.stranger with your door key explaining that i'm just visiting.

First Leg:
So Amy and I recently went on a delightful road trip.
We left Friday morning and drove to B.C. This road had construction. And slow-moving cars. Which was really just a sign of things to come. Anyways, we also almost hit some elk that decided to chill in the middle of the highway. They are bright creatures. But thankfully they meandered to the shoulder and we scooted past.
There was no "WELCOME TO BC" sign for me to take a picture with, which was kind of sad. But we stopped in Golden for lunch and took pics with an inuksuk. The lady at the A&W was super friendly and promised to look into why iced tea costs 5 or 10 cents (or whatever the difference is) more than other pop.
Then we went out for dinner with Amy's sister and bro-in-law in Abbotsford at White Spot. They forgot my cashews in my salad, so I asked my waitress to please bring them to me on the side. She forgot, so she said she'd give me a discount. I figured that meant a few bucks, but didn't charge me for my salad at all! Free dinner is a great way to start a vacation, I must say.
We continued on to Vancouver where we followed a treasure map to find the keys to my friend Josh's apartment. Unfortunately he and his wife had left for vacation earlier that day so we didn't get to see them, but at least we had a little adventure getting in. We had to go to the south side of the building, to the garden, look under a blue milk crate, and then under a rock where the keys were resting amidst some dirt and earwigs.
Their apartment is super cute, and in a great area of town. And on one bookshelf all their books are arranged by colour. It was really pretty, even if that is pretty random. So we had a welcome letter from Josh with a long list of things we might need to know, which was pretty sweet. And it made me laugh. Apparently I hadn't mentioned that I was travelling with a female friend and he clarified that house rules were such that the bed could not be shared by unmarried people of the opposite gender.
We went for a few nice walks, we parked downtown and walked to Granville Island (which we made it to eventually...), and then we went to Stanley Park. I took some pictures of Amy in buttercups and told her to put one under her chin. She had no idea what I meant. I was like, you know, do you like butter? And she was like, what the heck? Apparently there aren't any buttercups in Alberta. Or Saskatchewan (Jenn hasn't heard of this either). But other people we talked to totally knew what I was talking about, and we found an old poster of it in a cheese factory in Oregon a few days later, so I felt less crazy. In Stanley Park we took pictures of the totem poles, and, well...like father like daughter. Let's just say I got some strange/disgusted looks by an elderly couple as I pretended to defile one. As we were walking around there were some rude bikers who rushed at us from the roller blade lane (the roller blade lane was supposed to justify their presence). We also watched some sea planes taking off near a lighthouse, and then we went and played frisbee before heading back home. We made the most delicious pesto pizza with sundried tomatos and pesto we'd found at the market in Granville Island.
On Sunday we brought a blanket and the guitar to the park where we sang songs until we were forced to relocate due to a softball game. There was a guy on the one team who actually had the baseball socks. We thought it was really fun, and we wanted to get a picture of him, so we may or may not have looked slightly creepy trying repetively to get a good shot, haha.
Then Amy went and visited with some old friends from Bible college, and I went to Andy Lambkin's church with Jonathan and Judith. It was great to seem them (again) and I also really enjoyed their church.
After church I went and hung out with Amy and her friends. As we were sitting eating pizza in the park, I looked up and there was a guy on the hill wearing crotchless pants. I was somewhat shocked, and I said "That guy has crotchless pants!" and then I realized that he heard me. Oops! Well, if you're going to wear crotchless pants with neon green boxers in public, then you're probably expecting comments, right?
And...that is pretty much the end of our Vancouver adventure. More still to come...