We Made It to Canada

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Our adventure started on Saturday morning with the boys dropping us at Sydney airport. They didn't hang around long and I discovered James Anthony's Facebook post the next day saying "getting rid of the parentals for 6 weeks.. Yay". Thanks for that buddy! If anyone hears about a crazy Facebook party that got crashed by randoms and with police attending, somewhere in Roselands, PLEASE DO NOT tell me until it's time for us to go home.

The Fiji Airways flights were full to the brim but they were really smooth and the attendants were lovely and the food was really quite good (but then again I pretty much eat anything as you can tell by my waistline). There was a two and half hour layover in Fiji. This is where we had our first "drama". After going through the x-ray machines Noel and I walk off and go through tunnels and building site areas etc to arrive at the daggiest transit lounge you have ever seen only to be tapped on the back by a security officer who had followed us the WHOLE way down to return Noel's backpack that he had walked off without. SORRY!!! I think the airport "upgrade" is a long slow process as Jane Cope (hi Jane!!!) told me they were upgrading it 2 years ago when she was there. Probably working on "Fiji time".

After another 11 hour flight we had no problems getting into the US or to the hotel. It ended up being a really loooooong 28 hour day that I think I snoozed in for about 2 hours. After only getting 5 hours sleep before getting up to go to the airport, I was a bit shattered and feeling drunk and wobbly by the time I crashed at 6.30 pm LA time.

We spent Sunday just eating (again) and relaxing when we weren't sitting in the lobby trying to access the internet. So sad that we all live by that 24 hours a day now.

Yesterday was Monday here and we hit the road by having a Denny's breakfast near the Hilton. Noel was disappointed because he thought he could have waffles until we realised that the place he thought he was at was called "The Waffle House" Sorry bud...next time were are in the US. Hey, that's only 24 days away! So we get an early shuttle to LAX because we don't want to get caught up in huge security queues and check in lines etc. Would you believe the shuttle ride, the check in, the security checks took all of....half an hour total!! We then had to SIT for two and a half hours before getting on the 3 hour flight to Vancouver. Typical. If we had been running late it would have taken forever to do all that. The terminal and our flight were chocca's because the Special Olympics had finished the night before and everyone was going home.

Perfect weather here in Canada at the moment. The airport in Vancouver is beautiful with carvings and waterfalls and ponds. Such a lovely welcome. Picked up a very nice Ford Fusion car (I booked a Yaris so we somehow managed an upgrade I think) and drove to Tssawassen ferry terminal. I hadn't booked a passage over because I didn't want to lose my money in case our flight was delayed and couldn't make the crossing. The Gods were with us and we were the LAST vehicle on the ferry so we only had to wait in the ferry queue for half an hour instead of one and half. The ferry crossing was beautiful. Noel has gone crazy already with the camera. Looks like we'll be buying another hard drive to store all the videos and photos before we get home.

So last night we stayed up late in our 1 bedroom apartment in Victoria and had a nice sleep in today to get Noel's body clock back into shape and this morning we are off to Butchart Gardens to begin our tourist adventures. Tonight we are going into Victoria city to walk the waterfront which is usually all lit up everywhere with fairy lights and meant to be really pretty.

Next blog sometime soon. Thanks for reading. xx

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