Wouldn't it be cool if this was our boat??? Yeah?  Well, it's NOT!  Thanks to U.S. Customs things are a little behind schedule, and we now have a pesky visa to limit our stay in the U.S. of A.

Things we have learned:

1.) Don't travel with headshots and resumes when you are trying to convince border guards that you are not planning on working in their country. ( Same goes for yoga teaching certificates- whoops….)

2.) Don't write about your trip in your journal- which they will read….. in front of you.

3.) Don't pack a drill.  (Why Matt……why?)

Despite being detained and interrogated for a total of 7 hours  and missing our flight, we had a reasonably pleasant overnight in Toronto! (Thanks Allie and Kayla.  Yay reunion!)

We are now back on track- albeit struggling with the idea of finding a boat, getting it surveyed, registering it in Canada and waiting for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream- all before our visa runs out and we get arrested.

Here goes nothing.

I'll admit, the notion of getting rid of all your belongings, renting your apartment and splitin' town to go live on a boat sounds pretty romantic.  It didn't come without it's hiccups though.  For a hoarder, like myself, getting rid of most of my belongings proved to be an emotionally draining process.  But after shipping the majority of my stuff across the country from Victoria to Toronto, Toronto to Edmonton and Edmonton to Vancouver ( and never actually unpacking the boxes) I came to the realization that maybe I didn't really NEED to be holding on to shirts I wore in highschool, or lip gloss that expired twelve years ago.

Loads and loads to goodwill later, we ended up baring our belongings down to this:

Getting it all to fit in our compact car was another story.  I saw it as a nightmare, Matt saw it as a challenge!!!  He strapped most of it to the roof of the car with 3, yes 3 straps.  Then off we went, driving through the mountains to Kelowna and praying our garbage bag wrapped belongings were still on the roof when we got there.  (A million thanks to Lynn and Gary for letting us store everything in Kelowna, including our car!!!!  You are heros!)

Hello cyberspace.......caw CAW!!!!