Yesterday we went to Bellingham, WA, to the IRS office on the corner of Cornwall and Magnolia to get ITINs for Cheryl and Cyan. The trip went great. Cheryl's youngest brother Shane came with us. Just made the 10 am ferry to Vancouver... 2nd to last car! We originally planned to go to the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, but we found out in the morning that in Bellingham, WA (20 miles south of the border, which is 30 minutes from the ferry terminal) we can get the same thing done without the $30 US per person charge, and they can process the thing immediately!

We figured, oh cool, about an extra two hours of driving but we save
about $100 CDN and get our numbers right away!

Didn't think about the wait at the border though... ;-) 1hr 20 minutes delay
coming, 1 hr delay going. Ugh. Still, the service at the IRS office was awesome.
She looked at our passports, and immediately called Pennsylvania (her
computer was down) and talked to a person who processed our information
and immediately gave us our ITIN numbers! Woohoo! All that driving and
waiting for about 5 mins at the IRS. Perfect!

Afterwards we went to Bellis Fair Mall (it's the Canadian shopping trap)
in Bellingham. Found a few good deals, and we picked up some travel games so we could play Yahtzee and Poker on the ferry, and waiting in the car at the border.

We arrived at the ferry terminal at 7:20 pm, but the 8 pm ferry was already full so we had to wait for the 9 pm ferry. (as if the day hadn't been long
enough) 11:15 or so, we were at home.