Amazing weekend. Drove to Vancouver, BC, with Tom. On the way up, we stopped in Seattle, did a bit of sightseeing at Pike Place Market, and bought lunch. Got over the border without problem, found our hotel, and emailed our friend that we had arrived.

Saturday, we spent most of the day at the aquarium, which was just enough different from any other aquarium I'd seen to keep me spellbound. Instead of bottlenose dolphins performing, they had whitesides. Instead of California sea lions, they had Steller's. Instead of, well, anything, they had a small pod of beluga whales. That's what really blew me away. I'd seen Steller's sea lions in the wild, and whitesided dolphins, but I've never been within a thousand miles of a wild beluga whale. They were so white, so beauti... so white. I can't pretend that they were pretty. They didn't have the sleek symmetry I expect from cetaceans. They were lumpy.

Sunday, on the way home, we stopped at the Woodland Zoo, north of Seattle. While my knee has healed well post-surgery, I'm pretty out-of-condition, after being laid up for five months. We managed to see less than half the zoo before collapsing with exhaustion. Honest: I fell asleep as soon as we were back in the car. It's a good thing Tom was driving! We'll go back in a couple of weeks, when we're in town for the Tim Minchin show.

Yes, I did give the finished scarf to our friend. She, in turn, gave me some maple-cured salmon. Holy Pete, that stuff was good! I didn't have to worry about getting it back over the border; I had eaten it all before than.