Lazy Daze

We are FINALLY relaxing after a crazy busy winter with my husband's ministry and my healing, painful hip. Isn't that always what happens when you fly away for a holiday? The realization of freedom from work and the commonness of everyday life doesn't sink in until the end of the first week. HOWEVER this year we remembered to take that into account and gave ourselves ten days here instead of only six or seven. After so many trips to Vancouver and this possibly our last in awhile, we finally got it right. haha

Last evening, trying to meet our friends for dinner turned into a bit of a three ring circus. In the first ring: due to a mixup in communications we ended up at one restaurant and our friends at another. Thank you Jesus for texting! We had it sorted out quickly and my husband and I decided to go to the other restaurant. Turns out the parking situation was far superior than it was at the first restaurant. Traffic wasn't bad and it only took us 15 minutes to get to our car, drive a few blocks, and find a good car park. The second ring of the circus featured yours truly trying to get the payment machine to process my credit card. It accepted it right away, but then we waited and waited....and waited....and waaaaaiiiited! The process took a full five minutes. All this time we were worried that our friends had perhaps not been able to get a table in the "wrong" restaurant, but fortunately they were given a lovely, secluded spot with plenty of space between ourselves and other patrons. We had a wonderful Malaysian meal with curried chicken and beef, saffron rice, green beans, okra, and eggplant fries. Yum! Enter ring three: after a long walk and talk back at "our" beach, one of our friends was getting chilly and wanted a hot coffee so we ducked into a lovely little coffee bar. It wasn't 't long after our order was ready and the serious theological discussions began that we noticed the staff dragging the sandwich board ads back inside from the sidewalk, other patrons gathering up their purses and jackets to leave and the lights leading to the washrooms going out. We glanced further about and saw one of the staff wearing a coat and drumming her fingers on the counter beside the cash register. The shop was all ready closing! Thankfully our hotel is right across the street so we gulped down the rest of our drinks and headed over there to complete our visit before returning our guests to their car near restaurant number two.

This morning we had the luxury of sleeping in. So, while I made my breakfast at 7am, my husband snored on until nearly 9am. Once he was up and mobile we ambled our way over to the pharmacy and bank a few blocks away, then moseyed back to the fish market for fresh Barkley Sound salmon, the open air market for teensy garden potatoes and green beans and a lemon, all for cooking at our son's place this evening. We stopped at Joe's Diner for old fashioned hamburgers, salad, basa fish and lentil soup packed with veggies. For me it was pretty mediocre in comparison to our other restaurant meals here, but my husband was recovering from eating blueberries on his breakfast cereal here in the suite, (so glad we finally figured out they have been the culprits in his most recent attacks), so the bland diner fare was perfect for him. I ordered some avocado to jazz up my burger and some balsamic dressing for the salad and it was quite fine. The breakfast plates going to the next table looked quite spectacular so we will make our way there tomorrow morning for a last chance breakfast out before flying out on Thursday morning.

This evening we will load up our remaining groceries and take them along to our son's place after I take out a couple of things for my snacks tomorrow. We always enjoy being able to bless him with a few staples in his pantry before we go home. We are going to stop at the Three Vets retail to see if they have any Pendleton shirts in my husband's size. Originally we had planned to drive to Coquitlam to pay our bridge toll, but my husband is too tired. He is resting and relaxed and happy. Good to see. We'll go there in the morning.

Thank you Lord for this amazing break away from the same old, same old.