More Travels

Yes, I'm home from yet another journey. This time, I went out to Vancouver to help Lexi find an apartment in preparation for her move out there. I really hadn't even recovered from interPLAY when I packed up and left, so I forgot my camera. No eye candy for this post, no pics of the FABULOUS apartment we found, nada.

We drove out in my wee car--lots of fun going through the Coquihalla pass with a 4-cylinder engine! Just me and Lexi. Two days driving to get there and two days back, which left us 3 days to hunt for apartments, check out the job situation and connect with some old friends and family. Which we did.

The first plan was to check out White Rock as a possibility, but Lexi found it a little to far from the action and that the work environment was filled with people a little older than her. However, my best bud from my high school and college days lives in White Rock, so we met up with her and her gorgeous 5-year-old daughter. It was as if the last 25 years had never happened-gabble, gabble, gabble! Fortunately, her usually shy daughter took to Lexi and the two of them kept themselves occupied while us old gals caught up.

Our next step was to check out Kitslano. Nice neighborhood near UBC, close to beaches, easy access to downtown, low vacancy rate. We scouted the papers, not much there. We drove around writing down the numbers for buildings that had vacancy signs. We walked around neighborhoods. Then we made phone calls. Most of the apartments had already been rented or were waaaaay outside our budget, but we found two that suited us. One had an open house the next day, the other wasn't immediately available.

We drove past the first place and thought.....okay....Then we went looking for the second place. It was in a neighborhood we hadn't even been to, but looked promising. We are still not too sure how we got the number, but the manager was cheery and helpful on the phone, and the building was in a GREAT location.

We spent some time touristing, going to the Aquarium, walking the seawall, trooping up and down Robson, then we went to the open house. There was a line-up (well, one person when we got there, but 4 more waiting when we came out) and the apartment was....okay....We tossed the application in the back seat and went to have supper with my brother-in-law Brad.

Brad and my sister have been legally separated for about 13 years, and we haven't heard much from him since then. Until he looked me up on Facebook. So here we were meeting him for supper. It was a little awkward at first, but once we got past the past, we had a great time!

The next day was our last to be apartment hunting, so we went off to the viewing with high hopes. I had a good feeling about the place from the first phone call to the manager, and that proved to be accurate. What a great apartment! Views of English Bay and the mountains above West Van, walking distance to beaches and shopping, well-kept building, refurbished kitchen and bath, and a cheery, mother-hen manager. She offered us the place on the spot, and we took it! Mission Accomplished! Moving in on October 1.

We had another fantastic visit with my pal, who promised to keep an eye on Lexi once she moved out there, then hit the road back to Alberta. A stop-over in E-town to shop at Ikea for cheap apartment furniture, then home to a birthday party, a long weekend and back to school.

And in all this madness, I managed to finish my silk shawl and my Einstein jacket and fill a spindle with Louet's Tropical Skittles top. But more on that another day...