O Canada, Eh?

So, for the most part, my blog title is oh-so-appropriate. My routine life is generally so vanilla. But when it's not vanilla, it's really not vanilla. When it's not vanilla, it's probably something akin to Good Heavens (which is a legitimate ice cream flavor in Blue Bell brand :). And it's quite delicious :)).

To highlight this so you can decide if you want to continue reading, here's the short of my new life's experiences that all happened in 2 days!:

1. I went to Canada.
2. I stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in (and cleanest too).
3. I was in close proximity to a killer whale.
4. I watched an NHL hockey game in person.
5. I went to a casino.
6. I played the "slot machines" (or their modern equivalent).
7. I left with more money than I went in with!

And now the long of my new life's experiences, if you care to read the details and see the pictures :)...

So Friday morning broke nice and early. And unfortunately, especially for me, it's still dark in Washington State at 7:00 a.m. Ick. And my motto was once (and pretty much continues to be, for all intents and purposes), "If the sun ain't shining, then why should I?" But there are exceptions to every rule. And Thursday morning was one of them. It was still hideous, though. But see, my mom is an office manager for a funeral home. And every once in a while, they get some pretty darn cool perks. This was one of them. All the office managers from all the funeral home locations owned by this company in the Seattle area were invited to go to Canada and a Canucks hockey game, courtesy of the company (which means FREE, by the way), and they were allowed to take one guest. My mom asked if I'd like to go. Oh you have no idea how I needed a getaway. Anyway, we stopped by my mom's job to drop off stuff for the work party that was the following evening, and which we assumed we wouldn't have time to pick up after getting back from Canada. And we got on the road by 8:30. We picked up a lady my mom used to work with who was also going (she works at a different location now), and then we caught the Kingston Ferry. For those of you not familiar with the area in which I live, here is a very tired me on the ferry, by a huge map, pointing to Kingston:

Let's just say it was a cold and windy day (though thankfully not cold enough to snow anymore!), so I was chilly (and looking rough -- but what do you expect from 7 in the morning?) as I took a picture on the top deck of the ferry:

This was actually the first time I took the Kingston Ferry. It was only a 30 minute ferry ride, and then we were back in the car and driving to Canada. We stopped in Bellingham to eat lunch (at Applebee's) and then continued on our way. It took us all of about 10 minutes to enter Canada (once again I got to show someone that hideous passport picture of me...). And we didn't do a terrible job of finding the hotel, which was in the heart (on the water) of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Man that's a HUGE city. And on the outskirts of the city, they still had mounds of snow, which we learned later was also rare for them.

We got to the hotel around 2:20ish and they let us go ahead and check in a little early (which I was so glad for). The room was small, but so clean! Cleanest hotel room I've ever been in. And check out the size of the TV! Had we been paying, this would have cost $159 Canadian per night.

We were on the 14th floor. Here's the view (the flash wouldn't go off, so I'm not really visible):

My mom and I spent some time watching big ships come in and also small airplanes take off and land on the water! The bathroom was lovely. Seriously so clean. And they left nice shampoo and conditioner, which made my hair feel fabuloso, so I kept the leftovers :).


So, along about 5 or so, we headed down to the lobby to meet up with the other office managers there. Oh my gosh... I was so horrified when I learned the big-mouth lady I could hear as we got off the elevator was one of "us." She was so loud! And kept referring to the Canadians as "these people." Ugh. Just dig me a hole, please. Her husband was with her, and he is some kind of sales manager in another location, and he thought a lot of himself. He told me what my name would sound like by someone who spoke Hebrew (since he learned Hebrew once). It sounded like someone hocking a loogie. Finished by the -ila. Nice. Yeah, so he and his wife were definitely not my favorites. But, whatever. So, we had to catch taxis over to the stadium. Now there was an experience. There was hideous traffic, and it cost me, my mom, and Sue (the lady we rode up with) $20 bucks just to get there. (For the record, the return trip was less than $10). So he drops us off outside of the stadium where we are allowed to enter a special door, because we have VIP tickets. So we get on this elevator with this other huge group of people. But somehow, we end up on the elevator first. And I turn around and see this huge killer whale stepping aboard the elevator. Ummm, yeah. I know I made a face of shock. Which I think is why he zeroed in on me, but whatever. He came right over to me and kept "looking" at me through his mouth (well, the whale's mouth, as that is where I guess the dude could look out). I was soooo embarassed! I felt like a 15-year old. I kept moving away from him and I so wish I could see that from an outside perspective. I seriously regret that I didn't get over my embarassment and take the opportunity to have my picture taken with the Canucks' mascot. But I was truly flustered. I felt really really red. I don't like to be the focus, and of course everyone in that elevator was watching this exchange. Oh, I could have died! Anyway, he got off after one floor, and I am still kicking myself for not getting a grip and asking for a picture. Sigh... Would've been totally cool.

So, we get off on the 2nd floor (the executive level) and walk to our "executive suite," where there are snacky foods and drinks. Mostly alcoholic, which that annoying guy with the loogie-hocking was really anxious to get everyone to drink. But I requested soda, so they brought more soda in. So check me out! I'm at my first major sporting event (and trust me, I never thought I'd be at one, least of all, hockey).

And here I am with the famous zambonies behind me :).

They brought in real food after a while (chicken sandwiches, chicken fingers, and salad), and the game started. The Canucks were playing the St. Louis Blues, so they sang both the Star Spangled Banner and O Canada. I'll tell you what was weird! It was so quiet! I didn't even know the game had started until I happened to notice all the players congregating in one spot on the ice (obviously chasing the puck -- or the ball, as the obnoxious woman kept calling it). So here's a little video of the game underway (and man they move fast. It was hard to keep up with the puck):

Oh yeah, and in the videos, if you listen closely, you can hear the loud lady. She sat unfortunately much closer to me than I'd hoped, considering how much room we had. Between periods (there are 3 of those, it turns out), a huge killer whale blimp would fly around and drop gift certificates. No, I didn't get any ;). Anyway, after the first period, my mom and I got our picture taken together:

I will say it was way cool when Canada scored, being that we were in their stadium. I'm sure in St. Louis' stadium, it would've been cool for the Blues to score. But I wanted to make sure I caught it on film when the Canadians scored, because it was almost instantaneous and pretty awesome (the buzzer you here at the beginning was right after the shot went in):

In the end, the Canadians lost 4 to 6. But it was still fun. And yes, I know I'm probably going to eat crow on this one, because I never thought I'd actually think a live sporting event would be any fun. But this was. I probably should have tried a UA game (though admittedly I was going to try to take Julie to one, but it didn't work out). Although the heat of the outside in AL would have been hot :(. So, after the game, we left the stadium and tried to find cabs back to the hotel amidst the panhandlers. YIKES. Okay, so that part wasn't so cool. But, we stuck together as a group (there were 7 of us together) and managed to get back to the hotel. A hotel with a doorman! Who opened cab doors for us and stuff! Hahaha... So cool. My mom and I went to our room and just relaxed while watching TV. I watched an old episode of Scrubs. One of my favorite episodes: My Way Home, where they allude to The Wizard of Oz throughout the episode. And then it was midnight and time to turn in.

On Saturday morning, we woke up and checked out by 9:30, so we could be on our way back to the U.S. Wow! Now this was totally opposite of getting into Canada! I felt like a common criminal (after the hour-long wait just to get up to the border patrol)! Oh, before I tell that story, let me put up my picture of me standing at international boundaries (it took so long to get through border patrol that I had enough time to get out of the car twice -- and then some, had I wanted to -- to be in pictures!):

So, we get up to border patrol and hand over our passports. Oh, FYI, you can't be on your cell phone while going through border patrol. Susan (the lady who rode with us) found that out the hard way... So anyway, they ask, "How long were you in Canada?" "One night." "What were you doing there?" "We went to a hockey game." "Which game?" "The Canucks and the St. Louis Blues." "Who won?" "The Blues." "Why this particular game?" "Because our company sent us." "What company do you work for?" "A funeral home." Conversation over... "You ladies have a nice day." Oh, and somewhere in there was the obligatory question of where we were headed home to. But dang! Is it so criminal to leave the country overnight to watch a hockey game??? That was an experience! I started feeling guilty, with all those questions!

Next stop was Tulalip Resort and Casino for lunch. You know those huge buffets they have in casinos... It was yummy. Here are Susan, me (I look like a kid in this picture!), and my mom:

You aren't allowed to take pictures of the gambling floor. The waitress told us that. Anyway, I told my mom I just had to do it just once. So, she gave me $5 and I got a ticket (so much for quarters and slot machines with arms to pull), and I just started pressing buttons on a machine where I put my ticket in. And would you believe I turned that $5 into $18? Hahahaha... Okay, so not big winnings, of course. But if you come out ahead, you come out ahead! (And this solidifies my theory for anything with buttons -- like video games and the newfangled "slot machines" -- you just press all the buttons a lot and randomly and you will win :). Used to drive my brother and Heath NUTS when I'd beat them at video games by just pressing a bunch of buttons over and over again. Mostly because they took the time to learn the button combos to do the "special moves" and I just pressed the buttons, managed some of those same moves (couldn't duplicate them on purpose, though) and would win :). So, there you go... there's my button pushing philosophy. So anyway, I returned the $5 to my mom and kept the rest (except $1 I thought I'd play while we were waiting for Susan to finish up. I lost all but 3 cents of that stinkin' dollar -- which means I was done! -- and just kept the ticket for picture purposes :)). So, I personally went in with $0 and left with $12. And I can say I did it. And that satiates my gambling needs for life ;). Oh, so here are my two tickets: from the game and the casino:

We took the Kingston Ferry back once again, and here are a couple of pictures of that, for Julie's benefit. This is the bottom deck of the ferry where the cars park and ride:


We dropped Susan off at her car and headed to my mom's job, because we were running late for the party! See, they were supposed to have a Christmas party in December. But both times they tried to do it, the snow thwarted it. So, we did an "I Survived the Snow" party. There was a decent turnout for the food. And then 7 of us remained to play Apples to Apples. And that was sooo fun! We played 4 rounds (or was it 5?) and we laughed soooo hard, and my stomach hurt from laughing so much! It was great! We left there around 9 p.m. and headed to the house. Then I was up super late last night playing catch-up on emails for Relief Society and chatting with my friend. And I had a super-early meeting this morning -- at 7, which meant I had to be out of here by 6:45, which meant I had to be up at 6:30. Okay, and please refer to my comments earlier about my motto and the sun not shining... But, I made it through. And here it is, 1:31 a.m. Monday morning when I'm finishing this up, and I haven't even had a nap!

So yeah, when life isn't vanilla, it's definitely "Good Heavens!"