Journey to Another Distant Island

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Well, it’s finally happening! We’re taking our first major trip since our last blogged adventure, the Hawaii Herniated Disk debacle. That one started with a 54 hour journey from snowy Victoria to sunny and warm Maui and ended with stops in a couple of emergency rooms. But I digress.

We are heading out on another adventure to a distant island, this time Newfoundland (and Labrador). We begin with a reunion in Victoria of St. Andrew’s Elementary staff. Dianne was teacher, vice-principal and principal there for the 15 years before we moved to Chemainus in 2004. Should be fun!

The trip passes through Toronto which isn’t a highlight given the recent problems at the airport. We are taking a red-eye from Victoria and this gets us into Deer Lake in the afternoon instead of the middle of the night. We are departing from our usual style of travel by taking a 12 day bus tour through the main part of the island which includes an overnight stop in Labrador. The organized tour ends up in St. John’s where we will start our two week self-driving excursion around the Avalon Peninsula.

Ferry

I started writing this on the ferry as we headed to Victoria on the first leg of our trip. As we haven’t taken any pictures yet, I am including a ​few pictures from Pender to show what we are leaving behind.

Victoria

The reunion was great but then things started to go downhill. The red-eye flight was delayed an hour and a half which meant we will miss our connection in TO. Not an auspicious beginning.

Toronto

As expected, we missed our connection in TO but the Air Canada staff awaiting our arrival presented us with new boarding passes routing us through Montreal with a 7 hour layover. This means we will arrive around midnight which defeats the purpose of us taking the red-eye. Sigh!

Montreal

​And so we sit waiting in the Montreal airport.... ​and waiting..... we had forgotten how humid it can get in the summer..... But we have been in touch with the tour folks who are taking care of our late arrival. This is a good sign.

As usual, the rest is ToBeContinued.

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Photos

Perfect start to a trip
Cappuccinos at the Otter Bay Bistro while waiting for our ferry. One of our new favourite places. Unfortunately, they close for the season at the end of September.

View from our deck
Some days are just perfect. The reflection in the lake was amazing.

A visitor
This guy was not too popular as he was the chief suspect in the destruction of Dianne's tomatoes, beans and flowers on the deck. He likes to relax in the shade of our house and now the draft from the air conditioner. I call him Loonie not because he is crazy but he is, after all, a buck.

Back on the water
We have started kayaking again after my herniated disk problem. We sold the double kayak as it was just too heavy to load on the vehicles. But it is great to be back on the water.

Full service airport
We were intrigued to see this addition to the washroom facilities in the Montreal airport.