The usual morning: wake up, get some work done, do the New York Times crossword, check Facebook,, then head to Tims for coffee.

And today, Timbits as well.

Then it was time to check out of the Pinnacle Hotel and head to Horseshoe Bay to meet up with besties Marie and Dave, who were coming across on the ferry to meet us for lunch. We spent a good 20 minutes or so driving around Horseshoe Bay Village looking for a parking spot…

There weren’t any. We eventually drove up a hill into the residential area and found a spot on the side of the road about a kilometre or so from the lunch spot. Whatevs. It was a nice day. We found a bench in the sunshine and watched the ferries come and go.

We had a bit of time, so I grabbed the camera and walked around a bit near the shore to get some shots.

Dave and Marie finally got there and we settled in at the Olive and Anchor for some lunch. I read in the menu that they make their Caesar cocktails with Frank’s Red Hot instead of Tabasco and I was intrigued enough to try one and see if I liked it - for those non-Canadians reading this, the Caesar (or “Bloody Caesar”, officially) is basically a Bloody Mary that’s made with Clamato instead of tomato juice. And Clamato is basically just tomato juice with clam broth added. Oddly, it’s not the clam broth that turns me off on a Caesar, it’s the tomato juice. But I asked them to load it down with a lot of Frank’s Red Hot so I wouldn’t even taste the tomatoes.

That’s Dave in the pic - Marie said “absolutely not” to photos, even though she’s gorgeous. You’ll have to settle for her hands. Anyway, lunch was delicious. I had a goggie dog, which was a hot dog bun filled with bulgogi with fries on the side. Somehow, I didn’t take a pic of it. Sorry.

After lunch we headed over to Jon and Lisa’s house in North Vancouver. It’s nice.

Here’s a better look at the hand-carved front door with Salish artwork.

We followed our noses to the kitchen where Jon was already busy making the meat sauce for tonight’s dinner.

Rob and I are staying in the basement, which has a nice little self-contained apartment.

So I’m set up with some privacy, outlets, a coffee pot, and everything I need to do my early morning/ late night work. Yay!

Back upstairs for a pre-dinner cocktail and I was surprised to see that Jon had got a bottle of absinthe for me to drink while we’re here. Even better, it’s a local brand that I really like.

Lisa is still celebrating her recent retirement and was showing Rob some balloons she received.

We had our cocktails outside on the patio next to the big fireplace while we waited for Jeri (Jon’s mom and our sister-in-law) to arrive.

Jeri arrived and we had dinner - Jon’s famous “mean lasagna” and a chicken caesar salad. Delish.

It was a nice evening with the fam, even though I caught everyone mid-chew in the pic and you can’t tell we were having a good time.

It was Jeri’s birthday, so there was cheesecake!

Bedtime happened pretty early for everyone after dinner… so I wrote this post while I’m waiting for enough time to pass after dinner so I can take my meds and go to bed myself.

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