Want to move to Van? Watch this.
Accurate.
I still miss it there every once and a while, though. My time at UBC was hell on earth, but the city was cool when it wasn’t trying to drown you in rain.
Party time in SeaTac? MORE LIKE PARTY TIME ACROSS THE STREET FROM SEATAC
Hi.
So today was supposed to be pretty crappy, because while my flight from Lewiston got into Seattle around 10 this morning, my flight from Seattle to Calgary is supposed to leave tomorrow around 11. I was originally planning on just hanging out in the airport and getting some work done (and not sleeping), since there weren’t any other really good options.
And really, that’s not terrible. SeaTac is a pretty great airport. Lots of places to wander if I got bored, that giant food court thing with the ceiling-high windows, and a decent number of places to sit. I figured if I could find an outlet to camp at, I’d be fine.
BUT THEN, PLOT TWIST!
I learned that because my flights were more than 17 hours apart (I think that was the cutoff time?), my checked luggage would only go through to Seattle. I’d have to pick it up there and the re-check it in closer to my flight to Calgary.
And on the plane from Lewiston to Seattle, I realized what this would probably mean: the baggage claim area is not in the cool part of the airport. It’s in the tiny basement thing that’s 70% luggage carousels, 20% luggage hauling SeaTac dudes (baggage bros?), and 10% benches that are taken up by sleeping families.
And since I had to claim my bag, that meant leaving the airport part of the airport and going down there. And staying there for ~24 hours.
Noooooooot as fun.
So I call my mom and we figure out there’s a hotel like right across the street (literally, it turns out), so I pack up my crap and head over there (and feel really stupid taking the bus shuttle because it is, literally, right across the street from SeaTac).
Picture? Picture!
GIANT ROOM WITH GIANT KING-SIZE BED.
Got Subway, worked on stuff for classes, and watched crappy Seattle TV all night.
‘Twas much more enjoyable than the SeaTac airport could have been.
Skag the Wag
So we did the Skagway train ride today, ‘cause that’s the excursion I always do with my dad when we’re in Skagway. It was awesome as always. Pictures!
Also, it really makes me happy to see people being nice to each other. The stairs to exit the train are relatively steep. After we had exited out of our own car, we passed this one older dude trying to get down the steep stairs from another car. There were like five people—probably all complete strangers—helping him out, making sure he made it to the ground safely.
That kind of stuff really makes me happy.
Also, CATERPILLAR!
Juneau
We’s in Juneau today! Rather than do any sort of excursions, we decided to just get out and walk for a bit, which was nice.
My leg is still being twingy, but walking outside is much easier than trying to walk on the treadmill while the ship is moving.
(And is also a lot more enjoyable than 4 hours on a treadmill).
Pics!
I’m not good at pictures, sorry.
Edit: holy hell, the hot dogs on this ship are FANTASTIC.
Seasickness? Noooooooooo
Today was an “at sea” day on the ship, and GUESS WHO GOT SEASICK?
(hint: it wasn’t Nate)
I’ve done this cruise four freaking times before and have never gotten seasick, but the ship was rolling on the waves just right this afternoon to cause my brain to freak out and made me dry heave over the toilet multiple times.
Party time.
But things got better in the early evening. Nate and I ordered cheese and crackers for dinner and they were the best cheese and crackers ever.
Then we played war with two decks of cards. Nate happened to get six aces by the deal, so I was pretty much screwed, but I had the magic of the ace of spades (who I named JesAce…like “Jesus” but with “ace” instead of “us” because I’m made of blasphemy) and was able to stay alive until we got bored of playing.
I hope this sickness doesn’t return though, ‘cause gross.
Off to Alaska!
It’s time for our Alaska cruise! This is the fourth (I think?) time I’ve done this cruise, but it’s different every time and is really enjoyable.
Some pics from our departure from Seattle:
WOO!
Fun at the Border Crossing
Crossing the US/Canada border with my mom is always some sort of adventure. Talking to the border guards—especially going back into the States—always makes my mom nervous, and I have trouble keeping from laughing because every time we cross the border I remember all our previous border incidents where my mom was in panic mode and I had to answer the border guards’ questions for her.
But today’s crossing was extra special.
Let me set the scene for you, ‘cause you need to be able to visualize all of this.
When we pulled up to the crossing, the lineup to get through wasn’t especially long, but there were a decent number of vehicles in front of us. There were enough, in fact, for one of the border guard dudes to open up one of the other lanes. He guided a few of us towards it, and we ended up pulling behind a truck that had a very prominent pair of truck nuts hanging down from the rear.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing truck nuts before, they are these things:
(pic from here)
And these exist because…?
I honestly have no idea. Maybe because mounting a 10x scale model of one’s penis to the front of one’s hood is illegal.
But anyway. Mr. Truck Nuts McDangle is now right in front of us, and my mom, never having seen the monstrosity that is a pair of truck nuts before, is taking pictures of it with her phone and laughing while doing so.
I’m pretty sure she’s going to get us arrested by the border guards, but even they seem to be amused by the nuts. There are a few of them circling around the vehicles, just making sure we’re all actually in lanes, and I see a few of them looking at the truck in front of us and laughing a little.
Anyway. Nuts Dude finally pulls up to the crossing window, talks to the guards, and goes on through. As they’re pulling away, I see the two guards outside the booth laughing a bit—probably about the nuts.
So then we pull up.
My mom, nervous about the border as always, had rehearsed questions with me. She always brings a cooler with her whenever she comes up here, so she always has me rehearse with her what to say if they ask her what’s in the cooler.*
And of course they ask. “What’s in the cooler?”
Now keep in mind that we’ve all been primed with giant-ass truck nuts just moments ago.
My mom takes both hands, holds them like a foot and a half apart, and says, “I’ve got a biiiig zucchini.”
I honestly don’t know how those border guards kept straight faces; I had to turn away because I was losing my mind laughing. The guards managed to finish asking their questions and sent us on our way, at which point I totally lost it.
My mom had no idea what was so funny, so I explained it to her as we were driving out of the border crossing area, and we almost had to pull over ‘cause we were both laughing so hard.
I know it may not sound as funny just typed out like this, but holy hell, that was fantastic when it happened.
It’ll be hard to top this border crossing.
Edit: I had to check out the “truck nuts” Wiki page just to see what it had to say, and one of the sentences has the phrase “truck nuts exploded” and I can’t handle this universe anymore.
*We had a “carrot incident” once coming back from Vancouver…it’s still one of the funniest things that’s ever happened to us.
CRUISE PLANNED!
We all know that planning for the future is sometimes the only thing that can make me happy. Luckily, tonight Nate and I got to engage in some future planning. Specifically, we bought our tickets for our honeymoon cruise!
I mentioned a few days ago that we were likely going to try to do this this year, and the timing seems like it’s going to work out the best this year, so why not? We’re doing the 7-day inside passage with Glacier Bay cruise to Alaska in late August.
It’s been a while since I’ve been on a cruise (the last time was in July 2011), so I’m super excited! I really hope Nate likes it.
Check out our ship. We’ve got a balcony room.
WOO EXCITEMENT!
RIGHTY-O
Remember a while back when I was talking about how Nate and I were planning on doing our honeymoon cruise next year?
Well, we’re changing things up a bit and hope to do it…this August instead!
We have to move fairly quickly to arrange everything to make it all work (and to, you know, make sure we can actually get tickets), but we think it will happen. Super exciting!
Also, I might be coming back down for another Moscow visit in early August. My April/May trip wasn’t as long as it was supposed to be and I feel like this might be the last summer I’ll really be able to hang out with my mom in the ‘Scow, so get ready for (possibly) more Claudia, you lucky Idaho fools.
Back to Calgary today.
That was NOT ENOUGH MOSCOW TIME.
I need like two weeks down there, seriously. I just want to hang with my mom for a bit. I have a feeling we’re not going to be able to do that for much longer, so I want to hold on to it for as long as I can.
Also, it was super weird not being able to go to my dad’s house in Moscow. It’s no longer his house. That’s going to take some time to get used to.
And now I’m sad. Change blows.
Hey poop-o’s, I’m back in Moscow!
FREAKING FINALLY, it’s been way too long since I’ve been back here and seen my mom. I think early September last year was the last time. That’s super sad.
ANYWAY. I should be here for a week and a half or so. I’ve already walked 15 miles around the city, haha. And I’m going to go to Mongolian BBQ like 50 times because I love it and miss it.
And maybe I’ll even get my blogs all posted before I leave.
(I won’t.)
CABIN FEVER
Nate and I spent today down in southern BC where I met his grandparents on his dad’s side and then got to see his mom and dad’s cabin. His dad made a fire and we roasted hot dogs. They tasted freaking fantastic (I hadn’t had campfire hot dogs—or any hot dogs, for that matter—since probably 2004). Then Nate and I went down to the lake to look at the stars (and tried not to freeze to death). It was so clear and free of light pollution out there that we could see the Milky Way.
Edit: we also tried out his parents’ kayaks on Sunday morning and have concluded that we need to get ourselves a pair of kayaks to take with us to the Parks and whatnot.
ZztZzt
So my knowledge about where various cities are in Alberta is horrible.
Example: I’m looking on Indeed for stats-related jobs and I see an ad for an instructor at Grande Prairie Regional College. Oh, sweet, I think. I wonder where that is. It sounds like it wouldn’t be all that far up north—
Hell.
Granted, I’m no Captain Geography when it comes to any other province/state/country/continent, but I’ve never really had a reason to study Alberta and the distribution of its population. Plus, it’s a big chunk of earth, so there’s a lot of it to know.
DON’T JUDGE ME!
Back to Calgary
I left Moscow this morning to head back to Calgary. Didn’t feel like I got enough time here, but I feel guilty just ditching Nate for X number of days to go frolic* in the ‘Scow. But I also feel guilty about leaving my mom all alone down there.
And now I’m feeling guilty because approximately 95% of my blog posts are garbage, including this one.
YAY GUILT!
Have some more Jaboody.
*I totally frolicked. You saw me.
Homesick
You wouldn’t think I’d miss this little dink of a town, but right now, I miss it very much.
I’m excited to go back for a week or so in May to hang out with my mom/see Annabelle/walk around on my old routes. The cheaper groceries/clothes/everything will be a nice change for a bit, too.
Have more pics.
Hiking Time!
Monday is a holiday up here in Alberta, so yesterday Nate and I drove down to his parents’ place in Crowsnest Pass and today went with them to Waterton Lakes National Park for some hiking! It was hot, but fun. 11-ish miles. Have some pics!
Road Trip – Day 19: Crowsnest Pass to Calgary
YAY WE’RE BACK!
Not that it wasn’t an enjoyable trip—it definitely was—but we’re both glad to not be driving anymore and to be back in Calgary. Calgary’s a really nice city, yo. I think we both appreciate it even more after having gone through some large US cities (*cough*San Francisco*cough*).
I’ll post pictures on Facebook at some point…there will probably be a few more there that I didn’t post on here, just ‘cause.
WOO!
Road Trip – Day 18: Bozeman to Crowsnest Pass
We’re back in the land of Celsius and kilometers now! We’re also both super tan because of our time in the southwest. At least Nate has an even tan; all my shirts were of different necklines/sleeve lengths so I look like a giant gradient of light-to-tanned light skin colors. Super attractive.
Also, it was another easy border crossing to get back to Canada.
Road Trip – Day 17: Idaho Falls to Bozeman (Grand Teton and Yellowstone)
So the plan today was to drive from Idaho Falls to Bozeman via Grand Teton and Yellowstone (we were coming from the south end of things). We were not planning on doing much in the parks other than seeing Old Faithful, since it seems like it’s quite difficult to get the full Yellowstone experience without camping there and we were not equipped to camp there.
However, once we got into Yellowstone itself, we found that the road we’d have to take to easily get to Old Faithful was closed for construction/repair. We could have gotten to it using an alternate route, but that would have meant about 90 more miles of driving, and that was something neither of us felt like. So no Old Faithful for us. I’ll post some stats-related stuff about the geyser in a later blog, though, so there’s something good to look forward to!
We were also not in the right place for Mammoth Hot Springs, which I’m pretty sure is where my dad and I were when he took me to Yellowstone way back when. That’s where all the really cool stuff is.
Oh well. Have some bubbling mud volcanoes and a bison!
Road Trip – Day 16: Flagstaff to Idaho Falls
That was a hell of a long drive.
And that’s all I have to say.
Road Trip – Day 15: Las Vegas to Flagstaff (Grand Canyon)
It
Is
Too
Damn
Hot
In
The
Southwestern
United
States.
Anyway, today we drove over the Hoover Dam (we didn’t stop because parking was $10 and we’re cheap and it’s hot) and went to the Grand Canyon. Nate has seen it before but I haven’t (despite having lived in AZ for a bit), so it was a good place to go even though it was easily over 80 degrees most of the day (no, I’m not going to stop mentioning the heat until we get out of it).
The first picture is the “unimpressive” side of Hoover Dam; the rest are Grand Canyon. The colors turned out really well in the pictures at least!
Road Trip – Day 14: San Francisco to Las Vegas
WOO, VEGAS!
(It’s like 8 billion degrees outside and this picture pretty much sums up what we saw of the strip before we got to our air-conditioned hotel room. We also just had dinner in the hotel’s 24-hour restaurant because we’re done with big cities and buckets of pedestrians and—I reiterate—it’s 8 billion degrees outside.)
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