For 115,000 I can travel business class, and for 140,000 I can travel first class. My request is a shout-out to all my friends – if you are planning on buying anything worth a couple hundred dollars or more and you are paying cash, can I put it on my Visa and take your cash instead? I want to see if it’s possible to put through 40,000 points on my Visa in the next year before I book my ticket. (I get 1 point for every dollar; 1.5 points for dollars spent at grocery stores and gas stations.) So you know, any large appliances, trips, home renos, tuition … I dunno. Whatever you got, I’d love to be your middle (wo)man. And if you help me out, I’ll bring you something cool from my trip!

His grandparents have seven Burmese cats – they used to breed them, but one of them caught a virus at the vet, came home and infected the rest, and so they ended up keeping everyone. I absolutely fell in love with them, especially Jasper. Burmese are very friendly and talkative, and they love to snuggle with each other or humans. Both nights I had a couple kitties under the covers with me.

Pictures under the cut.

Angelique and Nishka.

Jasper hanging out with me.

Yoda and Sweet Pea are on either side of the bed. Jasper decided it looked comfortable so he smooshed his way in.

We went out for breakfast and ate so much. Two full breakfasts each, plus eggs benny to share. In our defence, we thought we were stocking up because we were not sure what the drive over the pass would be like. Turned out to be just fine going over – coming back was another story. There was a layer of fresh snow on the road, plus more falling at the highest level, but we took our time and my Civic did just fine.

The view from our balcony.

Two dogs romping around at Long Beach.

Chesterman Beach, right by the Wickaninnish Resort.

Soaking up the sunshine.

I love the ocean.

The private hot tub on our balcony.

I leave you with some interspecies snorgling. Well, one is trying to snorgle. The other is … not resisting too much.

The trip was great (see pictures and commentary here) but as always, traveling makes me realize just how much I love my city.

I’m bringing my Ativan, just in case.

My dad, being my dad and never able to just say things straight out, made a comment along the lines that I do not have to worry for the flight there. Then we got off on a tangent about business class and first class. He’s flown both so I was asking him for the comparison between the two. He’s only flown first class from Heathrow to O’Hare as part of his trip home from Europe last year because there was no other option when flying on points. It’s not like he flies first class all the time – he’s almost always in coach.

My mum breaks in and says, “Sure, it’s nice that you fly first class. I had to always fly coach when I went back to England!”

Me: “I’m sure Dad would fly you first class to England now, if you wanted to go.”

Mum: “I don’t want to go now.”

Dad: “The last time you went to England was 13 years ago.”

Mum: “So?”

Me: “Want to go – no money for first class. Don’t want to go – money to go first class.”

Mum: “That’s not the point.”

~ sigh~

Anyway, from the way my dad was hinting about it, we may be flying business or first class to DC, which is our direct flight. I’ve always been in the cattle car, and considering the way fuel is going, I didn’t ever expect to be able to afford to fly first class. Of course, with it being my dad, maybe that’s not what he meant at all and I will be bitterly disappointed when we get to the airport. We’ll see – I’ll be blogging while I’m there and posting pictures at my travel blog.

That is all.

Camping was great fun. Aside from a couple on the other side of the campground, we were the only campers. We had two deer walk through our campsite, only about 5 feet away from me. I could have almost reached out and patted them. We had a rascally raccoon who came to rustle around the first evening when we were still up, playing cards. He freaked us out because we could hear noises by the tent but couldn’t see anything outside of the lantern’s circle of light. And, of course, I’m somewhat afraid of the dark, so that was entertaining. I made Mike walk to the bathroom with me because I thought the ghoulies might get me.

The weather wasn’t cooperating on Tuesday – it rained. Thank goodness we had bought a giant tarp at Walmart before setting out, so we had it draped over the entire campsite, with smaller ones on top of our tents to keep them extra dry. Because swimming was out of the question, we went for an adventure in the car. We drove around a new development, looking at the new gorgeous houses that are going up. No joke – there are parts of Chilliwack that I could live in, no problems whatsoever.

Then we found a Starbucks to get me my daily jolt, and I got directions to the beef jerky store. Lisa knows which one I’m talking about – but it had moved! I took the exit and expected it to be right around the corner, but there was a new building there instead! I was so disappointed because I do not get to Chilliwack very often and this beef jerky is seriously so good that I was not going home without it. We found the store and I bought me three bags of goodness.

When we made it back to the campsite, we were both exhausted so we napped. It was a busy day … got up at 11, made breakfast, went on our adventure, got back to the site around 2 … yep, time for a nap! We didn’t wake up until after 4. Mike’s comment, after I expressed amazement at how much I could sleep, was, “Welcome to the world of depression!” It’s so true – before I was taking my medication, all I wanted to do was sleep, and when I wasn’t sleeping, I felt flat. Now, after two weeks on it, I feel really good when I’m awake, but boy do I still sleep a lot. And since I had a brand new self inflating air mattress instead of a lumpy Thermarest – let’s just say there wasn’t a huge incentive to get out of bed.

Once we got up again, we made dinner, then just hung out and played cards and Yahtzee. It continued to rain so going for a walk or hanging out at the lake was out. It turned out to be really relaxing, though. We just hung out, ate a whole lot, drank a little (just over one bottle of wine over two nights – woo big drinkers!), and talked and laughed .

This morning we were up by 8:30 and hitting the road to come home by 11. I was walking in the door at my house by 1pm. It was nice to get back so early because I have now done my laundry and I even have time for a nap before heading out tonight. My dad is taking me and a girlfriend out for dinner and then to the new Cirque show.

Andy was being a brat at first when I got home, not wanting to cuddle and just meowing plaintively at me, but he is now snuggled next to me on the couch so I assume I am forgiven for going away. If he’s in a snit about 2 nights I dunno how he’s going to handle 10 when I go to DC!

I have decided to explore my own country a little more. I’m going to spend a few days in Montreal, then take the train down to Halifax (yay for trains!), spend a few days there, then rent a car and head out to Cape Breton.

In Montreal I plan to stay in hostels and Cape Breton will be B&Bs or small hotel or motel type places. I haven’t decided yet for Halifax but I’m thinking that my last night before coming home will probably be spent in a hotel with a decent bed. Flying after having a good night’s sleep is such a more enjoyable experience than flying when one is tired and grumpy.