Monday, September 28, 2015

Home Sweet Home

It's nice to get away, but it is so good to be home again!   And I am very thankful to The Captain for hauling in all my bags and organizing the storage locker once again.

Today we were back to our normal routine of working out and walking after breakfast.  Felt great for sure!

We had a very busy week away... lots of visiting with family and friends, good eats, good drinks, site-seeing, and lots of laughter and fun.  We had very limited amounts of exericise, other than the hours and hours spent walking and shopping... so I made pretty good food choices overall, and came home weighing 2 pounds less than I started. YAY for that!

Our first stop, after getting off the ferry on the mainland, was at IKEA where we stocked up on candles and some kitchen goodies, and The Captain enjoyed Swedish Meatballs for lunch in their restaurant.  Then we drove on to Low-Carb Grocery where I was thrilled to find some bags of a new-to-me Protein Plus peanut flour that I have been eyeing up on the internet for several weeks.  I haven't tried it yet but it is quite a bit less expensive here than PB2 so I hope it's good!



It was nice to be able to pick up some things on my sister-in-law's shopping list too, and take them to her.  We had a lovely weekend visit with her family and caught up on the news... a bit of wedding planning going on there and a doggie fix with Lewis, our funny little doggie-nephew!  Isn't he the sweetest little thing?




After we crossed the US./Canada border on Monday morning, we made our way a bit further South to Bellingham... first stop, my beloved Trader Joe's of course!  Along with the usual array of plaintain chips,  artichoke hearts, cookies and low-fat cheesies for The Captain, pumpkin butter, salsas, nuts, nut butters, chocolate bars, and wine, we found a few new goodies to try this time...





And we also visited the big box stores and department stores and made a trip to the outlets in Burlington, too.  They do have some of my faves there... GH Bass Shoes, Nike, Reebok, Van Heusen, Wilson's Leather, and some nice ladies wear shops.  I had promised myself that I wouldn't buy anything that wasn't a great price AND that I didn't love and all in all, I think I  did very well... I showed some awesome restraint... but some highlights...  I have been looking for a pair of navy blue pumpsfor several months and lucked into a pair of leather Ralph Lauren shoes marked down to $26 and also found a few nice dresses and tops.  And at Eddie Bauer, I presented the clerk with a $C10 coupon to purchase a lovely mauve tee shirt that was on sale and she actually GAVE me the shirt and 25 cents change!  How does that happen?

At Reebok I picked us up some new yoga mats...



Once we got to Port Townsend on Wednesday,  there was a package waiting for me that contained a jar of PBfit... this is another peanut butter powder that I have been jonesing to try, but that I cannot get in Canada, as they do not ship it here. So, it was very nice of the folks at Better Body Foods to send me a jar to sample in care of my friend's address.



We spent 3 days and evenings playing cards and reminiscing with our elderly friend. We rented a guest suite at his lodge rather than staying at a hotel a few miles away, and it worked out very well. Coming and going was so much easier.  It was a beautiful little suite, all decked out, so we made our own breakfasts, took breaks for a while around noon to go out for lunches, and then took him out each evening for an early dinner.   A shout out here to the Bayview Restaurant near the ferry dock downtown... I had an amazing dinner one night of cod baked with a ginger-vinegar sauce and some roasted veggies. Awesome. Excellent and friendly service, too.

I always love to visit this Victorian seaside town because we spent 3 Winters nearby while living on our sailboat and it feels somewhat like coming home to me.  The local council has worked diligently over the years to keep the chain stores and fast food restaurants away, so the shops are locally owned and there is a real timeless charm to the place.  




It was kind of sad to leave...  but we amused ourselves with more shopping on the way to catching the ferry in Port Angeles that brought us home on Saturday night.  We made sure to fill up the cooler with some of The Captain's favorite Tillamook cheeses before boarding the ship.

A great trip, and it's good to be back on the Island. 

I can't wait to catch up on YOUR news, too.






3 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had a great time and got in a lot of awesome shopping! Nice! There are like no outlet stores in Montana so I always love hitting those up when I travel. Glad you had fun and are home safe again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like you had a great time and brought home a great haul! Glad you enjoyed. Let me know how you liked that TJ's COld Brew!

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMGOSH YOU HAD ME AND I LOST ALL OTHER THOUGHTS AT LEWIS' FACE!!!!!!!!
    <3

    ReplyDelete

Love it when you leave me a comment!