Birdy Birthday Surprise

I planned a surprise weekend getaway for Birddog's 27th B-day. Skiing, soaking in hot springs, snuggle camping in the back of the truck, cheap food and cheaper wine was my weekend birthday gift for Birddog, all to be enjoyed in the fancy and foreign British Columbia. Oh and not to mention the new pets!
The truck was supposed to be packed and ready to go when I picked him up from work on Saturday night. Oops... so much to do, where did the time go?

We found a baby sitter for the newest members of our family: Shiner, Chubs, and the Red Tail Sisters. I found this large glass at an estate sale and new Birdy had to have fish for his birthday. Its a tragedy and a sad story but out of the 4 fish, only the two Red Tail Sisters are still with us. We are crossing our fingers that these lil wee ones will make it more than one week.

I needed Birdy's help to pack, he is the bestest Get Out Quick packer I know, I couldn't have done it without him. Without giving away too much information on our trip, I said pack for skiing. So as fast as "we" (read I, because I am the pokey one) could, we tossed in our sleeping bags and pads, cross country & telemark skis, poles, books, camp stove, some food, a lantern, warm things and lots of knitting. We've been on a few trips to know what needs to happen and we made it out of the house by 9pm. I drove the whole night

which is most impressive as I barely make it 25 minutes on the road before I start to get sleepy and need a new driver.
Needless to say I did have some help, we got coffees to keep the night going, triple shots mocha and vanilla late. WHOAAAA! can you say HELLO CANADA, I LOVE YOU. We got pulled into immigration. It must have been my good looks or the caffeine twitches in my face, or it could have been the fact that when the Canadian Customs Official asked "do you have any alcohol in the car?" I replied "no. I mean yes, only 3 bottles of beer." I guess I was supposed to remember that beer is alcohol, silly Bits- coffee coffee coffeeeee.

We were interrogated, (not really) they couldn't find any dirt on us good'ol young Americans (yes, I'm still young). I had to make things up when they were asking us where we were going, what were we going to do, where are we going to stay, blah blah blah. I didn't want Birdy to know the "plan".
When I kept telling everyone (all the Canadians) we were going to Hope, they looked at me funny and asked "WHY?" "What are you going to do there?" Really that was a town name that stuck out to me because on the map I was looking at it had the biggest and boldest letters, HOPE. No other reason than all the other town names had 9 or more letters and most likely they had to be smaller and so they didn't stand out on the map. It made it interesting anyway. Either it was a training night for new staff, or they thought we looked familiar from Canadians Most Wanted, it took them forever to do whatever it was they were doing. After roaming around the Immigration office (that had buckets all over the floor catching raindrops from the leaky roof), twiddling our thumbs, flipping through brochures, and using all my good caffeine indoors, they let us go.
After a short while on the road, I had to let Birdy in on the plan, skiing at Manning Park. I couldn't have figured out the roads without him. Signs? What signs? I didn't see a sign. Something about me and driving. I'm a good driver, it just takes me twice as long to get places, I never see the signage??
So we drove and drove trying to find a Provencal Park to pull into and stretch out in the back of our truck.

After driving about 25-30 miles per hour for the last hour and through slushy, snow packed, swervey curvy roads we pulled into Manning Park just after 1am. Sweet! All we had to do was unload the back, roll out our sleeping bags and rest our weary heads. Morning came much to soon. Our alarm clock was exhaust fumes (death) and 4 screeching girls (a rooster would have been better) trying to get their car out of the snow pack. They left, not soon enough, and shortly after the park ranger came. We lucked out, he didn't charge us for sleeping in the parking lot. Our sweet little truckie, 4 wheel drive baby, drove off with out a problem. We skipped out making oatmeal and cowboy coffee and headed to the ski hill.
We were stoked! The day was bright, the snow was white, Birdy's birthday was DINO MITE!
At the chalet we got coffee, ate some cheese sticks (that is the breakfast of Champions, err...I mean ski bums) and strapped on our skis and had some fun.

We were in some awesome pow pow powder for the first half of the day. Sweet skiing. Manning Park is a little place, but barely anyone was out. Tele skiing is not easy, that's why I have the pretty skis, to keep my mind of the difficult stuff. Oh I just take time off, plop back into the snow, prop my skis up, look at the pretty flowers and great bold colors, catch my breath, take pictures, and jump up and get back into the craziness of it all. I love my new skis and boots (Thanks Birdy-xoxox).

A quick lunch in the chalet, well not too quick,I had to knit and take a nap, and then we headed back out to rip it up. We put in a full, fun and hard day on the mountain. We got personally invited back next February for the 2nd ever Manning Park Tele Ski Festival. Sounds fun, we just might make it back, eh?

I wish there were some awesome hot springs pics and stories to share, the only awesome story is that Harrison Hot Springs Sucks. We were looking forward to the therapeutic waters, soaking our tired bodies and relaxing int the hot springs. We quickly turned (ran) away when we found out that the hot springs is a public pool filled with people. It was like the YMCA pool on a family swim night, not what I had in mind. We'll have to stick to the hot springs that require a back pack and a 12 mile hike. So we decided to drive to Vancouver.

Beautiful drive on highway 7. Not having a clue on where to go in the big city, we almost stopped at Denny's for dinner. We found a Boston Pizza, and saddled up with the locals and watched the Chinooks vs Colorado Hockey game. USA -USA, we won. Not that I cared, but I would have liked to be in town when a Canadian team won, maybe next time. And maybe next time we'll go to Denny's, the pizza was ok, but we could have eaten 5 meals at Denny's for the price of our medium pizza. Not feeling the Canadian vibe so much, I drove south, with the Birddog navigator as co-pilot.

We headed out of Canada and back to the U.S.A. pulled into Birch Bay State Park, just south of the border.

We got a good nights rest and even slept through the Ranger dude slipping a "to be paid" ticket under our windshield. $19.00 smackers to sleep in the park. Yikers! It was a decent park, flush toilets and a shower (not that we used it), but not worth the $19 US, I was expecting maybe $9 bucks. I guess I'm a living in the past. So we woke up, packed up, paid up, and hit the road to Bellingham. We had a yummy breakfast Little Cheerful, super great place, good vibes. We went to the Mad Hatter thrift store, nothing there for me this time. Of course we stopped at the LYS (local yarn shop), NW Handspun Yarns, cute shop and super friendly staff and customers! Birdy got some new CD's for his b-day and we jammed out to some Blue Grass, Modest Mouse, and Pantera all the way back to Seattle.

After a little nap and Birdy fixing his bicycle breaks, we biked Downtown to catch a birthday flick. We saw Shooter and Breach. Shooter was good, Breach was so so. It was late and rainy when we got out of the movies, so we hopped on the bus and headed home. We were both exhausted after our 500 mile Birdy Birthday Adventure and happily passed out in our bed.

Fun Fun- I love my Birddog!