The kids don’t start school for another week. I am so ready for school to start and for all of us to be in a routine.

I’ll finish the travelogue. Just a warning.

Day Nine: Gee, it is still cloudy and rainy in Vancouver. Figures. We head over to Canada Place to walk around and look at the cruise ships. We got lured in by an IMAX movie to while away the drizzly temps but when we came out, it was not only drizzly but down pouring. Sigh. More time spent walking around inside until the rain let up. We then went over to Gastown or Tourist Mecca for some food and souvenir hunting. Then we walked the long way back to the hotel going through some residential neighborhoods in the city. Husband and I thought it was great. The kids, not so much. You’d think we were punishing them, the little brats.

More ping pong by husband and son at the hotel while daughter and I watched Olympics.

Day Ten: This is supposed to be a long driving day (all the way to the middle of Oregon) so naturally husband wakes up in the morning exclaiming that he forgot to get something for His Team and the person watching our bird. Didn’t we spend hours yesterday getting stuff for folks who helped us out? After getting ready we headed back to Gastown so I could make some grab and dash purchases while husband and kids circled the block and we were finally off. It seems to take forever to get out of town but eventually we were on the freeway headed towards the states. A friend told us of a secret exit out of Canada so we made a beeline there and instead of the 50 minute posted wait at the main crossing, we got across the border in 10 minutes. And with our daughter (of the no birth certificate) which was a bonus. They seemed more concerned if we had Canadian drugs or tobacco to be too bothered by potential child stealing.

We then headed south towards the hell that is greater Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia traffic. I swear. Even being late out of Vancouver we hit the area before typical rush hour traffic times and it still took us forever to get past Olympia. That state needs to build a freeway that runs parallel to Hwy 5, about 10 miles to the east. Who do I need to talk to to get this done?

We decide to stop in the exciting town of Centralia for another fast food meal (because we are on the fast food tour of America) and I finally start to worry about the princess. See, on Tuesday night, after our walk home in the rainstorm, the princess get a ton of shampoo/conditioner in her eye and two days later, her eye is still very red and very sore. So I go to a pharmacist hoping he can recommend something over the counter and he says no way unless a doc sees her and I really should take her to an urgent care. I’d been coming to the same conclusion so off we head and after one and a half hours waiting and filling out forms and paying $95 (sorry we don’t accept out of state insurance) we learn that sure enough, she rubbed and rubbed and rubbed her soap filled eye into a full fledged eye infection. Here’s a prescription and directions to Rite Aid.

At Rite Aid we find out the doc prescribed a fairly obsolete (or just not popular) eye drop so after calling several other pharmacies and not finding it, they called the doc to get a substitute. Whew. 2.25 hours after we finished our Arby’s meal we were on our way. Roseburg Oregon or bust.

Day Eleven: We got in late last night but since it was family I was supposed to be okay with that. It wasn’t MY family and I felt a bit uncomfortable but luckily husband’s cousin and her family are polite beyond compare and acted like it was common place to have a dirty, smelly, daughter with a red eye, travel weary family show up on their doorstep at 11:30 p.m. They shuffled us off to bed quickly, thank goodness.

Our excitement of the day was going to the book distribution center that husband’s cousin’s husband ran. I can’t remember the statistics but they were are one of the largest book distribution centers in the west coast and odds are, all my amazon.com orders were filled there. Very cool. Course, I’m partial to warehouses and such but the tour was great. The kids just wanted to browse the books which actually was a no no. Me, I like the process.

Anyhow, we ate Mexican food for dinner so I got to have a margarita and that was certainly a highlight.

Day Twelve: We did a morning boat ride (cousin lives on a river) which the kids loved because they’ve not been on any boats like that before. Poor deprived children. Anyway, we were headed home by about 12:30 p.m. and pulled into the driveway around 9:00. In the 8.5 hours we stopped at a rest stop for a quick potty visit, a (surprise) Taco Bell for lunch and a gas station for a gas fill up and potty visit. Three fairly small stops for over 8.5 hours and the kids did great. Do I have cool kids or what? Or course the last 1.5 hours of the trip they were a bit out of control but I was focused. Home or Bust.

And that brings us to today. End of Vacation 2004.

Thanks for reading.