September 29th - October 7th 2015

 

September 29th - Dinner at Garrett's

 Stopped at Mum's on the way to Garrett's to deliver her purse and she handed over a container of fresh made brownies. Thanks Mum. Traffic was horrible at Cariboo Road fortunately backed up the opposite way we were going. We hate Vancouver traffic. The drive from Burnaby to North Van was pretty smooth as we could use the HOV Lane when required and the fact that we take the first exit off of the bridge made it quite nice as well.

Garrett and his girlfriend Kat, invited us over for a delicious dinner of grilled prawns, fresh made bread, grilled portabella mushrooms with skewers of grilled peppers. Yummm. Thanks a bunch guys, dinner was fantastic. It was great to see Garrett running about trying to get it all timed perfectly. They did great. Everything hit the table at once. There was strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert but we were all too full so Kat sent us home with a couple of pieces.

Wednesday, Sept 30th, Ray was off early to catch the ferry to Nanaimo for his last doctor's appointment before leaving for the states. They changed his appointment from 11am to 9am so it was a scramble to get going early. It is better though because he will be home at 1pm and still have the afternoon to relax. Yesterday Ray bought our travel insurance from Pacific Blue Cross this time instead of BCAA and saved about $400. Ray's prescription dosage will be changed today which is why we have to stay until October 8th before we cross the border.

Thursday, October 1st, it was back to the dentist for Ray for his regular cleaning and placement of his new crown. Not an inexpensive bill. Steve paid $180 for his crown in Mexico last year and Ray paid $560 yesterday for his. (our portion with the dental plan!) I think any more crown work will be done in Mexico even though we have a dental plan.

Steve and Dianne had arrived back from Victoria late Wednesday afternoon and were busy preparing to take their coach in to Traveland first thing this morning for some repairs. I offered to make them dinner as they were out of the "their house" for the day and they gladly accepted. I decided to make my version of Thanksgiving Dinner as we will be on the road for that holiday and won't be able to have a turkey day and it is best spent with friends and family. Unfortunately for them the work was not completed in one day and they had to go back and camp in the Traveland for the night and who knows how long today's work will take. Hopefully not too long as it is supposed to rain today.

Friday, October 3rd, we're going to Ken and Norma's for dinner. Garrett and Kat have been invited as well. It will be great to see them before we leave for the states.

Nothing like Prime Rib for dinner, yummm. Unfortunately Norma just came down with a cold this morning as isn't feeling very well, but did not want to miss anything. Pam came over after work and took over cooking the veggies and serving up dinner. The roast is done to perfection. We did not stay too late and everyone enjoyed a good visit. Hopefully we don't end up with a cold as Dianne has one too.

Saturday, October 4th, we visited Dad for an hour and then it was off to the hot tub at the pool. It was an easy cooking day as we had the turkey left-overs for dinner. Garrett and Kat are coming for dinner tomorrow so I did some prep ahead.

For Sunday's dinner I made a beautiful pork rib roast on the BBQ and tried 2 new recipes, apple pecan stuffing and Zucchini rounds topped with sautéed peppers, zucchini and parmesan cheese. The star of the show was the stuffing.

Tuesday, October 7th, we stopped in at Dad's in the early afternoon before heading into Burnaby to see Mum and take her to the Memphis Blues BBQ House on Commercial in Vancouver. Leaving her apartment and trying to get to the freeway is insane at 4:30 in the afternoon, with horrendous traffic. Once we got onto Hwy 1 it's much easier to make our way into Vancouver.

We were able to procure a parking spot right outside the restaurant as we got there pretty early for dinner. We decided to share the Memphis Feast Platter with a sampling of all the BBQ meats with all the fixin's. All I can say is WOW!  The platter advertises feeding 2 to 3 people... it should have said 4-5 normal people. It was 2 feet wide in circumference. The barbecued meats were great and included chicken, sausage, brisket, pulled pork, pork ribs and rib ends not to big on the fixin's though. We had a ton of left-overs which we left for Mum so she will have food for a week. They even had Oktoberfest beer on tap. No pictures as we were too busy eating. This is what it looked like.

The next day we were invited to a lovely dinner with Steve and Dianne. She made Chicken Lombardi with loaded cauliflower. Dinner was fabulous. It sure made it easy for us with no dishes to do before we leave in the morning.