Meeting my best friend.

I am here to tell you about my trip to Canada; well not only Canada, but Idaho, Oregon, Washington, the border, the car.. whatever you so wish.

Mi madre and I left Wednesday morning. The trip started out very well because I slept from 9 unti like 11:45. That was amazing. The rest of the trip, which involved getting lost trying to find Martha Grace's house near Portland, we listened to books on tape and studied verses. I did. Mom didn't, she just listened to me memorize and recite the whole way!

Thursday we spent the day with Martha Grace, an old family friend. We helped her clean her car for about four hours so that she could sell it when we went to Portland. She didn't sell it, but she did buy another one. In Portland, we checked out Multnomah(?) School of the Bible. I'm pretty sure that one is crossed out on my list. For reasons that are too confusing to write about. Then we had dinner at the Olive Garden. Get this: our server was a graduate from Portland Bible College. He told us all about it and it sounded great. Until we told my dad, who checked it out and it wasn't so peachy. So that one is crossed out as well. I won't go into details about the rest of the day, but it was intense.

On friday we left very early so that we could cross the border and catch our ferry on time. Highlights? A cute little coffeeshop in Washington, free coffee and hot chocolate at a rest stop, seeing Seattle from the highway..... The ferry was amazing. It was so much bigger than I thought. Inside it had room for lots of cars, and people.. it had a gift shop, starbucks, cafeteria, food... and my mom's favorite, the sundeck. This is where we spent most of our time although it was quite chilly and windy. We arrived at Duke Point, British Colombia at about 8 at night. We walked off the ramp and right away saw Katherine and her mom. They rushed over to us and we all hugged. It was wonderful.....

Saturday morning, us four girls headed off to a little tourist town called Chumainus. We looked at many cute shops such as, a pottery shop, an art gallery, a candy shop(don't say anything Charity and Susanna), and more. We were able to enjoy muffins and water at a little bakery as well. After that we headed down to the water front, where we had a snack and found purple starfish! They were so beautiful and once again reminded me of God's artistic talent. :) This town was filled with quaint houses, bed and breakfasts, and hotels. I wouldn't like to live there because everyone would always be looking at my house. There was one house with little animals made out of the shrubberies, it made me think of Edward Scissorhands. That house was Katherine's favorite.

On Sunday we attended their Pentecostal church. It was great meeting the friends Katherine mentions quite a bit, and just seeing where she worships on Sundays. Later on in the afternoon, us four girls and Katherine's younger brother Jon, headed over to Victoria, the capital. Katherine, Jon, and I all saw an IMAX theatre production. This was her birthday present to me, plus this great paper made out of elephant poo. She and I visited the Empress Hotel while the others walked along the water front. We all were able to see the Parliament building and what a wondrous sight! After all this we headed home. On the way we stopped at lookout point to see the ocean and also at a donut shop for donuts and hot chocolate and tea!

Monday was our last day there. We visited a small town called Cooms where there was a great little market that had all kinds of things from around the world. And guess what? The roof was covered in grass for the goats that lived up there. Hence the name of the store: Goat's on the Roof. It was great. Afterwards, we ran and played on the beach in the rain. One of Katherine's mom's friends lived near there, so we decided to visit Tannis and Hans. I think they were from Switzerland. That was amazing. They both had great accents that I fell in love with. Haha.. I love accents and Switzerland. They owned a bed and breakfast that was just beautiful. We were allowed to stay for tea. The whole experience was just awesome. Since it was our last night together, Katherine and I drank hot chocolate and talked till late.

The next morning mom and I packed up, and they dropped us off at the ferry. So sad.

We got home safely late Wednesday night.

All in all, the trip was amazing! It was so wonderful meeting Katherine and getting to know her in person. And her family. We decided to write letters more often since we they had pretty much ceased for a while. I'm supposed to write on the 13th, the day after the Bible Bee. And we plan to send our christmas and birthday gifts to eachother a month in advance.. we're pretty bad at both. I love seeing her house, room, where she takes dance, her town, her church... Now everytime she writes about them, I can picture her wherever she is! She might be able to visit me a year from this November. Great, I get to see her and British COlombia in the beautiful summer and she gets to see ugly, rainy Utah in November. haha oh well. It may be a little bit different now when I write to her now that I know her in person, but it'll be ok. I still love her a ton and thank God all the time for blessing me with her. I hate saying this, but it really was a God thing that we both read the same magazine and applied for a pen pal at the same time.. and they we are so alike! Isn't he just amazing!? He astounds me all the time. Well that is the end of my journey to Canada to meet my best friend! Hope you enjoyed!