Trip to Seattle and Vancouver

Our trip started off on the wrong foot. We loaded the kids into the car at 5:45 Sunday morning (to catch the 7am ferry) and...the car wouldn't start. Dragged everyone back into the house. Mark went for gas (just in case an empty tank was the problem - it wasn't) and I started to make breakfast. Click. No more power. I had forgotten there was a scheduled power outage so BC Hydro could upgrade the service in our neighborhood. Thank goodness for gas stoves and June morning when it's full daylight by 5.

Our mobile mechanic (long boring story about why he agreed to come out at 8:30am on Father's Day, but he did) diagnosed a bad fuel pump. He showed us how to get it started and keep it running till it could be fixed (pounding on the bottom of the thing with a mallot - this required Mark to kneel on the pavement and reach under the car).

We were game to try our luck after ruling out taking the Delica (two mysteriously malfunctioning headlights) and renting a car (would take too damn long by the time the place opened). We stalled out once on the way out to the ferry but got her running again. She ran beautifully until we got to the crest of the last hill before downtown Vancouver then it was all over. We coasted into a gas station and Mark called a tow. We discovered we were two blocks from a kosher restaurant and there was a great playground across the street. Mark went to the garage (he had called around on the ferry to find a place open on Sunday to fix the fuel pump so they were expecting us) and we went to the playground. Lots of pics from that.

Eventually Mark came back with Steve, his dad, and we headed to eat. The car was ready shortly and we all drove back to Steve's apartment for some scotch juice and a visit.

That night we spent the night in Mt. Vernon, WA. The next morning we topped up the tank on cheap US gas and headed to the outlet mall. On exiting the car, I caught the smell of gas. I glanced down and saw a puddle coming out from under the car. Walking behind the car, I could see a trail of huge splotches leading to the parking lot entrance - from our car. Yikes. Sure enough gas was CASCADING out of our tank. Back to the mechanic for Mark (yay Tomtom GPS!) and into the mall for us. Turns out the jokers on Sunday had screwed up the repair. All was fixed within the next two hours and we continued on to Seattle (after scoring some cute kiddie clothes at the outlet mall:) for kosher pizza (hold the pepperoni). We found a great playground in a swanky neighborhood to let the kids shake their sillies out. Lots of moms with frosted blond ponytails, big diamonds, and size 2 yoga pants. Sheesh. We met a friend from Detroit for supper at a vegan Chinese place before retiring to the hotel for the night.

The next day was all about giving the kids a good time since we had spent the previous day shopping and driving. They LOVED the Children's Museum. Next time we will plan to spend an entire day instead of two hours. Some good pics from here, too.

Drove back to Canada that evening. The border agent accused Mark of being under the influence. He said Mark's eyes were red and one pupil was dilated. I checked. They weren't. What the heck? But didn't make us pull over. Seriously. Do I look like someone who would let my husband drive my kids around if he had been drinking? Kiv, in the mean time, decided to unbuckle himself so we had to pull over anyway to strap him back in. Stupid trip to Ikea. They were out of the one thing we wanted (curtains) but we did score some new table lamps for the living room. Anyway, back on the 9pm ferry and home by midnight (I think).

Car went back in today because it was *still* dripping gas after we topped up the tank on Sunday. Hopefully all is fixed now.

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