Canadian Bacon

Recently, I was swapping stories about traveling with kids. I recalled how my youngest daughter, Susie, was very forgetful when she was little. She was constantly leaving her shoes or jacket or some other piece of clothing behind. As many times as we checked her to make sure she had all the essential parts of her clothes and shoes with her, things were left behind, usually remembered only when she got cold and had no jacket or when we got out of the car and she was barefoot!

During the summer of 1998, the kids and I took a driving "vacation" from Los Angeles to Vancouver, British Columbia. We were pretty good at long trips because we took them often. Airfare, although more reasonable than current fares, were out of the question for a single mom and three kids. So we drove a lot.

Susie was seven in July of 1998 when we made that Pacific Coast trip. We planned ahead and had a lot of stuff to keep the kids busy. I had shopped and had little "presents" for them, hidden away in my luggage so that when they needed something to distract them or cheer them, I would have something for them without having to interrupt our trip and spend time shopping when we should be driving. I had a rule about not driving after dark. And if at all possible, we would stop early enough so the kids could go in the pool at whatever motel we ended up staying for the night. It was essential that we cover a certain number of miles each day or we'd end up adding costly nights to our trip (motels and hotels and meals). During this period, Beanie Babies were all the rage. Susie and her older sister, Tina, collected them. Just before we left on our trip, I had seen a really cute Ty Beanie pig. Very cute. I'm not a "pig person". I don't generally like them but this one was very cute and soft and cuddly. It wasn't one of the little tiny Beanies. It was a larger version. I knew my girls would love it so I bought one for each of them.

The morning we started our trip, I surprised the girls with their Ty piggy. They loved it! Off we went from Los Angeles, headed north. We stopped with relatives in the Bay Area and spent the Fourth of July there. When we left San Jose, we got as far as San Francisco (less than an hour away) then Susie started complaining that she was cold. There was no jacket in sight for her. I pulled over and searched the car. No jacket. And no shoes on her feet! I was not going to go back. We were in a mall parking lot so I waited in the car with Susie while her brother and sister went in to one of the stores to get her some flip flops and a light weight jacket or sweater so we could resume our trip.

All went well on our travels. We headed north along 101 then crossed into Oregon and cut across to I-5 with stops at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Portland, Seattle, and finally reaching our destination of Vancouver, British Columbia early on a Saturday morning. Luckily, we found a decent priced room and took the last room before they sold out for the weekend. The bonus was the location! I think the street is Robson. We were within walking distance of a lot of things, which was perfect for me as I don't like driving in unknown territory! We even walked to Stanley Park from where we were (okay it was a much longer walk than I thought and we ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel!).

The hotel we were in was super. It was a very old building. We had a whole apartment to ourselves which was great for the kitchen facilities and two bathrooms and a very nice balcony. The couch in the living room was a pull-out and Susie and Tony chose to sleep there.

We went about our vacation for the three days we were there then headed out. When we traveled, we had a routine. The girls and I would pack up all of our stuff and put it near the door then Tony and I would load the car. The final step was me going from room to room to look for forgotten items and then Tony would go in and look under the beds one more time. This usually worked perfectly. Usually.

We left Vancouver and headed south, aiming to get to Winston to drive through the Wildlife Safari one more time because the kids loved it. If we were going to make it, we'd have to really move so we could arrive by 4 pm when they closed the gates to cars entering.

We were making excellent time and when we crossed into Oregon (about 4 or so hours later) Susie started asking for her piggy. The kids looked all over the car, as best they could while we drove. No luck. We pulled over at a gas station and searched the car and all the luggage. No piggy. She was now in tears. She wanted us to go back to Vancouver to get it. We figured out that the piggy must have been folded inside of the pull out couch. We were going to leave it unfolded but we ended up folding it up so we could have room to walk around the living room and to make sure we didn't leave anything behind. Ironic!

There was no way we were going back. I promised to get her another one. She cried loudly. Tina offered her piggy but Susie still wanted hers. I tried to make light of the whole thing and told her that her piggy must have become Canadian Bacon! She cried even more. She ended up crying herself to sleep and we got going as far south as quickly as possible so she wouldn't insist we go back.

Even now, many years later, she gets pretty upset when we remind her of her piggy and she gets absolutely livid if I refer to her Canadian Bacon!