All the posts October 22 -28

Last week certainly got off to a weird start. It's possible that these posts wouldn't have been written if it weren't for the kindness of strangers. Thanks, Canada.

The church we hoped to visit was only about two hours north of us, so we drove up on Sunday morning. It was a border town, and I (Mindy) hoped to walk into Canada and back using my recently-renewed passport. Dean's passport is expired; he'd stay on the US side of the border. That was the plan, anyway.

After parking at the church and discovering we had plenty of time for the two-block walk to the US/Canada border, we headed north. Several cars went through the checkpoint, but we were headed for the building to one side, figuring I'd go in while Dean waited outside on US soil.

We miscalculated.

As we approached the building, a friendly border guard approached. We told her what we had in mind, she showed us the pedestrian entrance to the building -- and said we'd already crossed the invisible line marking the border. Uh oh.

Inside, the guard checked my passport while he asked the purpose for our visit and how long we planned to stay. He seemed a bit confused by my answer (for the fun of it, about five minutes) until I clarified that I hadn't been to Canada for years and I wanted to use my new passport. He asked for Dean's driver's license, examined it, and sent us out through another door to cross a parking lot to the United States. The border guard in the US building wasn't as friendly; he had us wait several minutes before approving us to re-enter the country.

Whew.

So we visited a church and a bar just south of the border -- the furthest north, as far as we know, of either in Washington.  And since he wasn't detained in Canada, Dean was able to post a final scary sequel at Movie Churches.

The links:
The furthest north church in Washington

The last horror movie church sequel (for this year, anyway)

The furthest north bar in Washington (probably)

One more thing: did you know that even if you're not in the United States, you can buy our books? Here are those links should you want to check them out:

Not the Usual Christmas Skits

Cheers and Amen (our 50-state adventure)

The Bill the Warthog mysteries

I Spy Christmas (Dean wrote the three Christmas plays in this one)