Day 1: Vancouver, BC to Portland, OR

Day 1: Friday, Vancouver, BC to Portland, OR

KM start: 145,166km

Trip Meter: 0 km

Time Driven: 7:30am to 2pm (with just over an hour of breaks) – 6 hours of driving

Yesterday Paul picked me up at work when I finished at noon and we headed out for some BCAA business (with major money saving wins) and a final Vancouver lunch. He had some Japadog and then we had some sushi together. It was a perfect farewell to the city.

We both grabbed hair cuts on the way home and then met up with our subletters to do the final switch over – so surreal! Then we joined the Maxwell’s at their place for dinner.

That night we had a small going away party for some of our close friends. We had room to see about 20 people so we had to be choosy with invites. We held it at my sisters house new house and it was lovely. We brought the last of the drinks from our beer/wine cabinet and it was a free but awesome party!

FYI, I did not have to stage that photo of Paul stealing a beer.

That definitely just happened.

It was so good to see some of our closest friends before leaving – especially since Paul hadn’t seen many of them in 6 weeks!

After the party we headed out to Surrey to stay at Paul’s Dad and Step-mom’s house for the night.  We all had a wedding to attend on Saturday so we  wanted to caravan down with them to Portland. So in the morning we headed out bright and early. We made a final stop at Timmies for me and then headed to the border. We managed to cross over with no lines and no waits – and no issues, despite our 3 months estimated time of travel. Praise the Lord!

Since we were caravanning with David, Carol and Ted, we all decided to stop in Lacey, WA for a trip to Cabelas. Cabelas is Paul’s idea of heaven. To quote Paul, “Cabelas is where God goes for vacation.” And while I’m not sure about the biblical truth of that statement, it sure was an interesting store.

The store is filled with all the hunting/camping/outdoors sports things you can imagine, and in the center of the store is a giant “mountain” covered in taxidermied animals. It was a pretty “awesome” sight.

It was Americana, redneck, and camouflage at its finest.

We also stopped for inexpensive but tasty and filling Mexican food, and I was reminded about how much I love American food. Love. Love. Love.

We also passed a restaurant called “Pho. Bubble Tea. Teriyaki.” I guess they really wanted us to know what was on the menu – I thought a more appropriate name would have just been “Asian”.

We switched cars part way through so that Paul could have some time with his Dad and Grandpa and I got to chat in our car with Carol. The trip flew by – and again I was reminded of the beauty that is in Washington and as you cross into Oregon.

Once we got into Portland Paul and I headed to Costco to get new tires on our car – for the same tires in Canada we would have paid about $1200 including tax – we got them here for $650 today (yay for no tax). It was another money saving win!

On top of that Paul was giddy to be back in Oregon – on our trip to Costco we had to cross back and forth between Washington and Oregon a few times and every time we crossed back over he was over the moon. He loves being back “home” even just for a couple days.

Then we headed back to the hotel where most of the wedding guests were staying – we hung around the lobby for almost two hours talking to people. Louanne (the bride) is Paul’s cousin, but also a member of our church. So the wedding guests are a mix of our family and church friends. It was so fun to just sit in one place and have a steady stream of people to talk to – and since Paul had been away for so long, there were many new faces for him to see as well.

We headed out from there around 7:30 and grabbed some Taco Bell (Crunchwrap Supreme for the win!) and headed to stay with Paul’s old church/youth group friend, Zach, and his wife, Sarah. Their house is warm and cozy and we instantly felt welcomed – Paul was particularly in love with their large dogs – while I cowered in the corner, daaang this strange fear of dogs.

Tomorrow is wedding and more family time. No long drives for us tomorrow!

And, in case you are wondering, we are thrilled to be back in the same place – and we are feeling the vacation vibe. We feel in love, and footloose and fancy free. 

We have had very limited internet, and extra limited time, so while I have 3 days of posts written, pictures are only slowly being edited online and therefore posting is slow to get to! But get ready, it's actions packed, haha.