Food Network Tours – Page 3 – Venturing Into The Great Unknown

Arrived in Calgary

Sep 132017

This morning we awoke to a rainy, miserable morning. After eating some of our leftovers for breakfast we headed to grab our Timmie’s coffee. We had hoped to stop at the Fossil Shop for possible souvenirs but they didn’t open until 11 am.

We headed out of town towards Calgary. The rain was steady during most of the drive but lessened slightly as we arrived in Calgary. Our first stop was IKEA…the first visit for both of us. Luckily my car helped curb our spending because a lot of the things that I wanted to buy wouldn’t fit. We then visited Michaels and Mum got a few things that she needed and I grabbed a new scrapbook for our trip. The other restaurant scrapbook is over 100 pages and definitely past the point of overflowing.

By the time we were done shopping it was time to head to the hotel. After dealing with several construction zones, we finally made it to our hotel. While Mum chilled in the room and watched some TV, I headed to MEC to return a bag I had bought in Victoria and exchanged it for a bigger bag…in red of course. It was about a kilometre from the hotel but I think I made better time by walking, as parking isn’t the easiest to find downtown. As I was walking back to the hotel, I noticed that they have traffic signals just for bicycles, which were really cute looking. I also got a picture of The Calgary Tower.

When I got back to the hotel we watched some TV and chatted for a bit before researching where to have dinner. We had several Food Network restaurants to choose from in Calgary but we decided on Naina’s Kitchen. Its claim to fame is stuffed burgers, crazy poutine and gourmet grilled cheese. That definitely piqued our interest.

Despite the construction around the restaurant, we were able to find parking without too much difficulty that was only a block away. We grabbed a table and took a look at the menu. I knew instantly that I wanted the dill pickle poutine and some kind of stuffed burger and Mum wanted one of their grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. I ended up stuffing my burger with mozzarella, blue cheese, Granny Smith apple, bacon, tomato and sauteed and caramelized onions and Mum had a Buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwich. The poutine was very dilly but to die for and my burger, as weird as it sounds, was also delicious. Mum thoroughly enjoyed her sandwich but wasn’t as impressed with the tomato soup. Our waitress, Jenni, was great and we discovered that she was from Port Hardy originally – talk about a small world.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and Mum did her cryptic crosswords while I watched some television. Tomorrow we are heading to Golden with a possible stop in Banff.

Thank you for reading and sharing our adventure.

Talk to you soon.

Arrived in Drumheller

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 122017

We started our day with a hot breakfast at the hotel and then headed to Highlevel Diner so Mum could grab a cinnamon roll. We lucked out and found a parking spot right outside and Mum grabbed one to go. We then noticed that Sugar Bowl was right next door which was also featured on You Gotta Eat Here for its cinnamon buns so we went in a grabbed one of theirs to go. I, unfortunately, did not get pictures as Mum started eating one right away and the other one was wrapped up tight. I was told that they were quite tasty.

Once Mum got her cinnamon bun fix we headed out of town. I decided to head down through Camrose and Stettler rather than going down the main highway through Red Deer. It was definitely the right decision as it was a wonderful drive. Within a few hours, we were pulling into Drumheller.

We went directly to the Royal Tyrrell Museum and had a picnic of leftovers in the car before going to explore the museum.We spent almost two hours looking at the exhibits and taking pictures. I would definitely recommend a visit to anyone even remotely interested in dinosaurs.

After we finished exploring inside the museum, I headed up to a viewpoint that overlooked the topography of the area. On my way back down, I saw an adorable ground squirrel coming out of his home and he was nice enough to pose for a picture.

Next on the itinerary was the Hoodoos. Although there are larger hoodoos in other parts of the world, these were still amazing to see.

After the Hoodoos, we headed to the hotel and checked in. We knew there was a Food Network restaurant in the area so we looked it up and found that it was not far from where we were staying, so after a brief rest we went to have dinner. As we pulled up to the restaurant, it seemed to be closed – one look at the door and we saw a note saying that they were closed for September. A quick Google search found another restaurant that sounded appealing only a couple of blocks away. Luckily, it was open. Mum and I both started with a cup of potato and cheese soup, which was quite tasty. Mum had a scallop and shrimp linguine while I had a Chimichurri Steak Sandwich with a salad. It was absolutely delicious and I was quite proud of myself for eating, not only the spinach in the salad but also the kale.

After dinner, we stopped by the World’s Largest Dinosaur before heading back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we are heading to Calgary after exploring Drumheller a bit more.

Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you soon.

Arrived in Edmonton

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 112017

Today we awoke to a bright, sunny day which was surprisingly warm. We decided to have breakfast in the restaurant attached to the hotel as we didn’t have a microwave to heat up our leftovers. Mum had a poached egg and pancake and I had eggs benny. We also both got a glass of orange juice. The orange juice was the best I have ever have – I don’t even remember having an actual orange that tasted as good. The benny, on the other hand, wasn’t as magnificent but still okay.

After breakfast, we walked around the downtown looking for souvenirs. I found a key ring for my daughter and Mum found a souvenir as well. We had a nice chat with the lady in the shop before heading back to the car and leaving Jasper.

Not far outside of Jasper we came across several cars parked on the sides of the road – on closer inspection, we noticed a herd of Wapiti (Elk). I parked the car, grabbed my cameras and phone and went to grab some pictures of the elk. One cow was sitting down and I was able to easily creep up and get, not only several close-ups but also a selfie. One of the elk got up to walk around and almost seemed to pose for me. After several pictures, including a few of the surrounding mountains, we were back on the road again.

We pulled back over a couple of minutes later to take a picture of a mountain goat on the side of the road. As I was taking that picture, a young kid (baby goat) came bounding down the hill but he quickly retreated when he saw the crowd by the side of the road.

Another few kilometres down the road we saw a herd of goats and as I was trying to sneak up on them, a group of tourists scared them and they started to trot away from us. Even though it wasn’t the ideal picture that I had planned, I snapped one from behind. This was the first time that I had seen more than one or two together, so a picture of their backsides was better than none at all.

Again, we got back in the car and continued on our way east. As we passed Jasper Lake the wind was picking up and we watched as a couple of small water spouts formed. I didn’t bother to stop and take pictures this time as the wind was quite strong and it was all I could do to keep the car in my lane, as the gusts buffeted the car. Before long the mountains disappeared and we were in a flatter, muskeg-like area. Quite a difference from yesterday when we were dwarfed by mountains.

We stopped for a coffee at Timmies in Hinton and reviewed our to-do list to see if anything was in the general vicinity of our drive to Edmonton. Mum remembered seeing pelicans on one of her previous trips out here but we were unable to locate the exact vicinity. (After talking to my dad tonight we determined it was further east than Mum realized and we wouldn’t be able to see them on this visit.)

Lunch was a picnic on the shores of Wabamun Lake. I had camped here several years ago with my daughter and found it just as I remembered it. We found a picnic table in the shade and finished off almost all of our leftovers before again jumping in the car and heading east.

We arrived in Edmonton around 4:30 and, after fighting rush hour traffic, found our hotel in the downtown core. While checking in, we mentioned that we were on a Food Network Tour and both the desk clerk and a guest in the lobby recommended Meat. We didn’t have that restaurant on our list but after researching all of the You Gotta Eat Here stops in town we decided that Meat was going to be tonight’s stop.

Just after 7, we braved the traffic and headed across the river to dinner. We spent quite a while driving around the block looking for parking – finally deciding on a lot a couple of blocks away that let me pay with a parking app.

We were able to get a table right away and before too long had two huge plates of food in front of us. Mum had a 1/4 chicken with Brussel sprouts and mac & cheese and I had a Brisket sandwich with garlic fries. We also each grabbed a dill pickle. The food is served family style so we ended up sharing the fries, sprouts and mac & cheese. We finished off the sides and Mum ate half of her pickle and chicken while I was too full from the sides to eat more than a taste of my brisket. Lunch for tomorrow is definitely taken care of.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched So You Think You Can Dance. As I write this, Mum is already sleeping and I am very close to being there myself. Tomorrow we are heading to Drumheller with a top at the Hoodoos on the way. The weather is supposed to be much cooler with a good possibility of rain – hopefully, they are wrong about the rain.

Thank you for reading and sharing our adventures.

Talk to you soon.

Arrived in Jasper

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 102017

Today was our longest drive of the trip – almost 500 km. We left Three Valley Gap at 7:45 PDT and arrived in Jasper at 7:00 MDT. We started out by driving the 20 minutes to Revelstoke for breakfast at Timmies. When we arrived the lineup for the drive thru was almost out to the street and there were about a dozen people in line in the store. It turns out that the town had been without power for a couple of hours and it had only just come back on – perfect timing for our arrival. We had a quick bite and were back on the road heading east in no time flat.

It was a beautiful sunny morning with the mist from yesterday’s rain hanging low around the mountains. We continued along, stopping in Golden for a rest stop and Timmies refill before getting back on the road. One neat thing I learned about my car is that it displayed a tunnel on my Nav Screen when we drove through the snow sheds – it totally messed with head.

Our next stop was in Field at the Yoho National Park Info Centre where we were able to get a map and information about the Icefields Parkway. We walked around the attached park for a while, taking pictures of the Kicking Horse River, surrounding mountains and local magpies before jumping back in the car. Before long we reached the turnoff and headed north towards Jasper.

Our first stop on the Parkway was Hector Lake – it was an unplanned stop, but when I saw all the cars by the side of the road, I just had to stop. It was the beautiful blue that I remembered from my trip out in ’82 and my iPhone captured it perfectly. Mum, however, stayed in the car as she didn’t feel like being as suicidal as I did crossing the highway. (Yes, that’s my car in the picture below).

Next stop was Peyto Lake. This is the lake that I have etched in my memory from my first trip over the Rockies and it was a must-see for me on this trip. We had been told it was an easy 1K walk along a paved path. Yes, it was paved (sort of) and yes, it was 1K. Easy? Not so much. It was a half-decent hike up the side of a mountain that would have been easier to do in runners than flip flops, but we still survived and we were rewarded by a beautiful vista. Mum had memories of very tame ground squirrels so we had brought bread with us – the two squirrels we saw were picky and ignored our offering of leftover focaccia, so I was unable to get any pictures.

Back in the car we went – next stop Saskatchewan River Crossing for gas and a much needed pit stop. We wandered the gift shop but didn’t find anything that spoke to us so we went back out and saw that we were kinda blocked in by an ambulance so I took the opportunity to take some more pictures.

By by this time we were checking the clock and realized that it was going to take us longer to reach Jasper than we had thought so we decided that we would have to limit our (my) stops or we wouldn’t make Jasper before nightfall. That didn’t quite work as planned as I stopped again at Bridal Veil Falls.

I was almost going to forego the Athabasca Glacier until I saw it and then I knew i wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t get some pictures. I am so glad we stopped, even though it was a chilly 9°C before accounting for the windchill. I grabbed some pics and then we headed down the road to see the “toe” of the glacier.

The picture below shows the marker of where the glacier was in 1942. It’s amazing how far the glacier has receded in 75 years.

The view wasn’t as spectacular but I was able to dip my feet into Sunwapta Lake which is fed by the runoff from the glacier. The shoreline was a muddy consistency that was very slippery but felt like liquid silk. The water itself was very close to freezing but I went in up to my ankles anyway – I would have gone in further but was afraid that I would slip and fall on my butt in the frigid water. As I was walking back to the car, the wind on my wet feet felt like daggers piercing my skin, but the bottoms of my feet felt so soft from the mud. Now I understand why people take mud baths.

We jumped back in the car – I turned on my seat warmer – and away we went. 104 km to go to Jasper. Our next and last stop on the Parkway was Sunwapta Falls. As we were pressed for time we only got pictures of the Upper Falls, but it was still impressive for the lack of rainfall this summer. It is a Category 6 waterfall and the word Sunwapta means turbulent water in the Stoney language.

We we finally made it to Jasper around 7 pm – tired and hungry. We checked into the hotel and then I drove around downtown looking for a parking spot which I finally found a few blocks from the hotel. It turns out that most hotels in Jasper don’t have parking lots and you just have to find a spot somewhere on the street or in one of the lots.

After a quick Google search we found out that there were two Food Network restaurants in town. The first one was a bit pricy and chi-chi for our liking but the second one was a pub and the first item on the menu was a pretzel. For those of you who have followed our previous trips, you will remember that Mum loves pretzels so it was an easy choice. The Jasper Brewing Company was three blocks from the hotel so we were also able to walk. We shared a flight of six beers – I had 4, Mum had 2. They have an ISA (India Session Ale) that they brewed for Canada’s 150th – it was coincidentally the 150th Canadian craft beer that I have have tried since I started tracking my beer in the Untappd app. We also shared the pretzel as an appy. Mum had a bowl of their daily soup which was Cream of Chipotle Chicken and I had the Turkey Club with a mixed greens salad. Everything was delicious and beyond our expectations.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Mum went upstairs to the room and I went looking for my car so I could move it closer to the hotel. Luckily I found a spot in the lot across the street. As I was crossing back to the hotel I noticed that I could have parked on the street directly in front of the hotel – oh well.

It is now after midnight, local time, so I will bid you all adieu. Thank you for reading and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Arrived at Three Valley Gap

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 092017

Today we awoke to rainy, drizzly weather – not the greatest for traveling, but so needed after three months without any rain. We had a quick bite to eat of leftovers from yesterday before heading out.

We stopped in Hope to grab coffee at one of the busiest Tim Horton’s I’ve been to, then proceeded to drive around Hope a couple of times trying to find our way out of town. We finally found our way and headed up the Coq towards Merritt and Kamloops. I had watched an episode of Highway Thru Hell last night and was hoping that I might see one of Jamie or Al’s tow trucks on the way. Unfortunately, the only tow truck was from Hope Towing, but luckily it was not needed by us.

We made it to Kamloops and by then the rain had subsided and the sun was even coming out from behind the clouds. Our initial plans were to have lunch in Kamloops but neither of us were very hungry yet so we drove to an overlook that Mum knew about and I took a few pictures. It was a beautiful place to get a picture of the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers. Then, as we were leaving town, the same thing happened that always happens to me in Kamloops – I got lost (misplaced). Luckily I got less lost than usually do in Kamloops and we finally made it to Highway 1 East.

Over the next two hours we continued along the Trans-Canada. The weather alternated between rain and sun as we chatted about our last trip along through the Shuswap area when we drove to Nova Scotia in 2010. It was fairly uneventful as we counted down the kilometres to Malakwa, our new lunch destination.

We arrived at The Burner Grille around 2pm, hungry and ready for another Food Network restaurant to add to the list. We started with bruschetta that we shared and I had a Burner Blue Cheese Bacon Burger and Mum had their special which was perogies and smokies. I managed to grab a picture of our appy but totally forgot to grab a pic of our main course. I will tell you, it was absolutely delicious.

After our much needed food stop, we continued down the road 20 minutes to our hotel for the night. This hotel is a place that I have taken pictures of every time I have driven by but have never had a chance to stop and explore. This year the opportunity came up and I jumped on it. It is in a very picturesque location and with the red roofs, I just couldn’t resist booking us here for the night.

After checking in, we explored the gardens outside the hotel and Mum snarfed a few seed pods from the beds scattered around the property. We then killed some time watching tv in the room before we headed down to the restaurant for dinner. Mum and I had a light dinner of a soup and sandwich and then headed back to our room.

Although it wasn’t terribly late, we decided to turn in early as we have a fairly long day tomorrow which ends in Jasper.

Thank you for sharing our adventures and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Arrived in Harrison Hot Springs

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 082017

Today was a very early start with me picking up Mum at 6:45 so we could catch the 8:30 ferry to Horseshoe Bay. It was also a very dreary and rainy day – bad for our trip but much needed after weeks and weeks of no rain. We had an uneventful crossing which we spent in the car chatting and doing crosswords. I admit that my preference is the Departure Bay ferry as it seems much shorter than the Duke Point to Tsawwassen ferry and this time it was the logical choice.

We got off the ferry and headed to our lunch location which was Fraser Park Restaurant in Burnaby. It was located in an industrial park and at first, we drove right past it and had to turn around. It wasn’t packed but it was busy enough that Mum quickly grabbed a table as I went to the counter to order. Mum had the Kimchi Hash with eggs and Tex-Mex sausages and I had a sausage sampler with eggs, potato pancakes and a homemade horseradish mayo. It was quite delicious and also very economical.

After our lunch, we traveled east on the Lougheed Highway to Agassiz and then north to Harrison Hot Springs. We arrived with almost an hour to spare before check-in and decided to stop and look at our list of places in the area. It turns out that Lynn Crawford visited a local goat farm on her show Pitchin’ In, so we turned the car around and headed back to Agassiz to visit The FarmHouse Natural Cheeses. We grabbed some honey and decided to visit again to pick up cheese on our way home next weekend.

By this time we were able to check into our motel so we headed back to Harrison Hot Springs. We took a short walk along the waterfront as Mum was searching for a gelato shop that she had heard of. As we were walking we also noticed that there are several references to sasquatches around town. The gelato shop was closed so we turned around, stopping at the hot springs pool to check it out. We were both happy to see that it was not busy at all so we went back to the motel, grabbed our suits, and went back to the pool. We spent an hour or so soaking in the hot spring pool before realizing that we were not only getting tired but also hungry. The picture below is of a Bigfoot footprint, as well as one of the local street signs.

We finally settled on the Old Settler Pub which was a short walk away. Mum had the French Onion Soup and I had the same but also had a small side salad. It was a very well made soup which we both enjoyed. On the way back to the motel, Mum picked up an Irish Cream gelato at another ice cream store along the waterfront for dessert.

We are now at the motel, tired and ready for bed. Tomorrow we are heading for Three Valley Gap just west of Revelstoke with a possible lunch stop in Kamloops. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed sharing our adventure today.

Talk to you soon.

7th Annual Food Network Tour

7th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 072017

Well it’s that time again. Tomorrow morning I will be embarking on the seventh annual food trip with my mum. This year, in honour of Canada 150, we are staying in Canada. Although we are only going for 10 days, I have packed a lot of great food, attractions and scenery into our trip.

We will be travelling approximately 2,500 km across the Trans-Canada to the Icefields Parkway and up to Jasper, Edmonton, Drumheller and then back across the Trans-Canada through Golden, Salmon Arm and Hope. On the outward journey we will be travelling up the Coq, however, I hope to travel down the Thompson and Fraser Canyons on the old Hwy 1 on our return journey.

We have visited most of these locations before on previous family trips, but this time we are looking to explore, not only new food places, but also the beautiful landscape. (I think my mum may get sick of me wanting to continually pull over to take pictures of the mountains – and she thought I was bad with the Pacific coast lol).

I have not planned this trip as rigidly as I normally have. I have decided that life is too short to stick to a tight schedule. Mum and I have discovered that it doesn’t matter how much research you do, you will always find several things along the way that you would like to have time to do, but don’t. This year we have a couple of long windshield days, but I’ve tried to leave tons of time for us to go from point A to B. Hopefully this will also allow me to blog a bit more. I find at the end of a long day it takes me so much longer to put my thoughts down than it really should, so I hope to blog as I go through the day and save it as a draft. Then when I’m in the hotel at the end of the day I can just add pictures and tweak it.

I enjoy being able to blog and share our experiences as we visit these Food Network restaurants (we’re up to 63 so far) and explore along the way. I hope you enjoy reading my daily updates and I welcome your comments.

Talk to you tomorrow from Harrison Hot Springs.

Home Sweet Home

6th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 042016

Today we awoke at 5:45 – way earlier than my body wanted us to. We made coffee in our room and I started the annual pre-border cross repacking of the car. I am always amazed at the amount of things that we accumulate along our journey. This year we had 7 pairs of shoes, several bags worth of dry groceries, two coolatrons full of cheese and hot sauce, and a few bags of other sundries. After about thirty minutes, I was able to get the car packed in a way that would make it easy for Customs to go through our car should they decide to send us to secondary. It has happened before, so I just make the assumption that it will happen again.

Once we were packed, we headed to the Anacortes-Sidney ferry. This year we stayed only a few miles away from the terminal and ended up being the second car in line to board the ferry. Mum was also quite happy that she saved 50% off her fare as she is a senior – something that BC Ferries no longer offers. We waited an hour or so, then heard the ferry’s whistle blow as it emerged from the thick fog bank that hung just offshore. We boarded the ferry and were able to get a spot right at the front of the vessel.

We decided to spend the ferry ride in the car since we had such a beautiful vantage point – it was also much warmer in the car than on the deck. Mum spent most of the time doing her cryptic crosswords and I read a novel that I have been trying to finish. When we docked in Friday Harbor, I ventured out to grab a picture and then hurried back to the warmth of the car.

For the remaining hour of the ride, we chatted and watched on my Google Maps app as we got closer and closer to Canadian waters. We both know that we aren’t officially back in Canada until we go through customs, but there is something reassuring about knowing that we are almost home. About thirty minutes before we arrived in Sidney, we were finally able to see Sidney come into view.

We docked right on schedule and waited for the walk-on passengers to disembark and then it was our turn. We made it through customs with very few questions and were officially in Canada. We drove down the Saanich Peninsula and back up over the Malahat to my house. While I was emptying my stuff from Mum’s car, she enjoyed a quick coffee and snack of crackers and cheese. After a quick call to my dad to let him know that Mum was about to leave and she was off. The end of another Food Network trip.

We had a great voyage this year, travelling almost 4,600 kilometres in sixteen days. We explored new locations and revisited old favourites – expanding our horizons along the way. It will be hard to wait almost a year before we can embark on our next adventure. Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you soon.

Arrived in Anacortes

Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 032016

Today was our last full day in the States. We had breakfast at the hotel before heading to Lacey for some last minute shopping. We went to Kohl’s and Mum and I both found some great deals on clothing before we grabbed some gas and jumped back onto the highway. We ran into traffic around Tacoma and again just north of Lynnwood. The traffic around Lynnwood finally abated as we passed the Seattle Outlet Mall in Marysville. We continued on until we reached Mount Vernon and did our final grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.

After our shopping, we headed to the Outback to have a late lunch/early supper. We started with a Bloomin’ Onion and I followed with a Bloomin’ Burger with veggies while Mum had the Alice Springs Chicken with fries. After eating, we headed to Anacortes and arrived at our hotel just before five.

In the hours since then, we did some wiki-research and just chilled in front television. Tomorrow we are taking the early ferry back to the Island and our sixth annual trip will come to an end.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you tomorrow, when I sum up our trip.

Arrived in Olympia

6th Annual Tour, Food Network Tours No Responses »

Sep 022016

Today I woke early and went across the street to grab coffee at the 7-Eleven. After coffee, we headed up I-5 to Albany to have breakfast at a restaurant that was suggested by a good friend of mine – Novak’s Hungarian Restaurant. We found a great parking spot and walked a short block to the restaurant. Mum had the Mama’s Favorite Crepes (ground walnut and apricot preserve filling, garnished with bittersweet chocolate) and I had the Blueberry Ricotta Crepe.

After breakfast, we headed back up the I-5 towards Portland. We made very good time going through town and for the first time we went over the Hawthorne Bridge. We found a parking spot near New Seasons Market and walked a couple of blocks to the store. Mum was on the hunt for a particular brand of honey – Shippers & Growers – and was finally able to find it. Our next stop was Fire on the Mountain Wings. This was my need-to-stop place and, again, we lucked out and found parking. I waited in line and grabbed four 80z jars of El Jefé, 2 8oz jars of Raspberry Habanero and 1 8oz jar of Jamaican Jerk. I hope that’ll be enough to last me until next time I’m in Portland.

Once we were done with our last-minute Portland shopping we were back on the highway and heading northbound. Just as we were leaving Vancouver, Washington, it started raining. I know we can’t complain, but I would much prefer rain to happen when I’m not driving at 65 MPH. It rained on and off as we headed north, but the sun finally came out as we were approaching Kalama, WA. I had no sooner mentioned to Mum that the weather looked like it was getting better than we came around a corner and we could see a wall of rain. I have never seen such a division of weather before and it was quite disconcerting. It thankfully stopped with a few minutes, but it was insane while it lasted.

We stopped at the Centralia Outlet Mall to grab Nikes for my sister and pants for my Mum at Pendleton. We were able to find the particular shoes that my sister wanted but when we went to line up, we realized that there were over 100 people in line. For the amount that we were saving, it definitely wasn’t worth waiting in line and we gave it up as a bad job. We then headed over to Pendleton and I was able to find a sweater and Mum was able to find a “consolation prize” for my sister.

After shopping, we were only 30 minutes from the hotel and we were able to make it without any further weather issues. I did, however, miss my exit and had to backtrack. We checked into the hotel and decided to head to dinner before it got too busy at the restaurant.

We went to Fish Tale Brew Pub – for the third year in a row. We started with bar pickles (which turned out to be pickled vegetables and not at all what I expected). Mum had the Soup (Bacon Cheese Potato) and Fish Tale Salad and I had Fish Tacos with Soup. It was a huge bowl of soup and Mum couldn’t finish it – I had no problem helping her out.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and Mum had a bath while I organized the car. I usually organize things on the day before we cross back into Canada, but decided to organize while the sun was still shining. I have organized in the rain before and it is no fun.

It’s hard to believe that we are almost done our trip – the last two weeks have just flown by. Tomorrow we are navigating through Seattle holiday traffic and staying in Anacortes.

Thank you for reading and I will talk to you soon.

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