International Travel

I just got back from a weekend in the US. This is the Peace Arch - we spent quite a bit of time looking at it on Friday night as we waited in the border lineup. In the rain.

Ellen and I went to a scrapbooking convention in Seattle (CKC, if you're wondering), where we met up with Joanna. It was very large. We wandered around the vendors' fair with big round eyes, wondering where to start.
We also took classes, where we created cute mini-books and layouts. It was exhausting. In a good way.
It's amazing how Canadians and Americans can live so close and be so very different. Our cultures may look the same, but they're not really. Maybe a bit like Kiwis and Ozzies. I was intrigued as I listened to all those American women with their twangy accents.

We stopped on the way home at the obligatory outlet mall. All the big name shops. I was curious to see a certain bag and purse shop that just screams STATUS. So we went in. It was so crowded. Everyone wanted a purse from C_______, and they were buying them in droves. And then I looked at the prices - they were SO expensive! I left without one. After three hours of wandering around the shops, which were quite a bit cheaper than in our malls, I came home with a pair of boots, a pair of shoes, and a sweater - and I spent much less than the price of one C____ bag.
All this shopping and hedonism left me pretty tired; I'm not used to gallivanting like this!