Thursday night.....

I am sooo done with this trip.....it is exhausting - how do people keep up this pace???? I know most families have busy lives and lots of activities and rushing about, but our normal lives are so slow paced that this is just exhausting! I can't wait to get home on Saturday. Apart from Tuesday and Wednesday next week, I have no plans and I don't plan on making plans!!! I want to stay home and do nothing!!!

This morning we were up early to drive into Vancouver...OMG I am sooo NOT impressed with Vancouver....traffic is a nightmare - one accident near one bridge and the whole city is gridlocked! The only good thing is that the highways have a special lane that can only be used by vehicles with more than one person in them (to encourage car-sharing) and that lane is EMPTY....so we zipped down those lanes on the way home!

Much of Vancouver is really run down.....grafitti everywhere and gangs wearing hoodies (grown ups) on street corners...I would not be happy to walk there alone.

We drove through Stanley Park (not as big as I expected) and went to the Aquarium. Lovely place - we had great fun there and I could have spent the whole day photographing just the jellyfish! I can't wait to look at the pictures I took!

After the Aquarium we strolled through Stanley Park and took pictures with the ENORMOUS trees and the INCREDIBLY HUGE Tree trunks!!! Stanley Park is lovely.

Then we drove through the park and stopped at .....something point.....a touristy spot for taking pictures of the suspension bridge and view.....then we stopped at the beach near the pool and I finally got to paddle my feet in the pacific ocean! I picked up a piece of drift wood for my Mom - some drift wood from the Pacific Ocean!

Drove back to Langley and to the hotel.....met up with everyone to be told we were going to dinner asap....so we tidied ourselves up a bit and then we all left for Earls...17 of us.....without booking! WTF?????? So then we walked from restaurant to restaurant trying to find somewhere with no waiting time......tried all the nice restaurants and no room - so we ended up in Red Robin - I had never been in one, so it was quite an experience! The freckled lemonade was incredible...food was NOT good and the wait for it all was a nightmare with over tired kids that haven't eaten properly for a week.

We had tickets to a comedy show for tonight at 8pm, but we didn't get back from dinner until 9pm. I am way too tired to be bothered with a comedy show half done and 3 hours in the casino, so I have declined to go and am here waiting for Abby and Sam to fall asleep so I can soak in the bath. I told Lloyd to go and make excuses for me so he has...I hope he has fun at the show - might persuade him to go to Yukyuks with me! He's going to have a go on the slot machines again too.....they were all teasing me at dinner about my gaming addiction (lol) especially after I bought a $5 poker chip from Jeff to scrapbook.....Brad was saying they will have my picture on the walls in there with a sign saying do NOT sell this lady any more chips!

I can't believe how tired I am - I wish we didn't have plans for tomorrow, but we do - Breakfast at IHOP, over to Chilliwack to see Norm and Joldie (sp??) then back for supper and then we are all going bowling in the evening and then casino afterwards as its our last night together......

I just want to have nothing to do! I feel like I have a cold coming too which won't help :( unless its allergies - allergic to the air here maybe lol.....must say my skin doesn't like the dampness...it feels really greasy and grimy no matter what.....OMG I miss Alberta so much....even if there is s now and cold, I love the dry air and all the sunshine, the lack of traffic and the flat straight roads :)

a few more....

Scenes from Chateau Whistler...

Great night!!!

What a fantastic night! It's midnight here and we just got back to our room...I've had a few too many drinks but it was such a great night! We spent the evening in the casino downstairs with a few of the other people here with us - Jeff, Margaret, Lisa and Carol.....we spent $40 - $50 and won $400!!!!!!!! :) It was my very first time in a casino and wow it was so great! Jeff played some cards of Blackjack for us and lost (lol) and then we won it all back on these amazing machines......we were all stood around watching and were in shock as the money kept going up! Margaret says we have horseshoes stuck up our butts lol! OMG so so much fun :)

We sat around the bar for a while talking to the bar tender about the various types of gamblers they get in there and her stories of gambling....we watched a few of the card tables and roulette but we're totally new to casino's so we stuck with the machines :)

Fun fun fun!

Before the casino, we spent the early evening out for a ride to Whiterock which is a coastal area....it was raining a little but we all got out of the car on Marine drive and Laurie crossed the tracks onto the beach and threw pebbles into the Pacific Ocean for a while....then we drove along Marine Drive for a while looking at all the houses with ocean fronts.....then stopped for some supper for the children before heading back to Langley.

Chris told us to gamble his babysitting money, so he got a nice fat tip tonight :)

OMG gambling is soooo much fun! Lloyd was joking how I will be down there at 8am in my pj's because I'm addicted now :) too funny!

At one point we were losing and I cashed out and got 1c!!!! I have the pay slip to prove it so I will take a piccy of it. have to say I much preferred the pay slip that said $401.19c :)