Starr Treks: alaska trip saturday 6/6/15 Surrey BC

STARR TREKS SATURDAY 6/6/15 SURREY BC

We got up pretty early to take a walk along the road from the RV park in Anacortes on a beautiful sunny morning. There were some gated communities, and one gigantic mansion with a huge fence around the whole thing. I scrambled all 7 eggs that we had for breakfast since I did not want them confiscated. We ate grapes, bananas, an orange, and a grapefruit — did not want our fruit confiscated at the border — it is very unclear what you can and cannot bring, tho firearms and liquor are closely monitored. The only produce left in the frig were some onions, celery, lettuce, tomatoes, and blueberries. We did some laundry— sheets and towels, and when they were dry, headed out around 10:30. We stopped at the casino and got gas— $2.89 a gallon— about 40 cents cheaper than other stations on HWY 5.

We arrived at the border at 11:25 and there was a long line— Larry said we burned at least a gallon of gas idling for an hour. When we got to the border, the lanes were very narrow, but we got thru without scraping anything, thank goodness. The lady at the border only asked about firearms, liquor (Larry had 2 bottles of scotch and we had a few limearitas i the frig), and apples. Here I gave away my plums along with apples to our neighbors at the RV park in Anacortes! They didn’t seem to care at all about my vegetables. We are happy that our satellite radio works in Canada (we like the Broadway channel), but we turned our cellular data service off at the border. Our RV park, Pacific Border RV park, is literally right on the border— we thought we would be closer to Vancouver than we are, looking at the map. Anyhow, we turned into our RV park at the first stoplight and pulled in — it is a very nice park — even has an indoor pool and sauna— we plan to use it tonight! Vicky at the office was very nice, and a man helped Larry get into our back-in site— he even trimmed some branches off a tree so we could back up all the way. It is a nice park and was rated highly on RVreviews.com. After we got hooked up, we went back to the office and spent time with Jackie who is sort of the concierge. We wanted to spend just one day seeing Vancouver, so she suggested just driving downtown (since it is a weekend), parking at the Aquarium (that has been highly recommended to us), and then take the Hop On Hope Off Trolley that we can board at the aquarium, and the get to see the city on a narrated tour. So we are going to skip church — there is no United Methodist Church in Surrey, tho there is a Christian Reformed Church — and see all we can see in one day. Then we will head toward Alaska!

We made a Costco run after we got hooked up and had lunch. It was about 10 miles away, so we got to see the town, which we enjoy. Everyone in town appeared to be at Costco! Maybe it was just because it was Saturday, but it was a very congested store. We mainly stocked up on fruits and vegetables, and got some seasoned pork loin cutlets for tonight so we could celebrate out 43rd(!) anniversary. Costco in Canada does not sell any wine or liquor like in the USA. While in line, I asked the lady next to us where we could buy some wine since we needed to celebrate our anniversary— she talked to another guy about where there was a wine store— not too far away — so we managed to find that. There was a Save-On grocery store there, so Larry went for wine, and I went to the grocery store for some eggs and potatoes. The wine was very pricey— Larry bought a box of cabernet for $40 Canadian (like $36 American!!!. He also bought a bottle of Mexican(!) wine recommended by the wine clerk from the Baja— it really was very good— can’t believe we went all the way to Canada to buy Mexican wine!! I don’t think we have ever had Mexican wine before!) I spent some time signing on to the Save-o grocery store so I could buy discounted groceries. By the time we got back to the RV park, it was 4:30. We took a walk around our nice RV park and then made supper — seasoned pork loin thick slices, green beans, vegetable salad, and blackberries and strawberries for dessert.

Tomorrow will be a full day going into Vancouver and seeing it ALL! I am especially interested in the Aquarium Right now it is 8 PM and it is very light out. Larry just checked that the elevation is 50 ft here!