Amanda's First Trip to Canada and other adventures with Grandmother and Grandfather

Grandmother and Grandfather came to visit for Christmas! Amanda approved of having extra grownups about.

Grandmother and Grandfather took us on a mall outing for dinner. A funny story from that outing: Dad loves the simplicity of paying with cards. The restaurant we chose at the food court was heavily biased toward cash customers, not accepting credit cards at all, and charging an extra fee to debit customers. It might have been nothing more than an minor inconvenience if the food had been spectacular, but alas, it was quite the opposite. Looking back, it seemed an illustration of Visa's marketing phrase. "Visa: it's everywhere you want to be." Well, that place didn't take Visa (or anything else), and it turned out not to be a place we wanted to be. (It really was a good outing, though!)

Amanda got another balloon while Grandmother and Grandfather were visiting.

Grandmother AND a balloon: does it get any better than this?

Our biggest adventure was a quick trip to Canada, Amanda's first time out of the country ever. Here's Grandfather in Canada by the bank where we traded currency.

We had dinner at Denny's, and it was Amanda's first time having ordered especially for her at a restaurant. It was also our first time seeing ketchup bottles designed to be stored upside down (see upper left corner, behind Amanda). Clever people, those Canadians.

Here's a view of downtown Vancouver. A TV show Mom and Dad liked was being filmed in the area then, and it was fun to recognize the city and know we'd been there.

Grandmother and Amanda, still in Canada.

Amanda was getting a bit fussy as we prepared to leave Canada, and so Grandfather got her a balloon. Turns out she liked Canadian balloons just as much as American ones.

We used a fairly busy border going in, and a quieter border leaving. This place was a sort of "out of order" border section near the official border. Don't blame us if you use this border and get into trouble.

On the way home, Grandmother and Grandfather got a present for Amanda: a high chair! It's still with us as of 2014, even though the fabric cover has vanished.

Before they went home, Grandmother and Grandfather provided another dinner adventure: Ivar's!