We’re in New Westminister right now in BC, staying with mom’s friend Margaret from back in the school days. Yup, we’re sitting in the back yard right now as they reminisce over the old days. Tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving bright and early to get down to the German Consulate in Vancouver to submit all of mom’s paperwork for this German passport process.

Well, we’re in Jasper right now, staying with my cousin (second cousin technically… I think) Shawn. I’ve always liked Jasper, it’s got a vibe to it, everyone I’ve ever talked to has always been great (and not just in that “I’m putting up with you because you’re a tourist” kind of way), and it’s probably one of the most beautiful areas in Western Canada.

We left the house this morning at about 7:30, and we arrived in Edmonton at around 1 in the afternoon. Pretty good time, considering we stopped in the Battlefords to take care of some business at a Petro Can and the GPS said we wouldn’t get in until 1:20 or so. Take that Sheila 😛 We went to West Edmonton Mall where we had lunch at the Sherlock Holmes Pub in the Bourbon Street area of the mall. That place is sweet, they say they’re a traditional style English pub, and having NO experience with English pubs, I believe them. The food was really good, I got what was called the Pub Club on a bun, essentially a chicken club sandwich, but with a seasoned chicken breast instead of cold cuts. It was great. And they even had really good fish and chips vinegar for my fries. And Guinness! I think that was the best part.

After we had our awesome lunch, we checked out a shoe store we passed on the way to lunch to look at some sandles. Birkenstocks! I’ve finally got a pair of sandles I really like. And they’re made in Germany too, ’cause you know the Germans make good stuff. Haha, I’m happy about that, I’ve wanted a nice pair of Birks for a long time now. They had some other cool shoes too, a bunch that I think Braden would really like that I got a picture of that I’ll be putting up with all the trip pictures when I get back. We also searched out one of the Source stores in West Ed, I wanted to replace my Zune transmitter since it was stolen when the Jeep was broken into. It was kinda funny being in there, their store is about the same size as ours, but they have double the products, double the staff, and double the customers. There is no room. I also had to give them a little instruction on how to give me my employee discount, which was really funny. Their staff was really nice though, better than most of the people here I’d say. I also got to check out the Apple store while looking for the music stores they have there. That was cool. Call me geeky, but being in the Apple store was freaking sweet. I could totally work in an Apple store. Checked out the music stores too, but they didn’t have any Rush guitar books, so we were pretty much done.

From there we basically drove from Edmonton to Jasper, letting our trusty GPS Sheila lead the way (Which isn’t hard, it was basically a straight line). The mountains came out of nowhere, I swear. Rather uneventful on that leg of the drive, which I guess is pretty good. Some wildlife here and there. We got into Jasper at about… 7? Got to my cousin Shawn’s new place where a small family gathering was underway, namely my cousin Shawn, his brother and my cousin Darryl (I’m sorry if I’m not spelling that correctly, there’s so many different ways!), his wife Shelly and their two kids, Abby and Mason, and Shawn’s partner Jen. Oh, and Shawn and Darryl’s mom, my great aunt, Bev was here too. I haven’t seen any of them in a few years, I think Aunty Bev being the longest. I’d never met Jen before, she’s really nice. And I also met Mason for the first time, I’m not sure how old he is, but he reminds me a lot of myself in some ways. Mostly the ridiculous antics parts. And we both had Super Man pajamas. That’s awesome. It was really awesome to be able to visit with everyone, I like spending time with family like that, it’s something I don’t get the chance to do very much of.

That’s pretty much today, more or less. Took a little walk around and saw Aunty Bev’s apartment, and had a cool conversation with Shawn about a bunch of different things. I love talking to interesting people. And now I’m just laying in the basement typing my first recount of the trip. So that’s all for now. Check out my twitter or facebook streams for little updates as the days go on, I’m sure there’s a few little interesting tidbits that pop up on those. Anyways, I’ll try and recount tomorrow once that night comes, hopefully I’ll be around some internets so it can go online. Tah tah for now!

An adventure begins! Somewhere inside the next hour I’m going to be departing on what will probably be my only summer getaway this year. My mom and I are driving to Vancouver, primarily to go to the German consort to see about being able to get her a German passport, but we’re going to try and have a fun trip around it. We’re going to be driving through Edmonton, stopping for lunch and a little bit of shopping at the West Edmonton Mall, then continuing to Jasper to visit and stay with my cousin Shawn. From there, I think we’re drviving to Vancouver to see and stay with an old friend of my mom’s. A quick visit to the consort the next morning, and then we’re off to Victoria! A day or two there, and then we’re headed back home, this time through Calgary where hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with a couple friends for a visit. We should be due back next Saturday.

I think this trip is well deserved. I really need to get away from things for a bit. It just hasn’t felt like summer, to use the words of someone close to me. It’ll be really great to get away from things for a bit. I’m also going to do everything I can to go out of my way and blog every night during this trip. Hopefully it’ll help me get in a better habit of doing it, plus it’ll be easy to recount a day at a time instead of the entire trip at once. So hopefully all goes well, and you’ll be able to read several posts this week.

Anyways, must finish getting ready before we leave. Wish me luck, and I’ll see you all in a week!