized for our trip to San Diego!! It's 9o'clock in the morning and we are on the 3rd load of laundry,the dishwasher is running, and we still need to vaccuum and clean the bathrooms. Chris has to run up to the bank for some american cash, and we have to pack up our suitcase. The last thing we have to do is drop Scout off at the kennel before four o'clock. I am hoping she will be excited to go there today. It was so hard to take her there the first time, but I feel much better about it now. I know she will have fun there, and the lady who looks after them all really loves them, so we have good piece of mind knowing she is well looked after there. They have five acres of fenced property and the dogs go out five times a day to run and play with each other. Scout just lives to play with other doggies so she will be in heaven!!
Back to the trip!! We are leaving Sunday morning, and have quite the puddle jumping journey to get there! We stop in Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco and finally San Diego, which means all the flights are short, but I hate the up and down and up and down!! It reminds me of when Mary and I went to Nova Scotia back in 2001!!! Hopefully we can avoid the motion sickness. We're bringing lots of water to drink with us!!! We have four full days to spend doing fun things while we are there, and then we head back to FSJ on Friday around lunch time. That still gives us the weekend before heading back to work.
Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I know you folks in schools in MB don't get your break for another two weeks, but I hope you have a great time when you get it.
Take care, everybody, and we will chat again when we return!!