Sunday, April 3, 2011 (Ferry to Vancouver Island...and our “other home”)

As usual, I was up fairly early this morning and with my coffee and laptop, sat in my chair updating our travel journal with the events of yesterday. I wanted to get that done before Steve got up and we started to get packed up.

Before packing up the trailer for travel, I had to get our suitcases packed with everything we wanted to take with us in the truck to Victoria. That also included emptying out what was left in the fridge...and it all just fit into the cooler...whew! For our American Friends, our “other home” is actually in the Municipality of North Saanich, BC...that’s about 20 miles north of Victoria on the Saanich Peninsula (Sidney is the closest town).

We were all packed up and ready to head out just before 11:00 a.m. I had made a phone call earlier to the campground manager just to see if, by chance, we could leave the trailer there for the 4 weeks we are going to be on the Island. We didn’t think so, but it was worth a try...but we were right...they can’t do that. So off we headed to Surrey Storage to leave our precious home in a rather “dumpy looking” area. Oh...it’s really not that bad...it’s just a typical storage area where there are all sorts of “things” stored outside...it kind of looks like “old Langford”. And as I said yesterday, it’s only for a month and it’s not like we are living there.

After waiting for Trent (the owner of the facility) to come and unlock the gate, we managed to get the trailer backed into a very narrow spot. Of course, the spots are only the width of the trailer with about a couple of feet to spare on each side. Yikes...that was the narrowest spot we have ever had to back into!

We got unhitched and moved the cooler from inside the trailer onto the back of the truck where Steve tied it down...there just wasn’t any room left inside the truck! And we were off to the Ferry Terminal at Tsawwassen. Unfortunately our ETA had us arriving just after 1:00...too late for that sailing so we will likely have to wait for the 3:00 sailing. But we were pleasantly surprised upon arriving at the terminal to find out that that there was a 2:00 sailing...yay!

So after a quick lunch in the terminal (fast food Chinese food...tasted good but it sure weighed heavy on the stomach for the rest of the afternoon!) it was boarding time. We chose a couple of seats and plunked ourselves down to read the newspaper for the 1 hour, 35 minute sailing to Swartz Bay.

We arrived home around 4:00...we always liked living close to the ferry terminal...and the airport, for that matter! Rob and Angie are away for a week in the San Francisco area so we will have the house to ourselves. After unloading the truck, we got ourselves all settled in the house...wow, it’s big!

Well...we plan on being here for the next 4 weeks...likely heading back to Fort Langley on April 30th. So, stay tuned until then...when we resume our adventures!