The Silver Reef Casino

I thought we might need some buffet-eating practice before next month's Alaskan cruise. Well, not really. Going to a buffet is sort of like riding a bicycle; once one has practiced, it's a skill not likely to be forgotten.

In reality, we decided it was a good day for a drive to Bellingham, WA. Today's 150 KM round-trip took longer than expected because the border-wait time going south was about 45 minutes. We also needed to park while US border security had an additional, close-up look at Kimchi, our EV. What luck, a random inspection! That little annoyance took less than five minutes though. On the other side of the border, we stopped at the first rest stop for around ten minutes. While we used to boys' room, the car got a few extra kilometers of power.



We did visit the Fred Meyer on Bakerveiw Road in Bellingham. We bought just a few grocery items, mostly on-sale apple juice. Then we headed north again to Exit 260. That is the way to the Silver Reef Casino.



We are not regular visitors at this establishment. In fact, I think we may have only been once after it initially opened. Today, we did open free membership cards and were given $5 on them to play slots. Jay cashed out with $9.41 but I only had a couple of dollars left. We also received $5 vouchers towards food. It was around 12:30 PM, so we went to the buffet. On Tuesdays, their buffet costs just $7.77 and was the reason we went there today. With the unexpected discount, the two of us ate for less $6 in total. We feel that both probably ate too much as well.

Custer Rest Area

Depending on how much coffee or tea we drink in the morning and the length of the US border wait, we often find need to stop at the first southbound I-5 rest area. Years ago, I read about the West Coast Green Highway. Then, during the summer of 2012, one of the first EV chargers I ever inspected appeared at the Custer Rest Area. Seven years have passed.







Today, I used it on a little trip to Bellingham, WA. We only visited the 'facilities' and chatted with another traveller for around 15 minutes. So, plugging into the Level 2 Charger probably gave me only around six miles of charge. However, it was free. Why not?

The sky was completely blue this morning, a type of blue that leaves one somewhat awestruck. We wanted to cross the border so that our new license plates would be logged and 'known' at the border. It was a good chance to get more familiar with Kimchi, the nickname for our KONA. Driving this vehicle is going to make me a very, very lazy driver. The adaptive cruise control is absolutely brilliant and the Lane Keep Assist gently nudged me towards the center of the lane several times.

I have spent the majority of my life using the metric system. Of course, the default set up for Canadian vehicles shows KPH. Kimchi reads speed signs when travelling on all highways. It displays a little sign indicator in my heads-up display and on the center screen. I was happy to see that as soon as we got over the border, 70 MPH displayed as 112 KPH automatically. Cool. I think I'm in love.



We parked at our Fred Meyer on Bakerview Road. Years ago, when our dollars were more at par, we shopped there frequently. We have not been for a long time. The views of snowcapped Mt. Baker were fantastic. After, we drove around downtown before getting back on the northbound Interstate.

I-5 to Bellingham

It probably doesn't make quite as much sense now that our dollar is around 80 cents. We still saved money, I'm sure. As well, it was a beautiful day to take a run down to Bellingham.



We bought a cooler full of cheese, a gallon of US milk, and 4 almond and cashew 1/2 gallons. Okay, that's not all. When we were walking the aisles in Fred Meyer, we ended up with more in the cart. That was the main stop. Yet, as I said when I checked in on Facebook, we have a hard time not hitting The Old Country Buffet at the Bellis Fair Mall when we're in that city around noon.

On the Road by 9:10 AM

Why not try a Freddy's run, we thought? (It's a US Pacific Northwest grocery chain.) With the currently high $US dollar, we knew there'd not be as noticeable savings bonanza as usual. Still, I am sure we saved on the cheaper gas, milk, and cheese, even with an 83 cent dollar.



It was nice just going for the drive. The US border is about 21 miles and about half way to the city of Bellingham. Maybe it is the exchange rate or the fact it's not yet summer, but what a pleasure to find just a five-minute border wait.



Okay, I fess up: the real reason for the trip was to use some of the email coupons we always get for the Old Country Buffet. All-two-can-eat for $US 13.02 is something which cannot be avoided when near the Bellis Fair Mall.

We didn't know there's presently a Canadian ban on US eggs and chicken. We don't want salmonella or avian flu or something in Canada. We had to leave a flat of 18 at customs. Eggs cost half the price in the US but not when you have to leave 'em at the border. LOL

What an interesting weather day too. We drove through sun, clouds, showers and nearly hail. We heard the thunder after returning home. We were back early enough so I didn't need to miss my nap time.

Let's Have Lunch in the U.S.

I don't want to sound boastful. Well, maybe I'd not mind if that happens a little bit. It just feels so nice having our time as our own. I mean our schedule is utterly and completely up to us nowadays. Even a vacation from work was temporary, so no matter how enjoyable they seemed, I always knew, in the back of my mind, future work existed. Ha.

Today, we decided to head to Bellingham after we got emailed coupons for The Old County Buffet at Bellis Fair Mall. Generally when when take a monthly or so trip 21 miles to the border and the same distance to the city, we stock up on groceries. Today, we found only a few things to buy as we are only in BC for another nine days. We didn't need to bring back six pounds of cheap cheese nor any of the other items which cost more in Canada.

On Facebook, I have already posted a few photos of a couple of the plates of food we consumed. So here is all the dessert we could stuff in at the end of the meal.

$US 3.96 / Gallon is a Bargain

I don't have to say much in this entry as there are four pictures which will do the talking. We drove to Bellingham, Washington today to shop at Fred Meyers, have lunch at the Old Country Buffet at the Bellis Fair Mall, and buy cheap US gasoline.





I can add a little about the last photo. Gas at my local gas station worked out to be $5.45 in US funds. I made an Excel spreadsheet which does the conversion of measurement and exchange rates. Of course, we went to save a little money by buying cheese, milk, almond milk, juice, and a few other items at Fred Myers. One primary reason for the trip was to fill the tank on my Ranger though. I saved $US 21.74 which more than paid for our lunch. Plus, it was a pleasant day to drive 42 miles south.

The Whole Thing

We still have three weeks before leaving on our spring vacation. We're not going to unplug the refrigerator this time as we'll only be away a bit more than a month. Still, we decided to take a quick, cross-border trip to shop at Freddy's in Bellingham, WA. The eggs, cheese, milk, and juice will need to be consumed before we go away.



Let me be clear, we also received a page of coupons through the email loyalty program of The Old Country Buffet. Eating there is a guilty pleasure. I can't believe how much food I shoved in my mouth for $5.99. I am learning though. I had just one dessert this time around. It was a half pound slice of carrot cake. Oh, with a little ice cream. Still ... as in the 1972 classic TV commercial ...

Relaxing, If Uneventful ...

We didn't let our Canadian dollars valued at just $US 0.89 dissuade us from crossing the border for gas and a bit of grocery shopping. The line waiting to cross the border was a smidgen less than usual. I know that I saved at least $5 on a tankful of gas and much more than that on a haul of cheese, almond milk, and eggs. Oh, we had perhaps only $50 worth of stuff all together. I did admire the selection of beer at Fred Meyer even though I had no available allowance for a day trip. Anyway, we had two Old Country Buffet lunch coupons to use up.

When I drive around town I cannot get much above 45 kph due to all the traffic lights and such. Letting the truck cruise at 70 mph makes me think I made it happier. You know, in the same way a young stallion likes to kick up its hooves for the pure fun of a little speed.

The Fridge is Full of Cheese

It had been about a month since we travelled to Bellingham, WA. We decided to go south to buy gas and a few groceries. The Canadian dollar has slipped over the past few months and so gasoline at $3.19 wasn't as much of a steal as usual. Still, due to higher local taxes in Canada, we definitely save more than enough for lunch on a tankful. I continue to feel full of the all-you-can-eat buffet.

The border waits were larger today than I might have expected for a Thursday morning. Actually, now we all been brainwashed into thinking it is normal sitting in the car more than a half hour in the line-up. Europe eliminated borders but the one between the US and Canada has grown considerably thicker.

Another Visit to Fred's

We ran out of cheap cheese. It was a good day to drive down to Bellingham, WA for a bit of grocery shopping. We got on the road a bit earlier than usual. It was rainy but perhaps that helped make the border waits quite short. Of course, we had lunch at the Old Country Buffet at the Bellis Fair Mall as is our habit on such days.

We stopped at Walmart, but bought most everything at the northern Fred Meyer. I was happy that gas was only $3.13 a gallon in Ferndale, WA. At the local gas stations, the price would work out to about $4.66 today. That's with a litre/gallon conversion and a Canadian dollar which is presently worth about 95 cents. The hamster will even be pleased because we returned with a new, blue, running ball too.

Cheese Run

During recent months we've been running down to Bellingham, WA. We pick up mainly cheaper milk, cheese, and eggs. We often pick up other groceries as well. Oh, and gas for the truck is much cheaper. That alone makes for a monthly trip worth driving the 45 miles each way. We generally find ourselves eating lunch at the Old Country Buffet in the Bellis Fair Mall. Today, was pretty routine. The border waits were twenty minutes both south and north. It was raining when going down yet the sky was very blue four hours later.

A Quick Trip to Bellingham

We had already voted in the provincial elections by 9:00 am. As we both had the day off, we thought it might be a good day to head down the road, across the border, and then on to the city of Bellingham WA.



We'd never been to the Trader Joe's in Bellingham, so stopped there before the typical stops at Target, Fred Meyers, and Walmart. Of course, we ended up at The Old Country Buffet in the Bellis Fair Mall at lunch time. I appreciated the added, tiny Mongolian Grill even though it didn't afford the tremendous steam and showmanship of an authentic one-meter grill.




I noticed that I5 is greening up with a full suit of free electric outlets. There were several right at the very first rest stop in Washington State. How neat it will be to be able to go all the way to Mexico without using a drop of gas! One main reason of today's trip was to fill up my near empty tank with cheaper US gas. I ended up putting $64 of unleaded gas. I saved about $24 by doing it in Ferndale rather than on this side of the international border.



We picked up quite a few cheaper groceries. I mentioned when coming back across the border that I had a 5-liter box of red wine. The border guard sent me in to customs to pay $19 in taxes for the $12 box. Good grief, Charlie Brown!

There was a lot of traffic. What aren't people working on a Tuesday?

Bacn for Bacon in Bellingham

I mentioned last Monday about how I had decided to use outlook.com as a universal inbox and way to respond to all my email from various sources. I am finding this procedure much easier than logging in separately to see if I have work email. The transition was painless and I didn't have to switch from the gmail address that I've been using for about eight years.

I was in a bit of a spring-cleaning mood too, although that term seems a bit off-season. In anticipation of travel this winter, I reckoned it was about time to unsubscribe from many newsletters and other bacn. Just like many things in life, the sheer number of my email subscriptions had crept up over the years.

Most let me opt out by simply clicking a link in the footer of the message. A number of them required setting email preferences after logging on to its associated website. For the remaining that tried to make leaving difficult, I simply told outlook that they were junk and it can trash them for me automatically.

Very quickly, the flow of messages has subsided. I am not bothered by the fact there is now no new mail when I check. Having an empty inbox seems rather comforting. I should have done this years ago.


We used this bacn to actually eat some bacon just over the border at The Old Country Buffet yesterday morning.

A Morning Trip That Paid for Itself

Yesterday, I decided not to buy gas at $1.33 / litre even though I was getting close to just a 1/4 of a tank. I knew if we took a trip to Bellingham, WA, it'd be cheaper to fill up there. Regardless of what Americans think, they have some of the most inexpensive gas in the world.

We got up at 6:30, grabbed only a cup of coffee (and tea for Jay) and headed for the border by 7:15. Although the electronic highway sign indicated that it'd be only a 10 minute wait at the Peace Arch, it took us just about a half hour to get to the other side.

We had a buy one get one free coupon for The Old Country Buffet at the Bellis Fair Mall. Due to the border wait, and the fact we stopped at a bank machine at the Ferndale exit, we were definitely ready to eat at 8:40. They'd been open since eight. I have not been doing buffets this year, and was able to stop before I got uncomfortably full.

We went into both Target as it was next door, and the North Bellingham Fred Myer. I cannot believe we never used to take advantage of the milk, cheese, and eggs that are about half the price we pay in British Columbia.

Also, as a driver from Canada, gas at $3.96 / gallon seemed nearly a steal. I pumped 15 gallons into the tank and saved at least $16 over the price I would have paid at home. (Today it works out to about $US 5.05 per gallon.) In addition, the money we saved on $30 of groceries more than paid for breakfast too.

We were back by a little past noon.

1 Day Before Turning 53

We got off to a fairly early start on returning to Canada. Well, 9:30 am seemed like a quick start. I knew it's just about 250 miles from there to here.

The trip back was fairly uneventful, but I guess that's good when discussing a road trip. As it was Sunday, we took I-90 all the way into Seattle rather than heading north on 405. We had much better weather than the trip down but it wasn't really sunny on the west side of the mountain. Only once did we run through a few minutes of showers.

We stopped in Bellingham, WA as is the custom. However, unlike usual, we decided not to partake in the all-you-can-eat Old Country Buffet. I guess this is a sign of the new times. Rather than stuffing myself for 10.99, I ate a 6-inch Subway sandwich for 4.99 with drink. I am not sure if it was my miserliness or my larger stomach which used to make the buffet mandatory.

We did go into Target. We bought a new blender, a few dishes, and I got a wine box. Although the new rules mean we could've carried up to $1600 duty-free into Canada, we only managed a meager $78 in total.

After unpacking and having coffee, we went to the Fusion Festival for a bit. We picked up take-away from the T&T Supermarket before returning on the SkyTrain.


Jay looks forward to visiting Surrey's Fusion Festival every July.

I am tired.

'Cross the Border

It looked far too good not to get out in it somehow. So we went for a little drive. There are four main border crossings into Washington State on this side of BC. We didn't think we'd ever crossed at Sumas the furthest east at a little over an hour. So, today we tried it. Whereas, the local crossings had wait times of over an hour, it was just 10 minutes there.

We had to again drive west to come to Bellingham. We first went downtown and ran into the Saturday Farmer's Market. It was packed as this was such a fine spring morning.



After, we went to the Bellis Fair Mall which was about 60% full of Canadians who'd gone to buy cheaper goods south of the border. The only thing we bought was a tank full of gas which at US $4.23 seemed like a steal compared to Canadian prices. Oh, and we also ate lunch. We went in the Old Country Buffet where I ate far too much. Coming back was easy as we just went up I-5 through the Peace Arch crossing. Waiting to cross into Canada took about fifteen minutes. The sun's still out!

Past Firsts

Today I think I'll side more with the "... and images" part of the name of this online enterprise. Writing the "my eJournal" section seems like it'd be too much work. Not that I should be tired really. I just went with Jay for errands and to see a movie in the afternoon. There was nothing important to do, nor did I create any.

Yet that's the beauty of having a blog; I can do whatever I want in it.

Today, rather than write about things which are going on currently, I just returned to my online mass of photos on Flickr. I decided to post something from a previous December 1st. I didn't start my daily photo project until 2005, so obviously that is the first year which I can access. I checked through my archive page for something unusual. It seems that for a majority of the six years of my Daily Picture Parade, I was at BCIT on this date. On one of those years I snapped a photo with snow on the ground, an unusual occurrence in these parts.



In 2008 though, we felt marooned in the tiny airport in Bellingham, WA. It seems as though the Allegiant Air flight to Las Vegas never showed up. We got on a subsequent flight around four hours after our supposed departure.

Cross-Border Buffet Hopping

I'm not sure that friends will remember, especially those without the in-your-face Facebook notifications. Thankfully, the folks at Old Country Buffet didn't forget my birthday. I got this coupon by email this morning.

There's most likely too much going on this weekend for us to end up crossing the border and, unfortunately, the closest buffet.com franchise is down in Bellingham, WA. I would imagine that the border wait times are going to be enormous on Saturday and Sunday though. Canadians enjoy invading cities just inside the US because of the perceived retail deals that the larger US market can sustain.

At the moment, the Canadian dollar is worth over $1.05 which makes the deals seem all the greater. If we were to head down, I could save enough on a tankful of gasoline to much more than pay for several dinners. Even without a coupon, it'd seem like a bargain.

One Step Above Barter

Last Friday, when we were paying for lunch in Bellingham, Washington, I was reminded how frequently folks use cash down there. I think I've had the same $20 note in my wallet for months.

I put almost every single transaction through my MasterCard. I owe nothing on the card, in fact, I pay a bit ahead at the beginning of each month just to ensure I never have to make an interest payment. I'm fairly sure I'm the type of customer that credit card companies don't really like. I do this not simply for ease but the bonus points I rack-up. We get hundreds of dollars cash back on grocery items every year as my card is issued through President's Choice Financial. As well, if there's money owed that doesn't go through plastic, then it is directly withdrawn through our online banking accounts. I can count on one hand the number of times I enter a bank in a year.

For these reasons, I am always amazed by how people in the States often whip out a roll of bills when making daily purchases. It just seems so quaint.

Gear Up Production, Acer!

I was rather exited about coming through the border and being able to declare goods purchased in the US. Shopping isn't really a hobby. I think that people who think of it as recreation should really stop to reconsider their lives. However, there are, undoubtedly, better deals on lots of goods in the States. I usually combine larger purchases with a vacation so as not to incur the collection of duties. I think the duty-free allowance is $750 if out of Canada for a week.

Anyhow, I was prepared to actually admit to the border office that I'd bought a mini-notebook. I talked about it here the day before yesterday. I was curious as to what paperwork is required. Unfortunately, Best Buy in Bellingham, WA did not have a single Acer Aspire One in stock. A pimply kid said they had sold out a few hours after arrival. The US website shows they do not have any to ship to online buyers but it surely appears as if they had 'em at the store. It was just poor website implementation, I guess. So, I didn't get to declare any purchases.

However, Jay took a paid sick day. As it is his birthday, he got a free lunch at the Country Buffet at the Mall.

What a mess the Peach Arch border crossing is. We had to wait 45 minutes to go south. It was 11:15 on a weekday morning but construction has forced the opening of only three lanes. I guess things will be finished for the 2010 Olympics. With such a wait, maybe we'll wait until then to drop down to Bellingham for our next brief, pop-across-the-border trip.