Vancouver: Day One

Considering that we had all day Friday to pack, sans interruptions from Small Monkey, why do you suppose we were up at midnight packing?

Because that's how we roll at Chez Hatchet, of course.

I spent the majority of the day dealing with plants. I swapped hundreds of plants out from solid bottom flats to web flats in order to place them in the grass where they would get watered over the coming week by the sprinkler system. Then I got Eric to take them all down into the yard - the somewhat branch strewn yard. I took 4 flats down myself and my back immediately started hurting.

Hello! Why yes, I am pregnant, aren't I?

After that, the remainder of the day was spent mixing up seedling starter mix and then potting up 7 flats of seedlings. It's time for herbs, now that all of the initial plantings are out of the house and growing on. I seeded:

1. Basil 'Fino Verde'
2. Basil 'Purple Petra'
3. Basil 'Siam Queen' (Yes, that is a lot of basil!)
4. Tarragon
5. Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
6. Summer Savory
7. French Thyme

Then, suddenly it was 10 o'clock at night and I needed to pack. The alarm was set for 4:45am with an 8:25am flight time. Ugh!

Considering that we got to the airport two hours early, we made it to the plane with only 10 minutes left before departure. How is this possible? Well, when your government institutes ridiculous rules about gels and liquids it means that everyone now has to check all of their luggage. The line that forms to check your luggage at 6:45am on a Saturday is the sort of line one usually sees outside a concert hall. It was the line to get in the line to check your luggage.

Oh yes, it was fun!

By the way, there's an additional line for those poor folks that packed all of their stuff a little too heavily into one bag. That line you get to stand in after you've already stood in the giant initial checked luggage line. I don't recommend it. Fortunately, we thought it might be a possibility and packed two bags. I figured that if I could lift the bag, it couldn't be over 50 lbs. As it is, I can barely carry a 14 lb cat up the stairs without being winded, so I thought I'd be a pretty good judge of the bag weight. Turns out that I was correct.

We then zipped (quickly hobbled) off to blow 10 minutes on eating breakfast and then hurried to go stand in the giant snaking security line. They still make you take your bloody shoes off. I still think it's a waste of time and that they ought to have either a) come up with an automated way of checking your shoes while they remain on your feet or b) given up on the idea by now.

More fast hobbling to our gate and then the long sitting. I asked the nice young lady on the aisle seat if she'd switch with me since I have the giant medicine ball out front which meant I would be making many trips to the restroom. She gladly agreed. Which was a good thing, since I was up every half hour like clockwork. I watched my feet swell up and my tendons disappear. I removed my brand new Teva's (They're fabulous! Why haven't I owned some of these before now?) and watched the strap lines fill in. Bleah. I had brought my 32 oz bottle with me that we filled once past security which helped on the flight. A lot.

After a few hours and several cat naps, we landed in Vancouver.


It was overcast and drizzly and a little chilly, but I didn't mind. There was something different about the place. I could tell right away. I could almost smell it.

Then it hit me:

OXYGEN!

They have oxygen here! Ahhhh!

And - wait! What's that other thing? It's in the air, all around us. I can almost remember it...there's a word for it?

Oh yeah:

MOISTURE!

This water that falls out of the sky, it falls gently for hours out here and leaves the place...you know, moist!

My nose decided to argue the point and began bleeding once I made it to the restroom in the airport, just outside of customs. However, it seems to have been surprised by the lingering humidity inside the building, because it stopped bleeding almost immediately instead of running on for 20 minutes. It was...miraculous!

More walking to get to the car. Then driving. Then we were at our destination.

The Metropolitan Hotel.

Oooh! Ahhh!





View out the window.




Eventually there was lunch (Hot chocolate - they had no chai!, Caesar salad, seared scallops on a bed of crab and leek risotto and for dessert: a teasingly small scoop of huckleberry sorbet with lemon verbena [Seriously yummy!], an itty bitty huckleberry panna cotta and a tiny huckleberry tart.), of which I have no photos, sorry! The food was very very pretty and very very yuppie, just the way I like it. I had a cat nap while Eric determined what we would do in the rain drenched city on our first night. He decided on a movie that we had to hobble quickly to get to.

In the rain.

On foot.

Without an umbrella.

The twins decided to make their displeasure felt directly and that's when the Braxton-Hicks contractions began. My fast hobble turned into a decidedly slow hobble and then a limp. The theatre is only 4 blocks from our hotel, but they became really looooong blocks, as far as my speed was concerned. My ankles continued to swell.

Damn that George Clooney and his zippy looking new movie!

Needless to say, it sold out while we waited in line to get tickets, so we bought the tickets for the 7:40pm showing instead and then slow hobbled back to the hotel. Somehow we wound up in a fantastic little coffee shop called Caffe Artigiano and got a chai and a cappuccino there, along with dozens of other damp folks. The place was packed! There was a line out the door. The latte art was superb and Eric was making little excited noises about watching the baristas make his cappuccino. He was very impressed. As we continued our short yet long walk back, we noticed there was a Sears along the way that we oozed into, dripping, and bought an umbrella. Slightly drier, we continued back to the hotel in slow motion, while I chanted I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm fine! in my head. I peeled off my shoes and now have my feet propped up, admiring my cankles (That's not a typo: calves + ankles = cankles) and drinking lots and lots of water.

I suspect that Eric will be driving me the 4 blocks later, returning the car to the hotel and then walking over to meet me. Either that or we need to start walking...now. It's 6:30pm, local time.

How was your day?