Hot tub time

Tuna

Wednesday 27 March 2024

We woke up today and it was raining sideways. It was great to watch from my bed, in my warm house with underfloor heating in the ensuite and a coffee. The Albatross hasn’t missed a morning yet of bringing me coffee in bed.

We decided to go for a little drive inland along the Campbell River. It was a very pretty drive and the river appeared to be dammed in a couple of places which formed some lakes. It was very cold and wet outside so we limited our time out of the car and wandering around.

Back in town we watched the local ferries zip across the water delivering people and cars to one of the nearby islands.

We both still have our colds which now just consists of coughing and coughing. I ache from so much coughing. After lunch the skies cleared somewhat and the rain stopped, but the wind was still howling through. We thought it would be good for our colds to sit in the hot tub for a while. Not sure if it helped, but the views are lovely and we were toasty warm.

Hot internet dating

The Albatross

Tuesday 26 March 2024

A lazy day today, we both finally had a decent night’s sleep without both of us coughing up a lung. Hopefully we are nearing the end. Awoke to amazing views across to the Pacific Ranges.

All we had lined up was lunch with a lovely lady who I met playing an internet time-waster game (June's Journey). She always seemed nice, and sane and the odds of us ever being in the same location again are almost zero, so the chance to meet was a one in a lifetime.

We meet Erna and her husband Mike at their local, the rather charming Fanny Bay Inn for lunch (excellent seafood chowder). I must have scored as we were even invited home on the first date to meet the cats. Internet dating rocks.

Lovely friendly people, who live in a stunning part of the world, a really nice day. We even picked up super fresh local oysters for entrée tonight which we ate whilst watching tugs pull barges across the waters in front of our house.

It’s a flippin’ bear?!!!

Tuna

Monday 25 March 2024

We headed north today, up the east coast of Vancouver Island. It was a lovely drive, except for the four billion traffic lights in one of the towns along the way. The scenery was spectacular, on one side was gorgeous ocean views across the many islands and backed by the towering snowcapped Pacific Ranges and on the other side the stunning snow-capped peaks of Vancouver Island.

Just as we were nearing Campbell River, where we will call home for the next few days, at a set of traffic lights a big black bear decided to run across the dual lane highway. WTF!! In the words of The Albatross, “It’s a f@#%ing bear!?”. I do want to see some bears, but this isn’t how I thought my first sighting would be.

After stocking up on some dinner supplies, we still had an hour until our 4pm check-in time, so we found a nice local brewery, Beach Fire Brewing Company, for an ale.

We have lovely accommodation, with great views over the harbour, islands and to the Pacific Ranges on mainland Canada. Our balcony had a hot tub which we might use tomorrow.

Rose tinted glasses

The Albatross

Sunday 24 March 2024

It’s nearly 30 years since I last visited Victoria, and I have such fond memories of the harbour front area, I really wanted Tuna to see it too. Last time I was backpacking across Canada with a rail pass, and bugger all money and this was my last stop before I flew home after several months away.

So, when we awoke this morning and yesterday’s rain had given way to a spectacular sunrise and clear skies, I was rapt.

We headed into town, and the waterfront was just as pretty as I remember and we spent a couple of hours wandering around in the cold sunshine, sights included a seal begging for food out the back of a seafood restaurant, even going crook by splashing his front flippers when the staff didn’t pay attention to him when they walked past.

It's just as lovely as it was last time I was here. Fortunately, this time I’m not flat broke, so we could afford a long lunch looking over the harbour, watching some seals, an otter, seaplanes and the water taxi’s splashing around. Amazingly the memory wasn’t too rose tinted.

Moist and miserable

Tuna

Saturday 23 March 2024

The view from the deck at 4.30am was stunning, with the lights of Victoria twinkling and the boats moored offshore glowing. At 7.30am the view was very different with the fog having rolled in and we couldn’t see past the first row of trees. However, 10 seconds later the fog disappeared and we could get a cloudy and rainy view of Victoria. That was our view for the rest of the day. We only left the apartment in the morning to get some food and then spent the rest of the day inside. It was cold, wet and miserable outside, we were just miserable inside (we both feel like crap due to our cold), however we had food and wine, and one of the best views in town. A day of doing nothing was definitely well worth it.

Yay Canadia

The Albatross

Friday 22 March 2024

Up super bright and early, mainly as we both have a nasty little cold and I was keeping us awake coughing up a lung. Tuna is about a day or two behind me so the early starts may carry on. This actually worked for us as we had to get to Vancouver today to catch our ferry to Vancouver Island. As we both hate being late, we rolled in to the ferry terminal just before 11:00am to catch our 2:00pm ferry. The nice lass on the booth scrapped our previous booking and whacked us on the 12:00 boat instead. Excellent.

Tuna spent the hour wait furiously taping on her phone using Starbucks data trying to sort out why her USA sim card doesn’t work with no result before we boarded. A pretty hour and a half boat trip, with an Orca sighting and we landed on Vancouver Island.

A damp drive to collect groceries just near our lodgings, and a quick borrow of their free WIFI and we had our lodging final details. A lovely spot looking across to Victoria. Tuna finally sorted her phone out, which was much nicer sitting somewhere pretty with a glass of vino in hand.

Now we have an ongoing saga with our car, where they haven’t sent us a new contract to extend our rental. We take the car in every 30 days so they can tell if it’s still working, which we have done, however despite many long phone calls on our behalf, we still don’t have a new contract. This is a matter still to be resolved, however the abrupt email we received via the Starbucks WiFi had Tuna a tad irate. They received a very blunt email back.

Planes, Part III

Tuna

Thursday 21 March 2024

Our day started with a quick expedition to the local Target to get some new socks. The Albatross has put holes in half of the others. All the socks and jocks were in locked glass cabinets. What?!? Yep, behind lock and key. Apparently, they get stolen often and I can only guess that apart from being easy to steal they are a necessity that possibly not everyone can afford. It is kinda a sad reflection on the world when we have to lock up socks and jocks.

After that exciting jaunt we headed back to the Museum of Flight, for our third day. We still had the WWI and WWII exhibits to go. Here are some happy snaps.

After about three hours we wandered out as it was after lunchtime, however a Chinook had just landed. So we hung about for another half an hour watching that whilst getting our ear chewed off by one of the guides that used to fly them. Fortunately, the pilots of the helicopter walked past and he found a new audience and we could depart.

Not a plane in sight

The Albatross

Wednesday 20 March 2024

And now for something completely different, we didn’t go to Boeing, even though we still have unfinished business there. Instead, we completed a failed task and went to Chihuly Garden and Glass, which we first attempted to do on Sunday, but crashed utterly due to St Patricks day shutting down all the streets. It is very pretty and lovely to look at, however, it is also insanely expensive when you convert it to Australian Peso.

It’s situated right under the Space Needle, and being a cool overcast Wednesday, was quite quiet. Again, it is pretty, here are some pictures.

The garden outside even had a rabbit sitting amongst the shrubbery.

We were finishing up just as a glass blowing demo was starting. These folks cranked out a lovely glass vase in about 20 minutes, making it all look very trivial, but very entertaining.

A tad peckish we stopped for a snack and a glass of wine in the bar attached, before heading north to a suburban waterfront place, overlooking the water, for lunch. The snack, we had had an hour before, kind of filled us up, so we both had nice seafood salads whilst watching the shipping move things around. Unfortunately, we forgot to take photos. Oh well.

Coming back home we just watched the recycling being collected, the bloke collecting didn’t face the neighbours bin the right way, so he just crushed the entire bin. Maybe he’s having a bad day, the neighbour certainly will be. I’m glad I put ours out correctly.