Leaving Calgary for the final time...

On Monday both of us left Calgary together for the final time (and for the first time together). It was hard work cleaning up the apartment and packing everything into boxes. I initially thought we would be able to pack everything into the car but it turns out the wagon isn't as big as I thought it was. Even with the seats folded flat, the TV and microwave boxes took up so much space that we weren't able to put much else besides the bare essentials. We ended up chucking a whole bunch of stuff:

• 2 Ikea folding chairs
• Plates, cups, cookware and cutlery (donated to clubhouse downstairs)
• Really old foam mattress and the sheets on it
• Whole bunch of toiletries, paper towels and that kind of stuff
• A lot of food, we left this outside our door with a note asking people to take what they wanted, or donate the remainder to charity

After an hour of packing on Monday morning, the car was finally filled to the max. We couldn't open the rear doors because things that we stuffed in there would fall out if we did! The car weighed down with the weight of 8 months of living, we set off for Vancouver. Good bye Calgary!

The weather report didn't look too promising the night before, and we encountered rain by the time we reached Revelstoke. We stopped for lunch at Denny's, which was crowded and served fairly substandard food. Getting back on the road, the rain wasn't too heavy until we reached Kamloops. We decided to stop at Tim Horton's and got 2 Ice Caps and a box of Timbits. Once we were on the Coquihalla the rain got much heavier; visibility was down to a minimum and standing water was everywhere on the road. Despite the weather, we kept pressing on and kept pace with some other cars, including a Nissan Murano that was maintaining a good 140 km/h in the rain! After some hairy moments, we emerged from the rain into a typical cloudy Vancouver evening. Traffic was heavy (as always) coming in on Hwy 1, but we managed to make it back to Richmond in good time for dinner.

We've been spending the past few days unpacking and just catching up on things. One of the things we missed most about Vancouver was the excellent sushi available at low low prices. We succummbed to the desire the very next day we were back and hit up Samurai Sushi for lunch. Esther got the always massive California rolls while I loaded on nigiri sushi as usual. I tried toro (tuna belly) for the first time, and I love it! The fat and the tender fish meat go perfectly. It's as good as salmon IMHO.

The rest of the week will be spent on getting Esther's new computer up and running, rearranging her room, and working on some other random stuff. I had an interview this morning, so I am eagerly waiting to hear back from them!