Update

So, I posted a huge long message on our Woodcraft Ravelry board about my potential knitting retreat and I'm too lazy to re-write it for here, so how 'bout I just cut and paste it in?

Yes?  Ok.  Let's

"Hi, folks. I have news:

My mom has decided that she is moving cross-country this summer, from Ottawa to Kamloops (they’re 4 200 km apart). She dropped the bomb on me last summer when she (finally) came to visit, but didn’t make any solid commitments until this past Christmas. I waited until I knew that it was for sure before saying anything to anyone (she just called me on Thursday night to confirm everything).
So why am I posting this here?

Well, it’s because I’ve decided to drive there with her. We’re doing a cross-continent mother-and-daughter trip (kind of like Thelma and Louise, only without guns or convertibles or driving off cliffs), which we’ve both been wanting to do since I was 15 (which was an appallingly long time ago…blurg). The trip, as you can imagine, will take a long time, considering that we also want to stop over in Winnipeg (our home town) for several days to celebrate/visit/party/hang out with the family.
I think the trip is going to eat up all my paid vacation. The vacation that I was hoping to use while hosting a knitting retreat here. As it is, I’ll likely have to take a few days off unpaid in order to finish up the trip, so I can’t really take any additional time off this summer. You know that I manage a design/drafting firm, yes? Well, taking more than 2 weeks off in the summer would be somewhat irresponsible of me, nevermind that I can’t afford to go a week without pay (and I don’t want to increase the price for each of you, just so I can pay myself (my bills, I mean) out of your fees - no, I’m committed to keeping the price down). So I think I have to postpone the retreat for a year.

Poo, right?

I know. You want to give me the finger. I would, too.

Ok, but know this: you are still MORE than welcome to come and visit. If you’re in New England or somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard, you’re really not that far away - we’re about 6 hours from the Maine/New Brunswick border. And if you come over a weekend, I will TOTALLY take you out to visit all the cool stuff and be your tour guide. And I can help hook you up with B&Bs and campgrounds and send you all sorts of information to make planning easier. And we can still go to the beach and have barbecues and do knit nights after I finish work for the day and all that other cool stuff. I just can’t host you, personally. My house is miniscule. We’re sharing it with a few mice at the moment, and I assure you: it’s close quarters.

And the other consolation prize is this: I may be coming to a city near-ish you. We’ve decided that when we get to Kamloops, we’re going to drop everything off, refuel/refresh and then keep going to Vancouver and then on to Victoria. I’ve never seen the Pacific Ocean (for SHAME!) and there’s NO WAY IN HELL that I’m going to drive all the way across the continent (again) and then stop short (again). No ma’am. I’m going to get my hair wet.

So that means that we can meet up, y’all!  I don’t think we’ll be dipping down below the border (unless I manage to get my act together and finally get my stupid passport)… Anyway, let me know if you're somewhere along the TransCanada and you would like to meet up. The trip is looking like a last-week-in-June, first-week-in-July thing or maybe a first-two-weeks-in-July thing.

I’m pretty stoked about it, I just wish I had 4 weeks of paid vacation every year. That would be really nice."

ETA: I've received an invitation to stay over at someone's (M's) house in Vancouver and she's going to take me to Sweet Georgia Yarns and I'm so excited I can barely see straight!