Nexus, whadda deal!

This past weekend we traveled to Richmond, BC (Canada -- the country where left turn lanes are non-existent and flashing green lights are expected) for a quick get away. We waited at the border crossing for 50 minutes--both going into and leaving Canada. All the while there are people zooming (ok they are going 15 MPH, but compared to my speed....um yeah...) by in the far right-hand lane in the "Nexus Permit Holders ONLY" lane. Did I see any elusive black squirrels in Peach Arch Park? No. Did my car overheat? No (although there was one car who did, how sad). But did I see a lot of people in their quick moving vehicles fly by me in the Nexus lane? YES!!!!

I found out from the Nexus site -- www.getnexus.com -- that a Nexus permit (once applied for, approved upon and granted) is only $50 USD and it lasts for 5 years. Now tell me, is that a good deal or what? No more waiting, no more watching for the squirrels. Faster entry and exit to Canada...the land of Tim Horton donuts, McPizza, maple syrup products, hockey, curling, seasonal Starbucks Maple Macchiatos, one single freeway and two angry men (look closely at the flag, trust me):



Roadtrip completion: a final stop at the store to buy groceries for the week. Tomorrow--the sending of my completed Nexus application.

Yellowstone and Montana are BIG

You know, Montana is huge. It takes roughly 8.5 hours to drive from Seattle to Butte. Amazing. I have also found out someone I was in Husky Band with is now a big time Producer and Daytime news anchor/reporter for the show Montana Today, so Hasalyn Harris (now Richards as I understand she just got married, go Hassie!) if you ever read this I wish I had known that you were on tv before my trip so I could have at least tuned into channel 13 while I was in Missoula.

Just the same, Yellowstone was great. Lots of geysers. Chris took all of the pictures. I'm sure some time they will be somewhere and hopefully I will get around to putting them up...yeah yeah yeah, stop shaking your head at me. Some day doesn't necessarily mean "soon". (You laugh now, ok, laugh, dammit!) We saw a lot of bison and some mountain chipmunks -- too cute. One red squirrel was spotted but too quick to take any pictures. We stayed at this place called 320 Ranch which happened to be about a 35 minute drive away from the West Entrance of Yellowstone. The place was great--log cabins with little kitchenettes. Fun! We did a lot of hiking around and random driving as well.

On our way to and from Yellowstone we stopped at this place in Phillipsburg, MT called Gem Mountain where you can buy dirt and look for your own sapphires. If you find one you get to keep it. We ended up with quite a few sapphires and a few of them are even being sent off to be heat-treated. I highly recommend the place as it is a lot of fun.

In Butte, there is this restaurant called The Derby. OMG--food to die for. People are way nice and don't let the Keno Cage fool you, this place serves the best steak I have ever had in a restaurant. We also visited the Berkeley Pit in Butte...it is a large...pit. Uh ok. (Laugh!) Stopped in Yakima to visit The Lee family and stayed in the new Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Yakima. VERY nice as well.

My vacation must have been good even though this blog entry is quite lame and undescriptive. After we unpacked and ate dinner Sunday night I thought I would log into my work email to chuck the junk--and I couldn't remember my password. I locked myself out and had to call my helpdesk. Nice, huh? This weekend we are going to my aunt's house in Fall City to enjoy her company and play Mah Jong.

And Happy Belated Birthday to my brother!! Wheeeeeeeeee.

Yellowstone, here we come!

Yellowstone Park--that is where we are going for vacation. Pretty exciting if you ask me. Honestly I am not sure what I'm more excited about right now; is it the fact that I'm not going to be at work or that I am going to be on a vacation? A combination of both? Perhaps.... right now I'm pretty excited that I found my school backpack and that we had chicken tomato curry stir fry for dinner. Excellent!

I don't believe that I have ever been to Yellowstone before, although I have these vague childhood memories of animals in a big park. Of course, that could have been any other national park I've been to, but nonetheless....I'm hoping that we get to see a lot of animals and all kinds of geysers.

Work has been---work. Yay?

Some people at work have been wondering what my brother, Jody looks like. Below is a picture of him and Anthony Bourdain... yeah. See you in a week!