Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Back in the Great White North

Well, here we are in Edmonton! I'm going to take a moment to debrief on all that's happened in just these last two days. Everyone's heard about all the passport hassles as of late... Well, my passport didn't arrive in time for our trip even though I had sent off my application well in advance. On Monday, Jason and I had to make a "quick" last minute day trip to San Francisco to Canada's consulate office. They issued me a Letter of Identification that allowed me one-way access into Canada. I'm supposed to use my green card upon returning back to the USA. Hopefully that'll be a smooth process. Anyway, our visit to the consulate office was a very unpleasant experience. I'm going to be writing a letter of complaint. I don't want to get into details, but let's just say that Jason's comment about the whole situation was, "Maybe because of this, now you'll consider getting U.S. citizenship." Umm... nope, still not at that point in my life!
Yesterday was a long day of traveling- we had planned to wake up earlier, but woke up at 4am to catch a 6am flight. We flew from Fresno to Seattle, and then from Seattle to Edmonton. Gracie did well on both legs of the trip, but she barely slept. Our flight got delayed out of Seattle and we ended up getting into Edmonton at about 1:30pm. My dad picked us up at the airport and we then drove to see my mom at her work. (Their business is the Valley Cafe at Edmonton's Muttart Conservatory. I'll post more information and pictures about that some other day). We ate a quick lunch and went "home" for naps. We didn't wake up until it was time to go out for dinner. My parents insisted on going shopping afterwards to get Grace something she could use while she is here. They ended up getting her a low-rider Dora tricycle which she absolutely loves. (She also picked out a helmet). This morning, Jason assembled the tricycle and my dad helped Gracie ride it around their backyard. She still hasn't quite learned how to pedal yet, but she sure looks cute! It has been really nice to see my parents with Gracie. I had been somewhat concerned about how she would respond to seeing them again after a whole year. She has quickly warmed up to them and they obviously love having her here. They have the Grandparents Syndrome- they've been giving in to almost everything she wants- she better not get used to life being like this!! :)
After the busyness of the last two days, it was kind of nice to not really do anything today. Jason managed to find a station that aired the Giants/Padres game, so even though they lost, at least he got to watch that. The highlight for me was going out for Pho and bubble tea. There are places in Fresno that sell both items, but I haven't found any that compare to my Edmonton favorites. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA! In fact, I'm going to keep a running record of how many times I get it while we're up here. We're probably not going to be doing a whole lot while we're up here, but if we do anything, I'll try to blog about it. I'm really proud to hail from Edmonton- maybe I'll be able to give glimpses into some of the reasons why!

1 comment:

Jamie said...

Glad to see you made it OK! You look very content sipping your tea! That's so great that you and Jason have jobs that give you so much time in the summer to spend with your families...enjoy the Northwest weather!