Over the years we sisters have gotten together for weekends, day outings or just a meal...whichever seemed to work! Our last "five sister" outing happened early in March when we celebrated Hedy's birthday in Langley. At that time Erica was still with us and we treasure the memory. We didn't know at the time how sick she must have been. Today the four of us had our first all-day outing with a trip into North Vancouver to spend time with Ingrid and to celebrate her upcoming birthday and Herta's whose birthday was yesterday.
By 7:15 am Hedy and I were at the Mission Station to board the 7:27 am (which is the last run of the day) Westcoast Express to the Waterfront Station downtown Vancouver. We've done this many times before but this time without Erica.
We head for the Cappuccino bar and order coffee. Hedy has brought homemade muffins and we enjoy a beautiful ride on the comfortable train with the Fraser River on our left and later the Burrard Inlet on our right. An hour and ten minutes later we arrive at the final destination. Before heading for the Seabus, we proceeded into the main station lobby in search of Herta who had taken Skytrain in from Richmond. The train and skytrain and seabus all converge at this busy hub. Together we proceeded to the Seabus and entered with only seconds before "setting sail". Our ticket purchased in Mission for $13.25 roundtrip-marked Concession aka "Seniors" -was good for all public transportation Translink offers. A great deal.
After a short ferry ride across the inlet we arrived at Lonsdale Quay where we now searched for Ingrid. All this excitement required sustenance and so we scoped out the offerings and came away with a tantalizing array of morning rolls, coffee and a special treat of a large ripe luscious fig, purchased for each of us by Herta at one of the many colorful fruit stands right there.
After spending sufficient time debriefing and updating we decided it was time for the automobile part of our trip and so Ingrid summarily chauffered us to her beautiful home in North Vancouver. Here we inspected and ooohed and ahhed at all the lovely new renos and home improvements. Very nice.
Ingrid had set up a movie for us to watch....an old movie, as old as me...the original "Pride and Prejudice" of 1940 fame. We watched a full hour of this amid chatter and then decided to put it on "Hold" while we went for lunch. Three years ago we had done this very same trip but the movie then had been "The Student Prince"- a great favourite of ours from the 50's. At that time Erica was with us of course. So we returned to the same restaurant for Chinese Food, one of Erica's favourite food types. We enjoyed a tasty assortment of dishes along with our fortune cookies.
Back to our hostesses house for great coffee, strawberries, cheese, squares and Purdy's chocolates! Lovely, lovely. But we also sang....lots of beautiful songs from the past always missing our alto, though. Thanks Ingrid, thanks dear sisters...what a gift we have received. We are all truly grateful to our Lord and to our parents, to our family and extended families, to the schools and churches, teachers and friends who nurtured us along our journey. We are so grateful to our wonderful husbands, to our children and to our grandchildren who inspire us and bring such unbelievable joy into our hearts.
"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily loads us with benefits." Psalm 68:19
ps After arriving at Waterfront Station, Hedy and I waited on the platform while most of the passengers hurried off and to work, I guess. I wanted a picture with the two of us against the lettering of the train and sure enough I saw who I thought was the engineer. He graciously consented to taking the pictures after telling us he was the "driver" of the train! Unfortunately his photographing skills don't match his driving skills because after three attempts I thanked him and assured him it was all ok and we took off with three very blurry pictures in my camera. But to further add to my disappointment was the picture the hostess took of us at the lunch place. She was most gracous and so friendly but alas, she also left us with a very blurred image. Oh well....I may have accidentally shifted something on my camera too. I'll blame it on that and try again another time.
2 comments:
Oh, the "benefits" you have reaped! Thanks for sharing your sister stories. What i think is especially rich is the singing that you do!
Alice, how can I thank you enough for recording this event. Yes, we are blessed indeed - our cup is overflowing, well pressed down.
It was such a fun day and taking the skytrain was most interesting. I enjoyed it immensly.
Dear Erica, how we do miss her. But what a wonderful rich memory we have of her.
Herta
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