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Dear People Who Write the Documents I Edit

Dear People Who Write the Documents I Edit,

You can use “e.g.” or “etc.” but you can’t use both. ARGH! Seriously, how many times do I have to tell you this?! They mean the same thing! For example, you cannot use the following structure: “I like chocolate (e.g., milk, dark, etc.).” Wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong! Pick one or the other.

And here’s where I’m really a very easy editor: I don’t care which one you use! That’s right, I am that apathetic flexible. I know many organizations prefer the simplicity of “etc.”, but most documents around here are dripping with “i.e.” and “e.g.” so I have no problem with going with “e.g.” I would, however, suggest that you stick with one way throughout a document, but if you want want to be really daring and go with the other option in your next document, I cheer on your subversiveness, you wild and crazy civil servant/Naval officer/fellow contractor.

Sincerely,
Your cranky tech writer who is tired of deleting your mistakes

P.S. I actually only like milk chocolate. Dark is too bitter. I don’t like bitter.

Beautiful Things

Today I craved art. The National Gallery of Art called to me, summoned me. I checked the weather: low 90s and around 60% humidity. Ugh. But I figured it wouldn’t be that bad, that walking around would be fine. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. But I was already well on my way before deciding I was very, very wrong, and was set on seeing some art, dangit!

I’m still rehydrating.

But it was good. I wandered all over the West Building and my art cravings were filled. Ah, ’twas lovely. While I was there, I wanted to see the Edvard Munch exhibit (dark? depressing? I’m there!) in the East Building, so I wandered across the street. It wasn’t as good of an exhibit as I’d expected; definitely worth a stop if you’re a huge Munch fan or happen to be there anyway, but otherwise, meh. Since I was there, I decided to finally take a friend’s suggestion and try out the gelato bar. Yummy! I’ll definitely go back for that. Museum cafes aren’t exactly known for reasonable prices, but the gelato cost no more than any other gelato place in the city. Actually, I think it may have been slightly less than other places.

Saturday

Today started with a parade. It’s my hometown’s annual celebration (the Highland Fling), and so my sister and I drove up to the parade route and parked on the side of the road and watched the parade. It’s a small parade, but not a bad way to spend a bit of time. A bit later the two of us drove up American Fork Canyon to enjoy the beautiful mountains and cool air. We followed the Alpine Loop down to Provo Canyon. Ah, so pretty. I love the mountains. The day concluded with a delicious dinner of chicken enchiladas (yum).

(All photos from this trip are here.)

FAIR Conference

Just a quick note to say the FAIR conference was awesome – I learned a lot, I was enthralled during many presentations, and my perspective on several issues was altered. It was academically filling and spiritually enlightening. Not a bad way to spend a couple days.

Also, I was given the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award for my work on the mormonscholarstestify.org site, which was so surprising and nice and cool! If I were a cat, I’d be purring! (But I’m not a cat, so instead I blog.)

Follow-up

News stories about yesterday’s airplane fun and games:

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Fire-units-respond-to-fuel-spill-at-the-Boise-Airport-99983929.html

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/08/04/1291948/fuel-spill-holds-back-jet-at-boise.html?storylink=mirelated

The unexpectedly long road to Utah

I am in Utah! It was not a happy trip. It started out happy. I flew out of BWI (Baltimore) on American Airlines, and it was smooth sailing all the way up, lines were short, all was well. They had a problem counting, so it took them a while to figure out what to do with the three people wandering the plane’s aisle with no place to sit, but we eventually took off. It was late, and my connection was tight, so that stressed me out, but it seemed like we’d be okay.

Then we arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth and it turns out the runways are very far away from the terminals, so we taxied and taxied and taxied. We finally reached the terminal, and I learned that my next flight was, of course, way the heck on the other side of the airport. Figures. A bit of running and a train ride later, I reached the gate just as they were paging me. I was the last one on the plane, and they closed the door right behind me and we were outta there.

All seemed well. There were some lovely clouds. We arrived above Salt Lake and circled for a bit, and then the pilot came on to inform us that the storm wasn’t clearing up and we didn’t have enough fuel to keep circling and were being diverted to Boise, Idaho. Joy.

Luckily Salt Lake was my desination, so I didn’t have to worry about missing my next flight, but my sister and brother-in-law were picking me up, and I was stressed that they’d be frustrated by the failure of the plane to arrive. I tried to convince myself that they’re smart and they’d figure it out.

So we arrived in Boise. Now, it turns out American Airlines doesn’t normally fly into Boise, and also Boise doesn’t usually service the larger planes like we were in. But no worries, we just needed some fuel and we’d be back on our way. We were parked way out in the middle of nowhere next to a helocopter hangar. Luckily, we were able to use our phones and walk around, so I called my sister to fill them in. The fuel truck came… and the guy trying to fuel the plane was inexperienced and spilled fuel everywhere.

They had to turn off the AC because it was sucking in the fuel fumes, so it got warm in there. And then, of course, we were sitting in this pool of fuel. The fuel guy and another guy started corralling the fuel with sand, but there was so much that they called the fire department. The fire department came and determined that they wanted to put foam over the fuel, but first the plane needed to move. However, since we were sitting in a pool of fuel, they didn’t want to start the engines, so we needed to be towed. Remember how I said Boise doesn’t usually service the larger planes like we were on? Yeah. Couldn’t find the right tow rod. By this time I was texting updates to my sister. Oh, and the co-pilot was on the ground directing the Boise folks since they were clearly clueless.

The American Airlines folks were good. I’m cynical and bitter when it comes to airlines, but they were good. The weather and fuel spill weren’t their fault, and they did what they could. We could walk around the plane and use the bathroom and use electronics, and they passed out water. In addition, the pilot updated us very frequently, which was probably the best thing.

They finally found the right tow rod that was owned by Horizon Airlines (which I don’t think I’ve ever heard of), and American Airlines and Horizon Airlines had to make a quick contract to allow us to use it.

Finally we were towed about 50 feet down, the AC was turned back on (ah, sweet cool air), we got fuel… and then Salt Lake City had more storms. More waiting, but luckily not long. Finally we were on our way, we landed (only 4 hours late), and my luggage was actually there. (I had doubts about it arriving because of the tight connection.)

It is nice and dry here (even with the rain, it’s drier here). I like dry. Three cheers for the desert!

This is irritatingly common

Fellow Minion: Can you edit the [large quarterly meeting] brief?
Me: No problem. [Opens brief. Sees it is over 150 slides.]
Me: I have to leave for a meeting in about 10 minutes, so I’ll have to edit them after. I’ll stay late if necessary.
Fellow Minion: Oh. Actually, I need to print it in about 15 minutes, so I need it done by then.
Me: [Refrains from picking up hard-backed book and beating him, but makes note to educate him on the concept of editing tomorrow.] Okay, I’ll do a quick search and replace for the most common errors, so at least you’ll have that.
Fellow Minion: Oh, I didn’t know you’d have changes.
Me: … yeah…

ARGH!

Saturday

I slept 12 hours last night. Twelve hours! And it felt wonderful. Once I emerged from bed, I leisurely prepared for the day and eventually headed out to get my car lubed and oiled. Since it’s a Saturday, they’re obviously swamped, but it only took them an hour and a half. I had a book with me and found a comfortable spot in their waiting area. It would have been better without the blaring infomercials, but I tuned them out fairly well.

My car all lubed and oiled, I headed to Target for pens and a utility knife/scraper thing. Success on the pens, but not the scraper. I was disappointed in the pens, but they’ll do. There’s a Staples in the same shopping complex, but I figured if I went in there I’d spend too much money (office supply stores make me happy). I still needed a scraper, though. I have a new car registration, and I need to scrape the old one off my windshield before I replace it with the new one. (In DC you have your registration sticker inside on your windshield, not on your license plate. Apparently, before they went to that method, there was a major problem of the registration stickers being cut from the plates – the entire corner cut out.)

The search for a scraper finally provided me the opportunity to try Fragers, a Capitol Hill legend. Their narrow, packed aisles don’t allow for comfortable wandering, but a kind Fragers minion pointed me in the right direction. Success! Four dollars later, I was on my way home. I haven’t tried scraping the old sticker off yet. I’ve heard it’s nearly impossible and I see a lot of cars where people clearly tried to scrape off the old sticker, but failed and just stuck the new one next to it, but at least I’m now armed for the battle. I’ve got till the middle of next month to get around to it.

I finished my day at the gas station, so I have plenty of gas to get to the airport on Wednesday (I’m off to Utah for a few days), and then stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. I’m not really a fan of Taco Bell, but I had this strange craving….

Two Doctors

I killed my back again yesterday. There is much unhappiness. Despite my original claim that I wasn’t going to the doctor, today I went to the doctor. Dudes, you’d go too if you woke up in as much pain as I woke up in. (The number of prepositions in the previous sentence annoy me, but I’m merely going to point it out, not do anything about it.) So, anyway, woke up, could barely move, muscles were in major tight spasm. I managed to move a bit, I cried, I emailed work to say I wasn’t coming in, and I made an appointment with the doctor.

That meant figuring out how to get to the doctor. First step, heat on the back to convince the muscles to chill the heck out. That worked pretty well. Next, actually getting to the doctor. My doctor is in the midst of downtown DC. She’s only a couple blocks from a metro station, which is a good thing, but that was really more than I could walk today. Now, in my opinion, only insane people drive in downtown DC. Today I drove – and parked – in downtown DC. It was unpleasant and confirmed my belief that metro is the way to go, unless, you know, you can’t walk. (Admittedly, I occasionally drive in downtown DC, though I try to avoid it, but I hate it every time. After experiencing downtown DC, I’m willing to drive in Manhattan, as long as I’m armed with a GPS.) Also, Dupont Circle is evil wrapped in aggravation. How was I supposed to know whether to be in the inner circle or the outer circle!? I guessed wrong, by the way. Anyway, I left plenty of time for traffic and wrong turns (I only made three), so it wasn’t a problem for punctuality.

So. Doctor. Drugs were acquired, a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. She tried to give me some Vicodin, but that’s one of the worthless drugs that do nothing (I enjoy the buzz as much as the next person but since it doesn’t actually help the pain, there’s no point), so I begged for Relafen (anti-inflammatory) instead since that actually did help my back once. She agreed to it. I’m not sure yet if the drugs are helping. Oh, and she noted the heart murmur, the same one the allergist noted last year. It’s filed under “hmm, that’s interesting.”

So, more driving through downtown DC, dropped off my prescriptions, went home and had a bite to eat, and then headed out to… another doctor. Today happened to also be my regularly scheduled allergist appointment to check on how the drugs are working (well, thank you) and do a bit of blood work to ensure the drugs aren’t, well, killing me, ’cause that would be a bummer. (The nurse stuck my hand. I’ve recently taken to just telling them to go for the hand right away. They always want to look at the arm, and that’s fine, but I really push them to go for the hand. It doesn’t hurt more than my arm, and it means I only get stuck once rather than twice or thrice as they try and fail to find a vein in my arm, even after digging, which means the hand ultimately hurts less.) Anyway. Drugs. We’re raising the dose. They completely control the hives (a fact that leaves me filled with delight and joy), but my lips and throat keep swelling up a couple (or more) times a week. Though that’s really annoying, the edema isn’t anywhere near as miserable as constant hives, so I can live with it, but (probably) no harm in raising the dose and seeing what happens.

So that was my day.

Friday Randomness

1. For his “Eric’s Bad Movies” column, Eric Snider reviewed The Manitou. This fills me with delight and glee. Read the review. I saw this movie when I was about 8 years old, and it terrified me. My parents spent the next several days trying to pry me out of their bed and back into my own bed, and then I had to have the light on all night for the next couple (few?) weeks. Soon afterward, my parents banned me from watching scary movies, a ban which luckily only lasted until I was about 12 (they didn’t ban scary books, though, so I got my scary needs filled that way; I know, my love of scary things and my inability to deal with them when young doesn’t really fit together, but there ya go; also, sorry to break it to you this way, Mom, but Noel’s parents let her watch scary movies, so I saw movies at her house that I know you would not have approved of, though to be fair, for things like Nightmare on Elm Street, her father kind of ruined it for us by joking about the jello walls and that sort of thing, which made it very difficult to work up a good freaking out, which is probably one reason why we spent so much time trying to freak ourselves out in real life at the ice house [which I still found creepy when I revisited it in college] and the cemetery).

Anyway, I few years ago I came across this film again (thank you, eBay) and watched it. I can see why my parents didn’t think anything of letting their 8-year-old watch this movie at the time. It’s not scary. At all. It is a horrible, horrible movie, though. Calling it a “B movie” is far too generous. It is completely ridiculous – absurd story, terrible acting, illogical leaps, offensive stereotypes (though I’m assuming they were less offensive in the 70s) and some of the worst special effects ever to be put on film (I realize it was the 70s, but a high school drama club with a $10 budget could do better). I’m so glad I watched it again, though, so it could be placed in proper perspective in my memory.

2. Happy Residence Act Day!

The Residence Act, officially titled “An Act for Establishing the Temporary and Permanent Seat of the Government of the United States,” was passed on July 16, 1790, and selected a site on the Potomac River as the permanent capital (Washington, D.C.), in ten years times. Also, this act designated Philadelphia as the temporary capital for a period of ten years. The Residence Act was the result of a compromise reached between Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison concerning the permanent location of the Federal capital. In exchange for locating the new capital on the Potomac River, Madison agreed not to block legislation mandating the assumption of the states’ debts by the Federal government.

The specific part of the act related to the location of the District reads, “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located as here-after directed on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and the Connogochegue, be, and the same is hereby accept for the permanent seat of the government of the United States…and be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be authorized to appoint, and by supplying vacancies happening from refusals to act or other causes, to keep in appointment as long as may be necessary, three commissioners, who or any of two of whom, shall, under the direction of the President, survey, and by proper metes and bounds define and limit a district of territory, under the limitations above mentioned; and the district so defined, limited and located, shall be deemed the district accepted by this act, for permanent seat of the government of the United States.”

3. There was an earthquake. I felt nothing, probably because it was 5 AM and I was asleep, though the fact that it was all of magnitude 3.6 probably has something to do with it, too. It’s either the end of the world or Godzilla is rising out of the ocean. At this point, it’s hard to tell which one.

A pink business suit and growing children

I’m amused by a guy who works on my same floor. First, though, you need to understand that DC is very conservative when it comes to work attire: it’s business suits all the way, and conservative business suits at that. So this guy: He’s shown up a couple times in a white suit, which stands out and has received some joshing from his friends on the floor, but hey, whatever rocks his socks. Also, it’s not like white suits aren’t entirely outside the realm of normal, even if it’s not really DC normal. Today, however, he showed up in pink suit. Interesting….

My officemate’s daughter is doing some sort of pre-K program for the next few weeks where she rides the bus and goes to the school for a couple hours a day, just as she will when she starts kindergarten in September (except it’s full-day kindergarten, but the bus and location will be the same). Anyway, that started this week, and Officemate told me how he was so stressed out all weekend and couldn’t sleep, worrying about how she would do on the bus and everything, but she loved it, so all is well. Today he showed me a picture of his daughter with a couple of her little friends as they waited for the bus on their first day. I expressed appropriate comments related to the adorableness of it all. He printed it out and taped it to his wall above his desk.

“I really shouldn’t put that there,” he said just after putting it there.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because every time I see it I’m going to start crying.”

He then pulled out another picture from some vacation a couple years ago. “Look at how little she was just two years ago, and then look at her now. She’s growing so fast.” And then he started misting up.

Awwww….

Back to reality

Back to reality today. Boo!

The wrap party was much fun, and then, after less than four hours of sleep, I arose at 4 AM on Monday morning to catch my flight home. Even though C’s flight wasn’t until 1 PM, she joined me on the trip to the airport so we could split the taxi fee. The flights were painless, but I almost lost my cell phone. While waiting at the DC airport for my luggage to come around, I went to check the time on my cell. Wasn’t there. Rats! I’d had it in Minneapolis, where I’d changed planes, so figured it probably fell out in the overhead compartment of my last flight. I went to the baggage office and explained my sad predicament. They called the gate, and sure enough, they had my phone. I produced enough evidence that it really was my phone, even though I couldn’t remember the brand (do people really know that for something other than an iPhone or Blackberry?), so they created a pass so I could go through security again (once again taking off my shoes, once again taking out my computer, doing my part to endure the complete farce that is airport security) and pick it up at the gate. I was happy to have it back.

Then I stood in a huge line for about 45 minutes for a taxi. Ugh. If it weren’t raining, I’d have done Metro. But the combination of rain, rush hour, and the thought of dragging my luggage on a bus made me stick it out in the taxi line. Finally made it home.

After work today, I went to a mattress store to buy a new bed. The 10 days in Vancouver were mostly back-pain free. It was glorious. One night back in my bed left me aching again. I think 90% of my back pain is caused from my bed. Yep, definitely time for a new one.

My Gatecon photos are now up here. They are of poor quality and likely to be of interest to few people, so I’ll post my favorite photo, the professional one with the stage crew (we’re in the purple shirts) and the guests.

I’ll also post two videos I took that are pretty good: one is Garry Chalk singing during the auction, and the other one is just of the bidding a couple of the auction items.

Gatecon!

Wednesday we arrived at the con hotel. It was 9 AM and we planned to just leave our luggage and head out for frolicking around downtown Vancouver, but they actually had a room ready, so we dropped our stuff in our room, checked out the view from our 17th floor window, declared the room lovely, and THEN headed out for frolicking. We decided to do one of those hop-on/hop-off tours since they oh-so-conveniently stopped right here at the hotel. We only got off twice: the Vancouver Art Gallery and then Gastown for a late lunch. The loop and the two stops took up most of the day. (I wish those hop-on/hop-off things ran later. The end so early.)

Thursday: the beginning of the final Gatecon! (Sob. Sniff.) I’m volunteering full-time this year as stage crew, which is a lot of fun. Primarily I’m acting as the mic controller (I keep the mic runners – the people running microphones out to people who have questions for the guests on the stage – organized and in sync with the person controlling the sound board) and then occasional other random duties as needed. Thus, Thursday was setting up the stage and preparing various props. I wasn’t particularly helpful; I’m not much of a carpenter, nor much of an AV person, and those were the main duties of the day. But I helped out where I could.

Friday was the first day of panels and photos with the guests. My seat based on the ticket I bought is right at the center on the front row. Awesome seat. If I were able to take pictures, I’d have great ones. However, I sit on the side of the stage facing the audience so I can be the mic controller. So no pictures this year. But the trade off is that I get to have the fun of stage crew, so it’s all good. C found a friend who was willing to sit in my seat and take photos with C’s camera (a very nice camera), so I’ll have some photos of the panels. (It works out good for the random friend, too, of course, since she gets a fabulous seat.) Though I can’t entirely focus on the guests on the stage, I still get to hear most of it, except when I’m trying to guide a mic runner to someone who wants to ask a question that they can’t see (we’re armed with radios with ear pieces, and I speak quietly into my little radio microphone thing) or that sort of thing.

Friday was also photo day for those in my ticket number batch. I only got one photo this year: John DeLancie. I usually get a bunch, but I’ve already got photos with everyone else I wanted – often multiples – so only one lonely photo this year. After that I sat in the worst writing workshop I’ve ever attended in my life (it was truly excruciating), and then had a few free hours before the banquet began.

The banquet was a lot of fun, and the food was pretty good too, despite the shrimp appetizer. (Not a shrimp fan, and the fact that I’d ordered the vegetarian option upped the confusion quotient.) There was some good conversation and some annoying conversation (no, really, vegans don’t eat meat. Honest. I don’t care what country you come from, they don’t eat meat). There was even awkward conversation as shy strangers tried to get to know one another. One of my tablemates bought a couple bottles of wine for the entire table, which was incredibly nice, and I felt bad that I’m not a wine drinker.

Colin Cunningham and Corin Nemec made the rounds to the various tables (the other guests didn’t mingle beyond their tables during dinner). While chatting with our table, both stopped next to me and touched my back. I don’t want to be this type of person, and I generally don’t see myself this way, but my heart was all aflutter. I’m too cynical/mature/whatever to be a fangrrl, and yet… there I was, all fangrrly (inside, anyway – not outside).

After dinner, Colin Cunningham entertained us with a couple incredibly impressive acts of mentalism. Then there was post-dinner mingling and stalking of actors to ask for a photo with them. Steven Williams (of 21 Jump Street and X-Files fame) randomly stopped by because one of the other actors who was a scheduled guest brought him along. I got a photo with him. I LOVE this aspect of Gatecon. Random actors just show up. It’s fun!

I can’t believe this is the last Gatecon.

Saturday was more panels and more photos. The photo sessions were a bit light, so they offered a photo with whoever was there (which ended up being 10 or 12 guests) for $35. That sounded awesome, so I got one of those, but I look beyond hideous in the photo, so it will probably never see the light of day. Or maybe I’ll just photoshop myself out.

Saturday evening was the auction. I just realized they never said how much money was raised (Make-a-Wish is the charity that gets the auction funds). I wish I knew. My lips were busy swelling up, and when that happens I feel a mild malaise – I don’t really feel sick, just… off – so I wasn’t up for bidding for anything, even though there were a couple things I was interested in. Just as well, though, since that means I am not out a bunch of money. The auction was pretty entertaining, though it didn’t get as wild as it sometimes does. A couple of the actors were blindingly drunk, and by the end they were auctioning off random sketches the actors had done, as well as an autographed SlimFast bar. I think all of those went for a couple hundred dollars each. Anyway, if finally ended after midnight, and by the time we stage crew folks got out of there it was around 1 AM. Insufficient sleep is a Gatecon tradition.

Today (Sunday) were the final panels, as well as the closing ceremony. My lips were swollen horribly, and I had to sit in front of everyone to do my work, so that was horrifying. Luckily, people aren’t looking at me, they’re looking at the guests on stage, so I tell myself that no one noticed. Please, don’t disillusion me.

Oh how I will miss Gatecon. It’s the most awesome con there is. The actors are relaxed and having fun, there’s none of the disinterested herding as other cons, so everyone is having a blast. There is a possibility Gatecon will return, and I hope it does, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I fear it is very unlikely. Alas.

Autographs are going on right now, but I have zero interest in those, so I’m just chillin’ till the wrap party tonight. The wrap party is for staff and volunteers (and any guests who want to show up), and I found that it provides nice closure to the con. My first Gatecon I didn’t volunteer, and it seemed to have such an abrupt end.

If there’s another Gatecon, I’m totally volunteering full time for stage crew again. Volunteering full time is so much fun, and stage crew means I don’t really have to deal with the actors. They’re fun to meet and have bits of interaction with – and let’s not kid ourselves, I felt a jolt of joy making small-talk with Paul McGillion when I ran into him in the elevator, though let’s also admit that I suck at small-talk and was thus pretty lame in that elevator – but I am just not a people person and I’d rather not deal with them.

I’m so sad the trip and Gatecon are almost over.

To summarize: GATECON ROCKS! (And I really hope it returns.)

Beautiful British Columbia!

Beautiful British Columbia! (Yes, I know that’s on their license plates… but it’s true!) Vacation is exhausting, but I’m having a great time. I love this city!

So… Sunday we wandered around Stanley Park, which I love. We took photos. We oooh’d. We ahhh’d. We found that the big, hollow tree still exists, propped up. After that we found our way to the Museum of Anthropology, which was harder than anticipated because of a triathlon right in our path. Armed with a GPS, we eventually found our way and even found our way back out afterward. I frequently apologized to British Columbia for my clueless tourist driving. The museum was very nice, though. Fabulous collection. It lacks much context and explanation, but I’m guessing that’s because, though it is open to the public, it is primarily for student studies (it’s on the University of British Columbia campus). Still, cool things to look at. (Photos from the day here.)

After that, we met up with one of C’s friends who lives here. We went to see The Last Airbender, which is the worst movie I have ever seen in a theater. I’ve seen worse videos on DVD, but this one wins the “Oh my heck, I can’t believe I wasted two hours of life on this” award for the “Seen in a Theater” category. C, however, enjoyed it, though primarily because she loves the anime series it’s based on. The three of us then went to dinner and talked and it was enjoyable.

On Monday (yesterday), we fled Vancouver and wandered up the Sunshine Coast. When I was planning our itinerary, wanted to do something outside the city. I love playing in the city, but I like getting out of the city, too. Whistler and Victoria are the obvious choices, but I’ve already been to both places a couple times and wanted something new. While looking at Google Maps, I started following roads out of Vancouver. One road led to Halfmoon Bay, and the road ran next to the coast. So I picked that, hoping for scenic vistas. Oh, the vistas did not disappoint. We had a lovely ferry ride with beautiful views and then spent the day wandering up the coast, going wherever. It was beautiful! We walked all up and down various rocky beaches we came across, finding little crabs (about the size of a quarter) and lots of shells. At one of the beaches, I was taking photos of the rocks as the waves washed over them, and a little boy about 8 years old asked what I was doing. I told him. “Do you want to take a picture of some crabs I caught?” he asked. So I did :-). Eventually exhausted, we retreated back to the ferry and back to the hotel. (Photos from the Sunshine Coast here. They fail to capture the incredible beauty, but they’re not bad.)

Today we did an eco tour of North Vancouver. Meh. We rode in a vehicle powered by used cooking oil to various locations. The tour guides was a bit… odd. But we got to go across the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, which is just as high and wobbly as the Capilano Suspension Bridge, but doesn’t have the exorbitant entrance fee (it’s free). To and from the gathering place for the eco tour, we rode the sky train (very quiet, clean and orderly – people actually line up rather than just do the mob thing, which is weird) and seabus (cool). We wandered around a market and had a tasty lunch.

Tomorrow we move to the convention hotel (it’s ridiculously expensive, which is why didn’t stay there the whole time). We have another day of tourist stuff, and then… I embrace my inner geek! Woot!

Ah, Vancouver…

The 3-hour time difference has so far proven more significant than expected. Luckily, C is also from the Eastern time zone, so we are on the same schedule. Last night, we managed to stay awake until about 9 PM, but then we crashed and didn’t sleep well because the beds are way too soft and sort of suck you in, which is initially comfortable, but then not so much because you can’t actually roll over. We got up around 6 AM this morning, wide awake. We leisurely got ready and had a leisurely breakfast and leisurely hung around the hotel room – all leisurely because the car rental place didn’t open until 9 AM. But we eventually acquired the car, and then off we were! Bopping hither and yon, all over Vancouver!

First up was the Punjabi Market, which is basically the Indian version of a Chinatown. It’s only about three blocks, but we wandered in and out of shops. I bought some treats and some veggie samosas. I LOVE veggie samosas.

Next up was the VanDusen Botanical Garden, which is fabulous. So, so pretty! We wandered around there for quite a while.

We then headed to the new Vancouver temple to take photos of the outside. I anticipated that my GPS wouldn’t recognize the address (and it didn’t), and came prepared with longitude and latitude, which worked perfectly.

Tired and with aching feet, we retreated back to our hotel, with a quick stop at a Walmart we drove past so C could stock up on Pepsi. And now… I am tired and want to sleep, but it’s only 7 PM in this time zone, and so I must remain awake. (Note: Photos from the day uploaded here.)

Oh, and one thing I learned while at the VanDusen Gardens: no, you’re not paranoid – the trees really are watching you…