Summer O'Fun 2007 Day 24

I think I lost a day somewhere. I think this might have actually have been SoF Day 24. Must go back and count... (edited to add that it is SoF day 24 - I mistakeningly had Thursday as day 22)

Anyway, I drove the boys to Vancouver (New Westminster actually) for the day. We went to visit an online friend who recently had a baby. We took her 5 yr old son to lunch while she and her dh had a nice lunch date (with the baby). My boys had fun playing with T. and the baby, D, is very cute.

Ok, so you know I do not particularly like driving over bridges. Well, as I was approaching New Westminster yesterday, I suddenly saw this huge bridge before me. Huge! And a cable bridge. Over the Fraser river. OMG! This is that bridge. My hands got all clammy and I had to keep my eyes focused on the road ahead rather than the huge drop below me as we rose higher and higher into the air. At one point though, it was beautiful because all I could see was the tops of the mountains and it did seem that we were driving in the sky. Then my stomach started to churn but we were more than 1/2 way across at that point. I knew that I was NOT returning along this same highway - but would travel through Vancouver to get back to Hwy 99. The weird thing is that there are many bridges through Vancouver but I guess because they have higher sides that they seem more solid or something. Anyway, I had no problems going over the Oak Street bridge into Vancouver. Perhaps because it is a steel bridge and the bridge into New Westminster is a cable bridge. And the one into Seattle is a floating bridge which scares me too.

Anyway, as I said, I went into Vancouver too and I stopped for a quick visit with my brother, SIL and Lola. Lola is so cute! She looks a lot like my SIL around the eyes and the hairline but she is definitely my side of the family around the mouth. When she was smiling she looked like my dad, I thought. She is very, very sweet.

The boys and I stopped in a Safeway store and bought Dare-brand cookies (made in a peanut-free facility), Canadian Cheese Whiz, Hickory Sticks, Ketchup chips, Canadian-made Quaker Oat bars (peanut-free facility) and some pea butter. Then I stopped to buy Stephen a huge can of Tim Horton's coffee. All told, we spent $100 on snacks! The very saddest part of it all was that at Safeway I was offered only a 1% exchange rate and my US$ was accepted AT PAR in Tim Horton's and Burger King (where we had lunch). Far cry from the days of the 45% exchange rate. So strange! I think it has been over 30 years since the Canadian dollar has been so strong against the US dollar. Not good for us as we are about to go to Toronto on vacation.