Retirement party

Found a book on geology of BC at Metrotown Chapters that might help with some caches.  Then found today's cache in Coquitlam.  Don't need one now until the 4th.

Joan Cook's retirement party was in Coquitlam at the Vancouver Golf Club.  Near where I lived for a few months in Grade 1.  There were several teachers there from Carleton days.  Good to see Sharon Scott.  Gave her a ride back to Grenfell where she had left her car.

VESTA Retirement Dinner

Found a new cache in Richmond this morning and then home to do bills.

Picked up a prescription at Safeway and went to Book Warehouse on 4th only to find it gone!  Chapters in Richmond didn't have what I wanted.  Not much choice left.

Attended the VESTA Retirement Dinner at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club.  Large group of Honorary Life Members this year.  Saw a few teachers I've worked with who were retiring.  Good to see Kitty.  She looks good with no hair.

Vandals

Found today's cache in Ladner after calling Pam for a hint.  Finally heard it tinkle when I shook the branches. 

Bought 2 bags of stuff at the Ladner Village Market - jam, pickled beets, small pies...  Had a great bowl of butternut squash soup & a latte at Salt Spring Coffee in Ladner as I was too close to noon and there were lineups at the market food booths.

Home by 1 pm and just watched movies and read for the rest of the day.

Biker dude across the street ranted for a while as someone trashed his 2 big bikes that are always parked out front.  Serves him right for all the drunken swearing and yelling he does at night.  Guess someone just got tired of being kept awake.  The bikes are gone now.

Boom

Met Andrea, Matt, Lily & Sadie at Milestones in Coquitlam for lunch.  Wasn't feeling well part way through eating and didn't finish everything. 

Tried stopping for a cache on the way home but went to Thrifty's for the bathroom instead.  Started feeling better by the time I got to Richmond so found an easy one near the dyke.

Slept well last night but felt like I could just roll back into bed this afternoon.  Didn't eat much for dinner and am feeling okay now.

There was a big boom across the street at 10:30.  I called the Fire Dept and we decided it was probably a transformer since all the lights are out in the apartments across the road.  Went over to their lane and saw the fire fighters shining their flashlights up the pole.  The quickly left and Hydro was coming.  Still out 2 hours later.  Bet it won't get fixed quickly.

Rainy morning

Woke up to rain but it cleared up and I headed out at 11:30.  Deposited latest cranberry cheque and switched some money to the new tax free savings account.  Bought a charity tshirt at London Drugs.

Delivered Pam's garage door opener that she dropped in my car and took her to Ladner to pick up her repaired car.  Stopped on the way home for fresh vegetables and strawberries.

Heard yesterday that a 3rd member of our 10-person retreat at Rockwater has now died.  She was very sick and well looked after by her husband during the retreat. 

2,701

Last day of caching with Pam & Lori before Lori heads to the Interior.  We cleaned up the map of White Rock boosting me over the 2,700 mark.  The only ones left are the big climbs I won't try and a few multis.  It took us a long time and it shouldn't be long before new ones appear.

Met Agatha J in the parking lot by the White Spot.  She looks really good and was having lunch with women she taught with in the 1950's.

Picked up some wine and groceries before heading home.

Feeling pretty good.  My hand acted up a couple of times but doesn't hurt most of the time. 

Vancouver caches

Met Pam & Louise near the cemetary on 41st & Fraser just after 6 pm.  We spent the evening finding caches that we needed to fill in our Vancouver map.  Met biker44 as we found one in his back yard.  Home just after 10.

Summer finally arrived

First day of summer and the hottest day so far.  Went caching in North Van and found 7.  Met vnm747 at a couple of them.

Was home by 3:15 and ready for a rest.

Dentist

Started out my day at the dentist for a cleaning and check.  Everything is fine and Suzie fixed a couple of problems with my plate.

Found a cache near Crown Packaging where Dad used to work in the CNIB Canteen in the late 50s and early 60s.  Nice walk and ignored another cache so I can snag it on a day where I just need one.  Picked up some stuff at the new Cob's in Richmond Centre on the way home.

Met Louise at the Cactus Club for dinner and we went to our support group at the Cancer Agency.

Family Dinner

Found an easy cache in Richmond and then bought a new bag at Roots in Richmond Centre.  Had some Chinese food for lunch in the food fair.

Arrived at Pru's about 2 and much of the family was there for the afternoon and/or dinner.  We kept sitting on the porch but it was nippy.  Patience heads home tomorrow but will be back in August with new beau.

Steveston Island

Rainy morning so I was glad we decided to postpone our visit to the ghost town near the Boundary Bay Airport where Edna lived with Tim & Patience at the end of the war.  Much better in the sunshine.

Met Lori & Pam across from Steveston Island at 1:30.  My job was to take photos and to back them up if something went wrong (hah!).  The couldn't get all the way on the sand so backtracked and went over the rocks on the weir.  It took 1 1/2 hours to find the 2 caches - both are 5/5 for terrain.

Stopped at London Drugs and then home by 3:30.

Picked up Moira and we had dinner at the White Spot.  All our favourites are gone from the dessert menu so we went to Dairy Queen in protest.

Chemo day

Went to pick up my drug and the pharmacy didn't have the repeat from the doctor.  They had left a message with the one covering for mine yesterday and they hadn't answered.  I convinced them to fill it anyways.  Who is going to want to buy a $700 package of chemo on the street even if it includes a syringe?  The nurse was looking for me at the Cancer Agency as I was 5 minutes late and gave me the shot. 

Needed to put a letter the school mail so went to Weir for a visit.  Spent some time with Rum and then went to the staff room for recess.  Not many familiar faces.

Needed a cache and ended up in Delta for a quick one.  Home by 12:30.

Ladies night at Pru's with Patience, Elaine, Kathryn & Yuriko.

CT Scan today

At the Agency at 9:30 for a CT Scan and to have my port flushed.  Both were quick and easy.  Trouble is dealing with the litre of water I had to drink.

On my way to meet Lori and Pam at Point Roberts by 10:15.  Stopped for newspapers and a bathroom and parked by the beach where they were going to appear after going down the cliffs.  I had to leave a couple of times for the bathroom and of course missed them!  They had to walk back to their car.  Finally a Tweet made it through and I found them.  No phone service where I was parked.

After eating at the golf course, we headed into a forest just gorgeous trails to find 5 caches.  The 4th defeated us and I asked if we could quit for the day.  We made it to the road and Lori went for her car to drive me back to mine.  I was just exhausted all of a sudden.  Early to bed tonight!

Riot

Went to my Metastatic Support Group at the Cancer Agency today.  Found a cache at Roedde House in the West End.

Parked on Beach just the other side of the Sylvia.  Love the handicapped sticker that lets me stay in a Permit Only area for 3 hours.  Met Maureen and Daphne for lunch at 1.  They went to school together and hadn't met for years.  We talked until 4 and then I needed to leave to get home by 5.  It took me almost an hour as everyone was trying to do the same.

Daphne's room is on the 7th floor and the view of the beach is spectacular.

Poor old Canucks didn't show up to the game tonight.  They were just outplayed!  Try again next year.

The rioting is just stupid.  The police have lots of video and need to lay as many charges as possible.  Like someone's idea to have the Sun dedicate an issue to the face shots so families can see what their little pukes are doing.

One more sleep

Slept well last night and spent the day reading and doing various tasks on the computer.

Will we have the Cup tomorrow night?

On to Game 7

Picked up Pru & Patience and we met Chris, Jan, Marilyn & Daphne at The Teahouse in Stanley Park.  Excellent food and service.  The Lemon Meringue Pie was especially good.  Took part of my caesar salad with chicken home for dinner.

Chris walked down to the lower parking lot before we left and I found a cache in the bush.  Someone posted corrected coordinates and it was an easy find on my 2nd attempt.

Took Pru home and stopped at Oakridge for some groceries.  

Should not have started Luongo on the road!!  

Really tired tonight.  Don't have anything to do tomorrow.

VISI Choralfest

Slept in until 10:30! Feeling much better but had a quiet day working on geocaching challenges.

Picked up Pru, Jesse and Patience and drove to the West Van United Church for the VISI Choralfest.

Some of Marilyn's poetry was put to music and it was very good. Her poetry is the type I like so bought 2 of her books.



I loved the EnChor part of the concert. They sing at Callanish every Christmas. I'd like to hear a whole night of Canadian folk music after listening to them do a few pieces.

Family Day

Slept in until nearly 10. Took lattes to Pru & Patience at 12:30. We stopped at the liquor store on the way to Chris's for lunch & dinner. Through the day many came and went: Chris, Patrick, David, Kathryn, Kristian, Elaine, Yurikao & 2 daughters, Pru, Lucas, Jesse, Patience, Janet, Marilyn, Daphne, Matt, Andrea, Lily and Sadie.

wasn't feeling well by dinner. Think last couple of days caught up with me and I probably ate too much yesterday.

We Won!

Found a bunch of caches around Everett & Bellevue.  One completed a challenge of finding one placed every month in 2002.

Lunch at Ivar's and shopped at Macy's & Harry & David's.  Found them side-by-side in Bellevue Mall. 

Patience arrived at 6:22.  I was a bit early as I was worried about the traffic.  Read the Sun & Province and avoided any live updates or news after 5.  We stopped at Marysville for dinner (and pie) and the Duty Free for goodies. 

Made it home at midnight and watched the Canucks win.  One more to go!

Everett

Was waiting for a call from Janet, Marilyn & Daphne to say they had picked up their rental car and were on the way to the White Spot. Their flight was 12:15 but I gave up at 1:45. Grabbed a coffee and snack from Starbucks and headed to the border.

Found 3 out of 12 caches I need for a colour challenge in Washington. Already had 1. Now have total of 2,660.

Stopped for dinner at the Village Restaurant in Marysville at 6:00. Dinner was a perfect little steak with a baked potato and fresh strawberry pie. I used to come here with my parents 50 years ago! Checked into Best Western (on Aeroplan miles) in Everett just after 8:00. Pleased to find MSNBC on the TV.


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Tied

Did a couple of loads of laundry today.  It is now warm enough for the summer sheets on the bed.

Watched most of the game with Pru and Lucas.  Canucks aren't skating with heart!  The home crowd should help.

River Park

Headed to New Westminster this afternoon.  Stopped at Byrne Road for some shopping at Staples & London Drugs and then on to the Waffle House for dinner (liver).  

Met Lori & Pam on the old parking garage above Front Street.  They found a cache that I already had and then I drove us to Sapperton Landing Park for a cache.  It solved a challenge for them but I still need one more to finish mine.  It is a pretty little park under the Skytrain and along the Fraser River.

VTLA Dinner

Out early to find the cache I needed for today's count.  Got one near the dyke & #5 in Richmond.  Picked up a cable at Best Buy to replace one for my GPS that I can't find.  At least the netbook is working again.

Watched part of the Canucks game and then had to leave for the VTLA Retirement Dinner.  Tried to ignore the score but one loudmouth said it was 4-0.  Chris asked everyone to stop saying the score as some of us were taping it.  We were at the Vancouver Lawn & Tennis Club.  The food was great and the retirees all gave good speaches.  

Made it home without hearing anything about the game.  What a painful thing to watch!  Should have pulled the goalie after 2 even if he wanted to stay in.  Must do something about turning the other cheek.  The penalties were stupid.

Home

We finished up our trip today.  Started with one cache in Lynnwood and then worked out way north.  Today's were the last of the puzzles and some old finds to fill in parts of a challenge.  Thank goodness for Pam & Lori - there is no way I could have made it to some of them.  Once they disappeared for 45 minutes!

Did a bit of shopping at Bellis Fair & the Duty Free and was home by 5:30.  The NEXUS cards got us through the border in a few minutes, bypassing a line waiting for nearly an hour.  Worth every penny!  Too tired to cook so just nibbled on stuff around the apartment.

A cache owner wrote to say we really had found one when I told her we had looked in a birdhouse.  Someone had taken the log so she let us count it.  That gives my 64 for the trip. 

Lynnwood

Another successful day of caching in Oregon. Temp was up to 30!

Listened to the first 10 minutes of the game on the car radio before quickly getting our room at a Days Inn. Used a coupon in a pamphlet we picked up at a Rest Area to get a deal. What a finish! Can they win it all for Pru's birthday?

My netbook gave up the ghost so guess I,ll need a new one.

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Portland

We are in Gladstone tonight, just East of Portland. We started with a bunch of caches in Marysville and then went to Seattle for lunch. Had an appointment at Groundspeak Headquarters at 2:00 - the company that runs geocaching. We signed the log and took photos.

On to Portland and we decided to head into the hills and find the Original Cache plaque. Found a few more and arrived back at our hotel (Oxford Inn) at about 9. Free wine and nibblies were still available and then up to our room to log our finds and plan tomorrow.

I logged 18 oday, for a total of 2,630.

Puzzles in Marysville

Found 22 caches today. Most were puzzles and we drove all over the area to find them.  There were several thunder showers so we were pretty wet by the time we stopped.  The owner of most gave us hints for two we couldn't find and we went back in dark to snag them.

Marysville trip

Attended Metastatic Group this morning. We have lost 2 members since our retreat so it was a chance to talk about how we are feeling.

Stopped at White Spot for lunch and then home to pack.

Got caught in traffic going to Delta. There was an accident at the Oak St Bridge. Finally made it to Pam's after an hour at 5. We listened to the first period of the first Stanley Cup game as we drove. Finally started having a fuzzy signal at the end of the first period so we went into a casino. They had a projector showing it on a big screen in a side room. We grabbed salads in the intermission. Everyone was cheering for the Canucks. What a finish.

We are in the Holiday Inn Express and already have 3 caches. I "checked in" using Facebook and up popped a 10% discount coupon. Went down and it the clerk took it off both nights we are staying.

Cheap gas

Need a lot of caches on the few 31st left this year.  Found 11 today between Langley and Aldergrove.  Bought gas at 123.9 in Aldergrove.  Much better than the 137.9 I saw on the way home.

Stopped at Worldcaching in Cloverdale for some coins.  Bought a couple of Canucks tshirts at Champs.

Didn't get home until about 5:30 so was tired.