Oh the Places we Went and the Critters we Saw!

Almost a month?  Can it really be almost a month since I blogged? Oh my.  I've actually missed it.  And so have at least three of my friends, because (non-facebook-junkies that they are) they have been nagging me relentlessly to get back to blogging. So I think I shall.  Really.  Yes.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  Some posts will be of old stuff that I never blogged about at the time.  Some will be new.  And since I have five days to prepare my traditional annual Canada Day blog with my favourite photos from the past 12 months, I really better get with it.  Meanwhile, Mitzi says we should tell you about the trip we just took - to see family and friends and piggies and horses and forest fires and, of course, some of our favourite dogs. The camera was clicking away constantly, so we'll divide our two week vacation into three or four posts.  So bring your coffee cup here each morning, or your nightcap each night, and enjoy.  'Cuz Ms. Mitzi and I had a marvellous adventure.....

Ahs got mah travelling coat and hat on, which mama bought me
at the Cowichan and District SPCA garage sale
(which, by the way, made over $58,000!!!!)

After an uneventful ferry ride over to the mainland, we stopped at our friend Deb's (remember Riley, the collie, who used to stay here, and Lily the cocker spaniel who Eddie taught to dance?).  Deb's oldest cat Rupert kept us entertained:

Are those cookies I smell?

C'mon, Auntie Jean, just one?

Maybe if I sit like a hooman....

Whatdaya mean, it's still NO?

Lily was more interested in chasing her ball than pestering us for cookies, though I'm sure she would have been happy if we'd shared them with her.  But mostly she chased her ball:

ball ball ball ball ball ball

Little Hugo watched from the door, and Archie made just a brief cameo appearance, declining all pictures.

Hugo, the sweet cute baby

And Mitzi, who Rupert tried to swat and Lily tried to play with, stayed under the table by my chair.

You can sneak me cookie pieces down here!
I won't tell that big orange cat!

We then headed further out the Fraser Valley, to stay with our friends Ann and Ken with whom we would go camping the following week.  But for now we just ate their food, admired their garden, talked their ears off, and exploited their generosity.

The next day, I left Mitzi in their care while I took an adventurous ride into downtown Vancouver.  Let's just say that BC TransLink needs to redirect some of the salaries of their very highly paid executives to some basic, tourist-friendly improvements like better signage for skytrain parking, better and more accurate signage for WORKING skytrain fare machines (at least at the King George and Surrey Central stations), and more accurate signage on the skytrain tracks at Waterfront station. I doubt I shall ever travel by skytrain again.

But when I reached my destination in the heart of the big city,  I enjoyed the amazing architecture, beautiful scenery, and crazy assortment of people (or is that, "assortment of crazy people"?)

I love how the far building has been designed
to look like it is leaning into the street.

Cruise ships arrive at Canada Place

The sails at Canada Place

Not everything is expensive in Vancouver!

Among that crazy assortment of people were the ones I shared lunch with - nearly all my kin and extended kin in what will likely be our last meal together for quite some time.  It was a farewell lunch for my daughter who has since emigrated to the States to join her husband there.  Good to see family, so sad to say goodbye to the kiddo.

The clan minus my great niece, a nephew, my sister-in-law
and a couple of more distant cousins. 

The event was made even more of a party by the nearby celebrations for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, which was due to start that afternoon with Canada (including a woman from my little village, Emily Zurrer!) playing China. Fox News was broadcasting from beside our restaurant, First Nations dancers were entertaining us,  - and just as my daughter and I were saying our final goodbyes, the 2010 Olympic Cauldron suddenly lit up, the first time I had ever seen it afire other than on TV.

Fifa Women's World Cup celebrations

Dancers

The Olympic Cauldron afire

But I think my favourite shot of the day was this one - of a lego-ish Orca Whale at Canada Place:

And that was the first two days of our marvellous adventure.  Tomorrow -  my visit to Hearts on Noses Potbellied Pig Sanctuary. Y'all come back now, ya hear?