Lots of traveling this summer
Aug. 20th, 2007 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurch(or what I've been up to in the past month or so)
To catch up a bit... first up was the trip to Canada the weekend HP7 released (all our copies of the books have been Canadian editions and we didn't feel a pressing need to change for the last one). We've discovered we really love using the Alder Grove border crossing. It seems to be popular with Canadians, so there's generally quite a lineup southward in the mornings when we're going north, and northward in the evenings when we're coming back south. Even better, Langley is just across the border and has really been booming lately, so if we just want to run up for a shopping trip, it's only about a two and a half hour drive now (instead of the nearly four hour drive we've sometimes had when we went into Vancouver proper).
There's now a CostCo in Langley, which is where we snagged the book and scoped out some of the Canadian foods we like that are available in bulk packaging there (although we didn't pick up anything else this time), then we headed over to Safeway, where we were even able to use our Safeway Club Card to get the discounts on some wonderful Canadian foods: Bird's Custard Powder (can't make Nanaimo bars without that!), Canadian Kit-Kats (made with GOOD chocolate), Canadian Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce (unlike the American version, it does NOT contain high fructose corn syrup), and All-Dressed flavor potato crisps.
It's always fun to declare this stuff at the border when we're heading back home... we listed off everything we could think of that we'd picked up, and the border guard glanced into the backseat and announced, jokingly "Hey! You didn't mention the Tim-Bits! Did you think I'd take them from you?!?" Hee!
Mmmm.... Tim-Bits...
After that, I had a quick overnight trip to my dad's place north of Spokane, so that I'd be on the correct side of the state the next morning for an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon down in Colfax (about two hours south). There's a pair of orthopaedic surgeons there that are, quite frankly, so good at what they do they can afford to live in the middle of nowhere and people will come to them. They do general OS stuff, but they specialize in exactly the sort of shoulder injury I've been dealing with since the car accident. I'll go into it a bit more later, but the upshot of my visit is that I'll be having surgery on the shoulder in September sometime (it would have been sooner, but I won't be able to drive for at least a month afterward, and I've got this trip to Louisville and Atlanta coming up at the end of August).
Next up was another trip to the other side of the state about a week or so later for my dad's induction ceremony as the new postmaster for Fairchild AFB. About a five or so hour drive, so not too bad and the ceremony itself was rather interesting... the oath given is apparently the same one that Benjamin Franklin took when he was installed at the first Postmaster (and includes a promise to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, the same as the military oath). My dad is actually a bit of a history buff, so he's done a bunch of reading on Benjamin Franklin and the origins of the post office... and has quite a collection of some of the stuff the post office has issued commemorating Franklin's life (of course, my dad also has everything they've put out about Abigail Adams, too, because he's a bit of a fan-boy when it comes to her).
The weirdest and coolest thing for me, though, was driving onto Fairchild AFB. I lived there as a child from 1980 until 1983 and hadn't been back since. It was amazing to see the changes, but to also see how little had changed and the whole thing was just a tiny bit surreal. I drove by my old house, which no longer has a giant maple tree in the front yard (although I'd heard about that already), which was the tree I sat under while watching the huge ash cloud from Mount St. Helens slowly cover the sky on May 18th, 1980. One of the things I noticed right away is that none of the houses had nameplates on them, something that was always standard when I was growing up (it used to list name and rank of whoever lived there). Apparently that was one of the first things the new base commander did when he arrived earlier this year... had them pull down all the nameplates. It really makes sense though, I mean, if someone with ill-intent managed to get on base, they were essentially giving them a treasure map to where the best high-ranking targets lived!
Of course, I've already talked a bit about the rather sudden trip down to Utah for the funeral... I ended up being home for a bit less than 18 hours between coming home from my dad's place and leaving for that one. It was definitely too much driving and made me realize that I definitely do not want to go to my high school reunion next weekend, after all. There are a few people I wouldn't mind reconnecting with, but I've found ways of tracking them down online, so it's not as urgent that I go. I only attended that school for two years, so it's not like we're talking about lifelong friends I've lost contact with. OTOH, I was really happy to see that the whole thing was going to be fairly informal... for the adults, a pot-luck gathering on Friday night at the school with a small fee at the door to help pay for the costs and then a bring-your-own-picnic deal the next day at one of the local lakes for people to bring their families. Still, I really can't handle that much driving all in a row (since I'd be leaving for Louisville two days after coming home from the reunion if I went), and airfare to Spokane is way too high to justify.
To catch up a bit... first up was the trip to Canada the weekend HP7 released (all our copies of the books have been Canadian editions and we didn't feel a pressing need to change for the last one). We've discovered we really love using the Alder Grove border crossing. It seems to be popular with Canadians, so there's generally quite a lineup southward in the mornings when we're going north, and northward in the evenings when we're coming back south. Even better, Langley is just across the border and has really been booming lately, so if we just want to run up for a shopping trip, it's only about a two and a half hour drive now (instead of the nearly four hour drive we've sometimes had when we went into Vancouver proper).
There's now a CostCo in Langley, which is where we snagged the book and scoped out some of the Canadian foods we like that are available in bulk packaging there (although we didn't pick up anything else this time), then we headed over to Safeway, where we were even able to use our Safeway Club Card to get the discounts on some wonderful Canadian foods: Bird's Custard Powder (can't make Nanaimo bars without that!), Canadian Kit-Kats (made with GOOD chocolate), Canadian Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce (unlike the American version, it does NOT contain high fructose corn syrup), and All-Dressed flavor potato crisps.
It's always fun to declare this stuff at the border when we're heading back home... we listed off everything we could think of that we'd picked up, and the border guard glanced into the backseat and announced, jokingly "Hey! You didn't mention the Tim-Bits! Did you think I'd take them from you?!?" Hee!
Mmmm.... Tim-Bits...
After that, I had a quick overnight trip to my dad's place north of Spokane, so that I'd be on the correct side of the state the next morning for an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon down in Colfax (about two hours south). There's a pair of orthopaedic surgeons there that are, quite frankly, so good at what they do they can afford to live in the middle of nowhere and people will come to them. They do general OS stuff, but they specialize in exactly the sort of shoulder injury I've been dealing with since the car accident. I'll go into it a bit more later, but the upshot of my visit is that I'll be having surgery on the shoulder in September sometime (it would have been sooner, but I won't be able to drive for at least a month afterward, and I've got this trip to Louisville and Atlanta coming up at the end of August).
Next up was another trip to the other side of the state about a week or so later for my dad's induction ceremony as the new postmaster for Fairchild AFB. About a five or so hour drive, so not too bad and the ceremony itself was rather interesting... the oath given is apparently the same one that Benjamin Franklin took when he was installed at the first Postmaster (and includes a promise to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, the same as the military oath). My dad is actually a bit of a history buff, so he's done a bunch of reading on Benjamin Franklin and the origins of the post office... and has quite a collection of some of the stuff the post office has issued commemorating Franklin's life (of course, my dad also has everything they've put out about Abigail Adams, too, because he's a bit of a fan-boy when it comes to her).
The weirdest and coolest thing for me, though, was driving onto Fairchild AFB. I lived there as a child from 1980 until 1983 and hadn't been back since. It was amazing to see the changes, but to also see how little had changed and the whole thing was just a tiny bit surreal. I drove by my old house, which no longer has a giant maple tree in the front yard (although I'd heard about that already), which was the tree I sat under while watching the huge ash cloud from Mount St. Helens slowly cover the sky on May 18th, 1980. One of the things I noticed right away is that none of the houses had nameplates on them, something that was always standard when I was growing up (it used to list name and rank of whoever lived there). Apparently that was one of the first things the new base commander did when he arrived earlier this year... had them pull down all the nameplates. It really makes sense though, I mean, if someone with ill-intent managed to get on base, they were essentially giving them a treasure map to where the best high-ranking targets lived!
Of course, I've already talked a bit about the rather sudden trip down to Utah for the funeral... I ended up being home for a bit less than 18 hours between coming home from my dad's place and leaving for that one. It was definitely too much driving and made me realize that I definitely do not want to go to my high school reunion next weekend, after all. There are a few people I wouldn't mind reconnecting with, but I've found ways of tracking them down online, so it's not as urgent that I go. I only attended that school for two years, so it's not like we're talking about lifelong friends I've lost contact with. OTOH, I was really happy to see that the whole thing was going to be fairly informal... for the adults, a pot-luck gathering on Friday night at the school with a small fee at the door to help pay for the costs and then a bring-your-own-picnic deal the next day at one of the local lakes for people to bring their families. Still, I really can't handle that much driving all in a row (since I'd be leaving for Louisville two days after coming home from the reunion if I went), and airfare to Spokane is way too high to justify.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 06:56 pm (UTC)With the exception of the last item these all sound British - Birds' Custard Powder is made in Banbury, about half an hour away from here.
You have sweetened Lea and Perrins? Eeeek! That sounds all sorts of disgusting. No wonder you cross frontiers for the real stuff!
I can relate to the oddness of going past a house where you lived as a child - at one point we lived in the grounds of Staffordshire Police Headquarters, and it always feels odd passing there and seeing they've sold half the houses off and turned some of the others (I think) into offices.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 06:59 pm (UTC)I use Lea & Perrins so often. I can't imagine it tasting different (and better!) than it does. I simply must try it without the corn syrup. I didn't even know it had it in it until fen said this.
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Date: 2007-08-20 09:54 pm (UTC)I don't quite understand why cheaper American chocolate is so different from cheaper British and European chocolate, but there really is a huge difference there too.
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Date: 2007-08-20 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 12:31 am (UTC)As for cheap American chocolate, well... not only do they sweeten it with corn syrup instead of sugar, but they also load it up with wax (or paraffin or something similar). And some of them are merely "chocolate flavored" rather than really chocolate, meaning that most of our regular grocery store chocolate is pretty foul. Probably not a bad thing, really, because it means that I have to spend more money on the good stuff and I'm much less likely to eat a lot of it. :-p
no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 07:08 am (UTC)Thanks again for picking us up a Canuck copy of the last HP book. As Earthworm Jim might say, "It's groovy!"
no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 02:51 pm (UTC)My first trip to the US was ten years ago and I took a load of Cadburys stuff with me. It was as if I'd taken luxury goods, the way people swooped on these delicacies! It's the waxiness of US chocolate, like Hersheys, which puts me off.