Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Nanaimo - Richmond (222 km. 47.3 by ferry. Max elevation 339)

In the morning we set off from Nanaimo to eventually catch the ferry from Victoria back to Vancovuer. On the way we had planned to drive some alternative routes to make it more interesting. Plan A was to drive south and then cut through east via Gulfstream Provincial Park. We made a bit of a mess finding the turn-off, and got to try out the "u-turn routes" we have seen marked several places. Now we understand what they were for! Like a do-over for those incapable of navigating correctly.... However, the road through the provincial park was closed for some un-posted reason. They also hadn't told our trusted "drivebc.com". So all we could do was to grumble, turn tails and go for plan B.

Rob guided us through a tertiary road winding its way through to Prospect Lake in the middle of this Saanich Peninsula. This involved a very winding dirt roat going this way and that. And right at the end there was a sharp corner with a 3 point turn for Hild to do. Thank you very much! At the beach access we even met a deer that was out walking. "Good morning, we said" and we were royally ignored. It is a very beautiful lake and we were happy to find a picturesqe view of it from Esteline Park. Of course not as nice as in Roy Henry Vickers' painting, but such is art.
Prospect Lake

Part of our plan had been to visit the Butchart Gardens. It came highly recommended by Donna. At an earlier visit she took this wonderful photo shown below, and we had meant to go in and try to replicate the achievement. However - sorry Donna - we decided that $38 per person required that we stayed there for several hours. Since we were booked on the 2 pm ferry we really couldn't stay for very long. So we could not attempt to "beat" Donna's photo. Next time maybe...

After enjoying one of our now traditional picnic lunches in Sidney, we caught the 1 pm ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, Vancouver. It was a very different route from the previous ferry from Tsawwassen to Nanaimo. Now were were zig-zagging our way between small islends and meeting many other vessels going to and from. Despite our best efforts we did not see any whales on the trip. Ah well - such is life.

Click to view our passage through the narrowest bit - in 16-times speed!

Click to view an on-coming ferry at a very narrow part of the trip. Theirs was "The Spirit of Vancouver Island", while our ferry was "the Spirit of British Columbia".

A curious bit of border-drawing meant that a triangular part of the USA sticks into Canadian waters. Because our captain didn't want to do a detour, we spent the grand total of 14 minutes in the USA.

By the time we had crossed on the ferry, dropped the car at Vivian's and taken the train to downtown - Rob's mobile phone was nearly out of juice. He had brought a power-bank but when he plugged it all in, he looked like he was wired up! Maybe he looked a bit like a security guard up at Vancouver City Hall? Possibly except for the bottle of Gatorade...

Near City Hall we enjoyed the view over Vancouver from Helen Gutteridge Plaza. In 1937 she was the first woman of Vancouver City Council. The plaza has a Japanese garden, ping pong tables, picnic tables and space for people to gather.

You know, we keep doing this. We were just going to take the train to downtown and walk around for a little bit before meeting up with Jess. And then before you know it we have gone up hills and down dales, huffing and puffing.

A short walk turned into 3 hours and 9.6 km! Well at least we worked up an appetite. From City Hall to Oakridge Centre, which turned out to be an empty shopping mall and a good point to turn around at.

We had agreed to meet up with Jess near a park not far from King Edward train station. While she was driving across town from work we arrived early and sat down on a grassy knoll to wait. With increaing worry we watched all the vacant parking spaces being taken by others. We debated sitting down in one of the spaces to hold it for Jess, but worried about the implications. Magically Jess found a parking spot as soon as she arrived! Well done.

We walked together through Queen Elizabeth Park and enjoyed a catching up on many years - while catching snap shots of ourselves, ducks, plants, trees, flowers and such. Very timely for this week of celebration of the Platinum Jubilee!

After a walk around the park we wandered over to Main street to our reserved table at the Persian restaurant "East is East". The decor is really nice with lots of wood for walls, beautiful tables and matching chairs. It was a bit odd that the live entertainment was a man on a cello playing Vivaldi and other classical music - rather than some Persian music on a cetar. Ah well, as Jess pointed out it was more the music to expect in a tea room at Downton Abbey. On top of that our waitress had a scottish accent! What a lovely eclectic evening it was.

Also, the food was delicious and we had much fun catching up with Jess and Oscar about life, the universe, and everything. We learnt about their fun lives here in Vancouver and Mexico that clarly requires a great number of bikes - including sacrificial ones that you don't mind being stolen. Stories about snowboarding, rowing, swimming, skiing, and all the other exciting things they do.

I can't believe that we didn't manage to catch Oscar in a photo. Sorry about that! We got too caught up in the beautiful mountains, a man with a cello, and roti rolls served diligently by a scot ....

We had such a great time, and we hope to see them both in Ottawa. The Ikea sofa bed is ready and waiting. Remember, February is your best bet for skating on the canal.

May/June 2022

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