UMTravels

Erick was supposed to be early… but a dome light left on left him to arrive to do the lawn well after I’d left for Canadaland. Good thing there is a combo lock on the side gate and a key box by the back door.

Having left the house at a little before eleven, with a stop at the Seattle Architecture Society in the base of the Rainier Tower downtown (to pick up two copies of “Seattle Architecture — A Walking Guide To Downtown” that I bought off a Groupon coupon). Amazingly the parking was a snap with a 30 minute zone with my car pointed towards the northbound I-5 entrance.

Tried to stop at the Safeway in Mount Vernon for gas, but it was a clusterfuck with several pumps out of order and no order to the chaos with cars coming in from every direction. That left the Costco in Bellingham as a gas stop — and it only took two exits for me to find the right one.

At duty-free, my favorite sales clerk was on, apparently only Monday-Friday which is why I missed her when I came up with CaddyDaddy (aka Rich) for his birthday celebration. Two more glasses to add to my collection with the purchase of a 40oz. Jim Beam White Label. It’s a good thing as well since SuperModel is coming in September to pick up all the airline logo’d glassware from my trips.

One car in front of me at the border, and they just waived me through. Something about the bag of duty-free on the front seat screams “good tourist”.

The plan was to arrive at Faerie Camp exactly at 5pm which allowed for multiple stops to track down a USB to Mini-USB cable to charge my phone. Brought the tiny laptop, but forgot the connecting cable for the phone. Forgotten item number one. Forgotten item number two, a towel — which means using dirty shirts to dry myself off after my morning showers. Forgotten items number three — any sort of “fun” clothing for the gathering — all I brought was butch outdoor stuff. Forgotten item number four — a camera, other than the one on my phone.

Got all checked in and unpacked in the cabin. Five bunk beds and one single per cabin. Just like summer camp except we are all 20+ years older. Odd thing is that a couple of the Canadian Faeries actually DID go to summer camp here.

And here is the Evans Lake Forest Sanctuary just north of Squamish, which is just south of Whistler in lovely British Columbia, Canadaland.

As faerie gatherings go, this is a bit of an odd one as we are being served MEAT in the dining hall (with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free available). The meal was your basic pasta in a red sauce (with some sort of ground animal), a Caesar salad, toasted French bread, and little mini-pumpkin pies for dessert. Looks like I’ll be sleeping soundly tonight!

Faerie 101 was at 8:30 (half of the guys here have never been to a gathering before, and we all need to know the Camp 101, like, boil water order so use the jugs) followed by the opening ritual.

All in all, with the sun out all day, and a little bit of a sun burn on my arms, face, and neck — not a bad way to start a gathering.

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