We flew to Vancouver in mid October, to take care of a calico kitty named Calli for just under 3 weeks.
It was very strange to take a flight that takes 5 hours, and still be in Canada. Not at all what we are used to! Little things we appreciated – having our phones still work, not having to exchange any currency, not worrying about devices having 110v plugs…
We did decide to rent a car, a bit of a splurge. Although there is public transit, my plans for our entertainment involved a lot of hiking paths through the mountains!
It also made the hour drive from the airport to the townhouse in Maple Ridge much simpler. Then we found out it is a bigger splurge than we calculated on, since gas here is $1.55 to $1.59 per litre!!!!! At the same time at home it was only $1.19 at Costco. Ouch!
Even though we had a 10am take off time, we were still zombies by evening (BC time). 3 hours time difference is a bit painful when we travel west, especially since we got up in the wee hours of the morning. For some reason it doesn’t bother us so much when we travel east.
What was my goal for this trip? Purely to see the pretty scenery, hike some of the trails, and take a lot of photos of cool views. Ideally one of those photos will become my inspiration for an acrylic painting for home. But the camera lens really doesn't take in the wonder of actually being there in person. I will have to work on that part! (Yes, that is foreshadowing!)
The pet:
The pet
Calli is very shy, but we did coax her out of her hiding spot (in the storage room where her litter box is kept) with the persuasion of a new catnip toy on the very first day!
She did quite appreciate it, and stole it as soon as we went outside. A day later it was located – in her hidey spot behind her litter box!
Is she a friendly sort? Not at first! She is very reserved. She didn’t want to be petted, would swat me to put me in my place (as food provider only, not as a cuddle buddy), would hiss if she thought i was going in for a head scratch. But I did pack my catnip spray, and gave a couple of spritzes to my lower legs and feet. So by lunch on day 2, I was getting some nice rubs and head butts. (Yes, Randy said that was cheating!) It will be small steps with this one.
What we learned – don’t touch her ears or her tail in any circumstances! But her back is fair game, and she loves to rub her face against everything – including our legs, even if she has to hop up on her back legs to reach us! And yes, we know she is marking us as belonging to her.
She is quite playful once she relaxes - and then she would play with the ribbon I brought (chasing after me as I ran around the house), and she was also entertained by the pompom tie on my pajamas! 
She also regularly summons us for pets now, finding us in the living room and doing circles around the coffee table rubbing on Randy's legs and then mine, and occasionally on our hands. By day 4 she was letting me pet her back repeatedly (as opposed to the 3 pets I was allowed earlier.)
