To maintain our medical coverage we must spend at least 5 months every year in British Columbia. With our recent RV’ing excursion, cruises and visits to Dubai and UK we aren’t even close this year, and next year will be just as bad. Therefore, we availed ourselves of the extended absence option, which permits a 2-year absence once every 5 years. Only problem, is returns to BC are limited to 30-days. Therefore, every 30 days we must leave BC, and with the U.S border a mere 20 miles away, it is a great option. We tried to get the entire weekend at our Birch Bay timeshare, but it was only available for the Sunday, so 1 night it was. We left about 10:00, expecting a healthy border queue, but were pleasantly surprised to find only 3 cars ahead of us. Yet again, a very pleasant chap in the booth, and within minutes we were heading down to Bellingham on a rather chilly, but sunny day. Stopped off at Costco to pick up a couple of steaks, bag of salad, wine and of course a couple of Boundary Bay beers, a local Bellingham micro-brewery. After a short drive back up to Birch Bay, we checked in and spent a quiet and relaxing night with an excellent steak and a couple of refreshments. Just what doctor ordered after the hectic schedule of construction, painting and moving in to our new apartment over the past few weeks. We are home now until we depart for our Round the World adventure at the end of March 2015.