What a fantastic start to an exciting book tour!!! I can hardly wait for the next thing to start, yet want to freeze time so I can enjoy it longer.

I’ve been in such a buzz since I got here that I’ve hardly had time for anything more than a quick FB post. Ammon works at the Boundary Bay airport doing his air traffic control training, which is 15 minutes away from the YVR airport. On Wednesday afternoon he got off at the same time we landed, and was able to pick up Mom and me. Considering my fear of flying, our flight was extremely easy and went by super fast! Our last KLM flight was just awful. The chairs were too small to put our feet up on them (Mom and I are really small), the TVs were ancient and didn’t work, and they brought water once or twice in 9 hours! Hahaha, I suppose that is still luxury in comparison to all of the transport described in my second book. Man, how things have changed. This time on the flight they were constantly spoiling us with drinks and goodies meanwhile I was forcing Mom to watch movies with me the whole time.

It was strange to see Ammon embracing his new life. He has a job, just bought a car (though, mind you it’s still the cheapest thing findable in Vancouver), is living with his girlfriend, and was wearing jeans and fancy black leather shoes. I still think of my brother as a scruffy vagabond with long curly hair and a bushy beard. It was so great to see his new apartment and catch up on everything. He even has a coffee maker in his kitchen!!! Thanks to Sasha.

Before we even landed, we could see the huge size difference in the cars, then came the food portions, bottles of shampoo that dwarf the ones we’re used to, tubes of toothpaste, gallon size milk jugs instead of the large 1litre we get in Holland, houses and streets are massive and every other person seems to be driving a Dodge Ram truck. Everything is bigger even the steak-size slabs of sashimi.

One of my favourite things about Vancouver is the extremely delicious, massive, cheap sushi available on every street. I recently went on a sushi date with my second book (yes, I’m a total geek!!) and was blown away by the Mexican Roll. WOW! Who knew?! The absolute perfect combo, sushi + jalapeño peppers…. aahhhhh now THERE’S something to cry about.

Grandma couldn’t pick us up because she had to stay home to receive the first small shipment of books that were arriving at the same time we were. I let Ammon do the honours of opening the first box! I’m so happy with them, it’s just like christmas.

To emphasize that feeling and to work up our courage for what lay ahead on this trip, Mom and I splurged on a shopping spree the next day! After avoiding all shops this year, and hoarding all of our money for this trip, we exchanged our euros to dollars and the whole world became a candy store of goodies. I’m so glad I purposely brought a practically empty suitcase for this specific occasion, though I’m still beginning to wonder if I’ll fit everything in.

After a long day, it was blissful to sit by the fire at Grandma’s and down an entire pizza and Crazy Bread!!!

Bree’s father-in-law has cancer, so she and Donavin are in Manitoba to be with him. It is unbelievably strange to be here without her. I’m missing my other half. She will hopefully be back on Wednesday night. Mom and I kicked off the tour on the weekend in Cloverdale at the “Fall into Craft” fair. It is the smallest one we have booked on our trip, yet we still managed to do extremely well! I couldn’t have asked for a better response from the public. It’s got me even more excited for next weekend at the Women’s Show in the Tradex building in Abbotsford and all the ones after it!