Sunday to Wednesday, July 21 to 24, 2019 (Qualicum First Nations Campground, Qualicum Bay, BC)

Sunday morning we met Mike and Nadine in the lobby and then decided to walk next door to The Grand Hotel for breakfast. Turned out they don't have a restaurant open for breakfast so send their guests over to the Four Points....all righty then. We grabbed a cup of free Starbucks coffee (coffee at Four Points is yucky) and headed back.

After breakfast, we decided to walk over to the airport to get the lay of the land for tomorrow and check out what is available for breakfast. Once back at the hotel, we pretty well just chilled for the rest of the morning.

One of Kerry and Dave's friends is also staying at the hotel and had driven Kerry's car back after the wedding last night. So we contacted her and met her in the lobby at 1:30 to ride with her out to an afternoon gathering at Kerry's parents place.

A group of Dave and Kerry's friends came all of the way from Minnesota and Colorado for the wedding. They are fishing friends that they have met over the years at their fishing camp on Reed Lake. Mike (in red) is a boyhood friend of Dave's...

Esther, me, Nadine and Mike...

Everyone was spread out in the yard...

Uncle Gord sampling some Minnesota apple pie moonshine. Steve had some earlier and said it was very smooth and delicious...better than the peach moonshine we had 9 years ago in W. Virginia which was also very good...

After a great afternoon, we all managed to pile into Gord and Esther's car for a ride back to the hotel...a "special" spot had been cleared in the back of the SUV for Mike! It was still fairly early when we got back to the hotel, so we all went into the Sports Bar for more refreshments...and a snack. Another great day!

Monday (July 22)...and time to head back to Victoria. That was a fast weekend and such fun! We checked out of the hotel and headed over to the airport...giving ourselves lots of time to check in for our 10:50  flight to Vancouver and have breakfast. We were waiting at the gate when our plane arrived and all the folks from Montreal disembarked. Unfortunately, the next thing we heard was an apology...the cockpit has a system warning light on so they have to figure out what the problem is. The delay is expected to be a half hour...to 11:20.

The next announcement was that they found out what the problem was...a faulty fuel valve in one of the engines. The replacement part can be sourced locally and it should be all fixed up by 12:15...well, then the delay was another 2 hours...and then 4:00! We did get food vouchers totalling $60 (for both us and Mike and Nadine). The unfortunate part was that we obviously missed our 12:55, 30 minute connecting flight from Vancouver to Victoria...so the only available flight was at 10:30 p.m.! A 5 1/2 hour layover in Vancouver! Thank you Mike for standing in line at Air Canada Customer Service and taking care of the arrangements, including the extra food vouchers!

We finally took off from Winnipeg at 4:00...

Approaching Vancouver ...

We landed in Vancouver at 5:00 and while Steve and I waited for a ride/wheelchair to our connecting gate, Mike and Nadine went to Air Canada Customer Service to see if there was an earlier flight to Victoria that we could catch. Unfortunately, no. We would get home faster if we took the ferry, so Air Canada agreed to give us a taxi voucher to the ferry terminal. We would have to send an email to Air Canada Customer Service to request a refund on the portion of our airline ticket that we would not be using.

While we were taking care of the details at Customer Service, Steve went to the baggage area to retrieve our suitcase from the next flight. We met him there, we grabbed a taxi and managed to make the 7:00 p.m. sailing from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.

The ferry just coming in from the island...

Since we had a late lunch at the Winnipeg airport, we decided on just a snack on the ferry...

Going through Active Pass...

The ferry docked at 8:35...and by the time we got off, retrieved our suitcase and took a taxi to Rob and Angie's, it was just after 9:00. We were greeted by Rob...Angie, Conner and Bryce had already gone to bed.  After big hugs with Mike and Nadine, they headed off...great spending time with you both. A fun family weekend!

Tuesday (July 23) morning, we were up early. We were just getting used to the 2 hour time change between here and Winnipeg...and now we were back. After saying goodbye to Rob as he headed off to work, Steve and I had a little quiet time before the rest of the household got up. Conner and Bryce were the first...and we both enjoyed big hugs from them.

Angie cooked us a big breakfast...thanks Ang! And then with the truck all packed up, we headed off. Thanks again for all your hospitality, Angie and Rob! Always great spending time with you and the boys!

After a stop in Sidney to pick up the prescription for eye drops that I need before my cataract surgery (have to start 3 days before surgery...so that would be July 29), we were on our way back up island. We stopped in Nanaimo for groceries and arrived back to our trailer around 2:00.

All was okay with the trailer...whew! Steve unloaded the truck and I got busy putting everything away. Glad to be home!

Wednesday (July 24) was a pretty laid back day. Other than getting out for a short bike ride, we pretty well stayed inside getting caught up on things including picture editing and blogging. Although it was mainly sunny out, there was quite a wind and it was chilly.

Tomorrow we plan on doing a little more sightseeing of the area...looking forward to it !