Vancouver Trip - Family by Love

There's so much to blog about from my Vancouver trip that I'm going to break it up into several posts. One of the most-fun parts was a little side trip from Vancouver to Bellingham, WA, where part of our family-by-love lives. My dear friend KJ was willing to drive down, about a 50-mile trip, plus the delay at the border.

BTW, for those of us cringing at our gasoline prices, the Canadians have been paying much more for quite a while; it cost $67 for the 12-13 gallons it took to fill up the little Honda CR-V. That's $1.443/liter, and there are 3.78 liters per gallon, making the cost about $5.45/gallon. On Salt Spring Island, where I went for my knitting retreat, I was told that they pay the highest price in Canada, $1.60/liter when I was there.

We had a great visit, meeting my new 6-week-old DGS by-love Tonio and getting big hugs from the very DGD-BL Rita. She has become quite a pianist, and is learning composition as well as the usual lessons. We had a lovely Mexican-food lunch, at a small place which serves the biggest burritos I've ever seen; KJ and I were able to share one, and nearly couldn't finish it. The hostess kindly snapped a photo of all of us, with KJ on the right.


Before we left Bellingham, we stopped at a LYS. Y'see, on the way to the house we got a bit confused in our directions, due to the street signage saying the street was one name turning right and another, not the one we wanted, on the left where we thought we should turn. So we turned the way we thought was correct and then decided to pull over and ask for directions. There was a nice little pedestrian-friendly shopping area, and we just happened to find a parking spot 3 doors from- ta da! - a yarn shop! A quick peek said - gotta come back! - and so we did. Apple Yarns is a great little shop, friendly and with a good variety of yarns. I brought home some Koigu and ShibuiKnits from their very nice selection; oh, yum!! I must be planning on making several versions of the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I find the pattern as written a bit boring, but there are so many easy changes to make in the feather-and-fan pattern that these won't look exactly alike. I think. It's a plan, anyway.