Tuesday, October 11 to Wednesday, October 19, 2016 (Travel to Vancouver Island and back to Coquitlam, BC)

Tuesday morning we had an appointment at the Travel Medicine and Vaccination Centre out in Langley. We needed the final booster for our Hep B vaccination...and we also had to let them know which anti-malaria medication we wanted to take. We were out of there lickity-split...and on our way to the ferry. This time we headed to the Horseshoe Bay Ferry Terminal to take the ferry across to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We are going over to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Don and Rhonda in Bowser, BC about an hours drive north of Nanaimo.

It was an absolutely beautiful day...with spectacular views as we entered the ferry terminal...

We had about an hour or so before our sailing so we went for a walk to the Village of Horseshoe Bay...a very beautiful, picturesque community nestled in the bay...

The ferry was about a half hour late leaving...heavy traffic on previous sailings apparently put them behind...residual traffic from the long weekend, I guess...

On the ferry waiting to depart...

The skyline of downtown Vancouver in the distance with Mount Baker in Washington State barely visible......

Approaching Departure Bay Nanaimo...

It was going on 4:00 by the time we reached Don and Rhonda's place, just north of Bowser, in an area known as Deep Bay. They have a gorgeous spot atop a hillside with a fabulous view of the ocean...

Chrome Island with Denman and Hornby Islands in the distance...

 Relaxing with a pre-dinner drink...

Grilled burgers for dinner...yum!

Wednesday Rhonda headed off to work, leaving the rest of us relaxing with our coffee.
Shortly after 10:00, Steve and I headed out for a walk. Following Don's directions, we found the trails he described and made our way down to the beach.
On our way, we spotted this bald eagle perched on top of a tree...

A stream below...

We made it down the rather steep trail...

...to the shore...

Lots of long steep stairways to the beach...

Most of the beach is very rocky and weedy but we did find a couple of sandy areas to make the hike a little easier...

This is what we had to walk through a lot of the way...

A Heron...

Yah...more sand...

That weed line is deeper than it looks. Ask us how we know...

We found the trail that led up to the road below Don and Rhonda's...glad to be off that rocky beach! Some nice homes with great views as we made it up the hill, finishing the loop back to the house...

The front of Don and Rhonda's home...

Don did ribs on the grill...slow cooked all afternoon...

Another delicious dinner!

Thursday morning, we said our goodbyes to Rhonda as she left for work...and then at about 11:00, with our suitcase back in the car, we said goodbye to Don. Thanks so much to the both of you for your hospitality! It was wonderful being able to spend some time with you in your piece of paradise...you have a lovely spot!

We headed a little further north up-island to a quaint little pub called the Fanny Bay Inn (or 'FBI') to meet good friends, Earl and Allison who live in Royston for lunch. You will likely recall that we spend a lot of time with them in Quartzsite but manage to see them occasionally up here in BC.

We had a great time catching up with them while enjoying lunch. Wonderful seeing you both...see you in Q come January!

Then it was time to make the drive down island to Victoria...about a three hour drive. After taking care of a few errands, we arrived at Rob and Angie's shortly before Rob got home with Conner and Bryce. One last quick visit with our grandbabies before we catch the ferry back to Coquitlam tomorrow morning.

Friday morning, we decided to take the 9:00 a.m. ferry back to the mainland. The coast is being hit by 3 storms, each increasingly worse. The first one hit yesterday, the second one is due today...with the third on Saturday. This last one is actually the tail-end of Typhoon Songda. So we wanted to get back to the mainland before it got too rough for the ferries to run.

It was still pretty choppy out there, though...

We decided to stop at a new shopping mall that is located near the ferry...Tsawwassen Mills is a shopping mall on Tsawwassen First Nations land in Delta, British Columbia. The mall was built by Ivanhoe Cambridge and opened on October 5, 2016. It features 1.2 million square feet of retail space and an 1,100 seat food court. It will have 200 retailers, including Bass Pro Shops as well as its sister chain Uncle Bucks a eat in and bowl restaurant, and Saks Off 5th. It's being modeled after the successful CrossIron Mills in Calgary, and Vaughan Mills in Vaughan, Ontario.

Apparetly the mall opening attracted 284,000 shoppers in its first six days. The grand opening attracted 50,000 alone and caused massive 4 hour traffic jams in the parking lot and surrounding streets. There were hundreds of people waiting in line for the doors to open...crazy people!

Bass Pro Shops have a huge beautiful store...I even managed to find a long sleeved safari type shirt. They also had a nice selection of pants...but I guess 2 pair will have to do me!

That large fish is a Fraser River Sturgen...

We arrived at Chris and Angela's place around 1:30...it was a very blustery afternoon!

Saturday morning, we headed out to Langley Memorial Hospital for Steve's echo-cardiogram. It didn't take long and we were soon on our way out to where our RV is stored so that we could put the new bike cover over the bikes, in the rain. We had forgotten to take a picture when we dropped the rig off...and I almost forgot again. This is a last minute picture taken through the car windshield...

We made a stop at Walmart in Langley to pick up some prescriptions...one of which was supposed to be the anti-malaria drug we have to take while in Africa. They had not received the prescription. What?! The Travel Medicine and Vaccination Clinic was supposed to fax it over. I'm glad that the Travel clinic was open today...so we were able to drop in. As it turned out, the nurse had missed faxing it to have it signed off by a doctor...therefore nothing had been done. She was very apologetic and put a rush on it...it would be faxed to the pharmacy on Monday. That ended up being another whole "episode"...but to make a very long story short, we finally managed to pick up the Malarone prescription Tuesday afternoon.

Sunday Steve and I made another trip out to Langley to visit our trailer again...in all of my packing, I had left my new sweater and raincoat in the closet. I guess since I was planning on wearing it on the plane, I didn't want to pack it in my suitcase and had totally forgotten about it. Good thing we were planning on going out there anyway!

That evening Steve's cousin, Bev, and her husband, Rob came over for dinner along with Angie, who is working over here this week. She had come over from the island late this afternoon, for an early start tomorrow morning. Bev and Rob had Chris and Angela for dinner awhile ago so this was a great opportunity for them to reciprocate while we were visiting.

Relaxing with a drink before dinner...left to right, me, Angie, Bev, Rob, Chris and Angela...

Then it was time for dinner...(Rob, me, Steve, Chris, Angela, Angie and Bev)...

It was such a lovely evening...so good having a "mini" family get together. We'll have to have more family gatherings when we get back from our trip.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting ready for our trip...I can't believe it's almost time! The weather was really yucky....rain...rain...and more rain. I drove Chris to work each morning, so had the use of his car to do all of my running around. Thanks so much Chris!

This was pretty much Steve's position all day Monday and Tuesday...too wet to go outside, so he enjoyed himself lounging on the couch watching TV (he was really happy he didn't have to go shopping with me!). He did get out Wednesday morning for a haircut and a walk...it was actually quite a pleasant day until later in the afternoon, when the clouds and rain set in again.

Well, that brings us to tonight...as I sit trying desperately to get all sorts of little things cleaned up (banking, flight check-in on line, etc.) including this final blog update. We will be up early tomorrow morning...and heading to the airport. So I will be signing off until our return in four weeks. Stay tuned!