Home again, home gain...

I think I've used that header before, which means I'm on the road waaayyy too much. We made it to Vancouver, checked out poor Lulu, hit Science World and had a visit and some amazing ice cream with my brother and his wife, who were gracious enough to let us stay with them and then drove us through rush hour traffic to get to the shop today. It took 50 minutes to get around the block and back onto the main road after we got the rental car. To go around 1 block, people! Every single intersection was blocked at every single light change by people pulling forward. 20 minutes to go straight through 1 light. So we missed a ferry, then there was a 2 sailing wait, and we couldn't reserve since I had no idea how long we'd be on the road...we ended up catching the 9:00 boat, after waiting 2 hours at the terminal. It was made much worse by an absolutely blinding headache, the likes of which I haven't had in a very long time. I packed a full med/first aid kit, but somehow the Advil was removed, and I didn't think (in my pain-induced haze) of checking at the terminal for a shop that sold meds. Eventually I did think of it and found a tube of 10 Motrin for $3.50. Worth every penny, though in the end I had to take 3 to tame the agony.

We rolled off the boat at 10:40, and had to get home and get Xander's quidditch costume on before we hit Bolen books for the launch. Somehow we hit every single green light - someone was looking out for us! and were home by 11:00, though normally it's at least 30 minutes to get home. And I barely sped! Got Xander dressed and went to the store, where we found an exasperated and exhausted Rob, talking into a headset like he was someone famous or something, and raced like crazy through the deserted mall - what a weird feeling that was! - to get to the Knight Bus at the back of the mall. We had to go through the length of the back room of the bookstore, which is huge, then make u-turn and go the same length and more back through the administrative hall (where all the stores have loading zones), which runs parallel to and directly alongside the store back room, then from there turn 90 degrees and go past about 5 stores in the mall, turn left 90 degrees again and go back the way we came through the mall. hard to describe - a complete zigzag, 3 full times before heading out a back door and going the length of the mall again in the opposite direction to get to the back loading zone. i think it'd make more sense with many diagrams, but needless to say, it was weird and exhausting, as we were running full out to get on the bus. And incredible surreal.

But we made it, and were able to ride along the whole line, screaming and whooping and hollering, in an open topped double decker bus filled with Harry Potter fans in marvelous costumes and with most excellent enthusiasm. it was a blast! X rocked in his Quidditch uniform (I'll load a picture soon). And now we have our HP book 7, though we're re-reading book 6 first.

Rob did an awesome job at organizing the event, along with his enthusiastic and fabulous staff, and it was a phenomenal success, with lots of media coverage and I'm guessing well over 2500 people in attendance. We didn't get home until 1:30.

And now its crazy late and I have packing for camping to get done, plus maybe luminara tomorrow if the rain holds off.

G'night!