Monday to Friday, April 9 to 13, 2018 (Peace Arch RV Park, Surrey, BC)

Another week has flown by...more medical appointments, along with shopping and a little sightseeing mixed in!

Monday was a pretty laid back day...after a busy four days on the island. Ray and Deb picked us up at 11:20 and we went to Big Ridge Brewing Co for their Monday 'Burger and Beer' special...


After lunch, we all went back to our place to continued our visit a little longer. Always good spending time with your both!

Still stuffed from lunch, we decided to get our for a walk around the campground. They have been busy doing the spring cleanup in the gardens...

Late Tuesday morning we took a taxi to Enterprise Car Rental in White Rock to pick up a car. Enterprise usually pick you up but today they said to take a cab and they would reimburse us. We have appointments the next two days that take us into Vancouver and North Vancouver...places where we don't want to take Buster!

After lunch we headed off into Vancouver to our 2 pm doctor appointments. Of course by the time we had finished there, rush hour had started and we had to battle the traffic back out to Surrey.

Wednesday morning we were up and out by 8:45...this time heading to North Vancouver to Steve's dermatologist appointment. We gave ourselves a little extra time in case of traffic issues but all went smoothly and we were a little early....perfect! We can stop at a little coffee bar up the street from the doctor's office! If you like a full-flavoured, bold cup of "jo", like we do, this is the spot...Take Five Cafe has the best coffee! (Yes, even better than Starbucks!)

The dermatologist checked Steve over well...applying liquid nitrogen to a few moles. One particular mole on his back required removal, though, so after freezing the area, she cut it out, leaving Steve with an incision that required 3 stitches. I guess I will be playing nurse...changing the bandage.

We were back out in Surrey by late morning, and after a stop at LifeLabs for Steve's blood test (I have to fast for mine, so will go first thing tomorrow morning), we went to the Townhall Public House in  South Surrey for lunch. Steve had a burger (go figure LOL) while I had a salad...I normally ask for the dressing on the side but this time, because of the type of salad it was, I just asked that they "go light on the dressing". Well, the salad was "swimming in" dressing...lesson learned! Always get in on the side! On a positive note, I was not charged for it...which was totally unexpected! I mentioned and showed her the dressing left in the bowl after I had finished...and when she brought the bill, she apologized and had not charged for it...nice!

After lunch, I dropped Steve off at home and headed out for some shopping. My first stop was at Costco...and a major stock up (and major $$) since we were pretty well out of the things I get about every 8 to 12 months. I also picked up a new duvet, so that made the final bill higher than usual.

After Costco, it was onto Walmart. I must admit I was a little disappointed at the Langley store that I went to...seems they were re-arranging/re-organizing and their shelves were in disarray and in some cases empty. Oh well...means I will  have to do more shopping tomorrow.

It was going on 6 pm by the time I got home...then I had to put everything away. At least dinner was fast and easy...roast chicken (from Costco) and a packaged salad.

Thursday morning, I headed out shortly after 7:00...to join a line up of folks waiting for LifeLabs to open at 7:30. They took my blood...and then I headed right to Starbucks! After my coffee, I picked up some fresh veggies at Save-on-Foods and was home by 9:30.

We wanted to do "something" today since the sun was "finally out" and we had the rental car, so after putting the veggies away, we headed off. On our way to the beach in White Rock, we changed our plans and headed to Steveston...a cool little fishing village located in Richmond.

We walked along the waterfront...

There are many restaurants...this is the one we went for lunch at later...

The last time we were here the place was packed with people buying fish, shrimp, prawns etc.

Not that we were in the market for anything we decided to walk down to see what the fisherman had to offer...

Yikes!!

Looking back from the end of the dock...

There were only 3 boats open for business today...

$10 per container...

We didn't visit the Gulf of Georgia Cannery last time we were here, so thought we would check it out today...

Built in 1894 in the historic fishing village of Steveston, the Cannery was the largest building of it's kind and the leading producer of canned salmon in British Columbia...

It stopped canning in the 1930's but remained active as a net loft, fish depot and later as a herring reduction plant. There used to be around 30 canneries on the coast back in the day, now there are none...

Entrance fee was $7.80 each...

Commercial species that live in the waters of Canada's west coast...

Wow!! Sturgeon fishing is still very popular here on the Fraser river, catch and release only...

Note the thousands of cans lining the upper floor...

Start of the fish processing line at the "Iron Chink" machine

After the heads are removed the lower conveyor feeds the fish into the machine where the fins are removed, the belly opened by a saw, guts and blood removed with a rotating brush then the fish rotate out above the lower conveyor...

...to a final cleaning station where women would clean the slime off the fish...

Many of the women with children had to take them to work. Babies were carried on their backs and if older had to sit on benches behind them.

Gang Knives machine...

The cans of salmon receive a lid with this machine...

Have the air removed and are sealed then continue onto...

...an oven for cooking...

The salmon were received here from the dock...

This scale shows price per pound in 1952 for each species...

When various species were to be separated hand signals were used...

Onto the Herring Reduction display...

The herring were fed onto a conveyor...

Burner for...

...large dryers...

Wheelhouse of a fishing boat showing some of the electronics used...

The Cannery was huge and very well done...we thoroughly enjoyed our tour through it!

Now it was time for lunch...and fish and chips, of course! We had already picked out the Crab King Restaurant...mainly because it was cool and windy out and we wanted to be inside...

We both had one piece of halibut and chips...very tasty!

Then it was time to head back out to Surrey...and visit nearby White Rock. Halfway down an extremely steep hill into White Rock...

Flag at half staff for the 16 Humboldt Broncos hockey players killed last week in a terrible bus crash with a semi...

Whiterock is a neat little seaside community with lots of eateries but no large vehicle parking that we're aware of, so thought we would take advantage of having the car. It's pay parking everywhere and expensive for even short term so we decided to just drive through, besides it was cold and windy out...

Friday...and rain, rain, rain! Really didn't do much today, it was so miserable out! I did the laundry in the morning and then returned the car rental at noon.

Steve spent most of the day working on pictures from our trip to Steveston yesterday. I baked some muffins in the afternoon once back from dropping the car off...and that was pretty much our day!

And that brings us up to date again....