March 27 to April 2, 2025 ; Cobble Hill, Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island to Grand Forks, British Columbia

 Thursday ; Overcast, +11° C in Cobble Hill, +14° C in Duncan.

Today was Apollo’s regularly scheduled “grooming day”. Before lunch we trimmed his nails (using my Dremel style grinding tool), plucked and cleaned his ears, and trimmed some hair. He is desperately in need of a full haircut, but it is still going to be winter as we drive across Alberta and Saskatchewan, and for probably a few more weeks in Manitoba after we’re home, so ... we are leaving his hair long (and tangled/matted) for now. Gee, Apollo ... maybe use some conditioner ? HA HA HA !

Immediately after lunch we headed to Duncan for what we hope was our final grocery shopping trip, and to give Apollo a bath at Bosley’s. But before Duncan, we stopped at the local dog park to allow Apollo to empty himself out. Once in Duncan Joanne and I shopped together at Wal-Mart, then while she went to Dollarama I went to Bosley’s to buy some probiotic treats for Apollo and get started on his bath. I struggled briefly with bathing him alone before Joanne showed up. And ... HA HA HA ... this Bosley’s store not only provided a variety of shampoos for use at their dog wash station, but ... <insert drum roll here> ... conditioners ! HA HA HA ... thanks, but ... it didn’t help one tiny bit. His hair was a tangled mess before the bath and even worse after. HA HA HA !

Before leaving Duncan we stopped at Salty’s Fish & Chips to buy two large fillets of battered, deep fried, fresh halibut to have later for tonight’s dinner, with plans for Joanne to make cole slaw and fries to go along with the fish. This was our third purchase of restaurant prepared halibut fillets this winter season, and Salty’s today was by far the best ! We do not buy halibut anywhere other than on British Columbia’s coast, due to exorbitant prices and questionable freshness elsewhere. Well ... even here the prices are exorbitant ! BUT ... <smacking lips> ... oh, so good !

Joanne prepared dinner, I lit a fire in the fireplace, and while eating and afterwards we watched yesterday’s episode of Survivor and enjoyed the fire.

Friday ; Overcast, intermittent very light rain, +9° C.

Today we began preparing for departure on Tuesday. Joanne did some housecleaning. We gave Apollo a bit of a hair trim, concentrating on trimming his face and head enough that his eyes are visible, and cutting mats off his hips. We moved a few items that we are unlikely to need over the next few days back to the car. I cleaned ashes out of the fireplace.

And in more important news ... it seems as if our new Prime Minister’s first phone call with the American President went fairly well ... n’est-ce pas ? ! ! !

Saturday ; Cloudy, occasional very light rain, +9° C.

Late this morning we loaded up our sizeable collection of recyclables and took them to the local recycling depot. From there we headed into Duncan to pay a last visit to the Saturday morning Duncan Farmers Market. Apollo was ecstatic about visiting the farmers market again. <shrug> I wonder why he finds it to be so stimulating a place ? Lots of interesting people, lots of interesting dogs, lots of interesting scents, I guess.

We bought some Saskatoon berry cinnamon buns and some Saskatoon berry jam to take home to Manitoba. We had been planning to also buy more frozen beef pho soup, but the pho soup place was not at the market today.

We spent the afternoon preparing for our early Tuesday departure, packing and loading stuff into the car.

Sunday ; Cobble Hill to Victoria and return

Mix of sun and clouds, +9° C in Cobble Hill, +16° C in Victoria <sigh> 20 / 20 hindsight !

After an early lunch we departed Xanadu Estate at 1 PM heading for Victoria, and a Victoria Symphony Orchestra concert at 2:30 PM. We were in the Victoria Public Library’s underground parkade at 2 PM and returned there at 5 PM. Poor Apollo spent three hours alone in the car waiting for us. AND ... <sputter> ... he was barking when we left the car, and still barking when we returned three hours later. His abandonment anxiety / lack of willingness to relax when left alone in the car (or our hotel suite while we were in Victoria) has increased over the winter. We don’t know if it is due to aging, or simply due to him becoming more and more “spoiled”, in that we leave him alone so infrequently. Good dog, Apollo ... <whispering> ... sort of !

Today’s concert was a symphony orchestra live performance of a film’s musical soundtrack, while the movie played on a giant screen above the orchestra. We enjoy these symphony orchestra live accompaniment to film soundtrack performances immensely. Today’s film was Princess Bride. It was stupendous ! The orchestra’s performance and ... the film itself, which neither Joanne nor I had seen before. As the conductor was introducing today’s performance, he asked the audience, by show of hands, who had seen the movie when it was originally released in 1987, who had seen it multiple times since then, etc. When he asked who in the audience had never seen it before ... HA HA HA HA HA ... I was the only raised hand in the entire Victoria Royal Theatre. HMPH ! Maybe I should start calling my little wifey Judas ? ! ? HA HA HA !

The audience seemed to be primarily comprised of middle aged women, in groups. I can only surmise these were groups of women who have been friends since their teen years, and all saw the movie together when they were teenagers. HA HA HA ... you go, girls !

On the drive back to Cobble Hill we stopped in Langford to refill the minivan with fuel at Superstore’s Mobil Fuel Bar. Next fuel stop should likely be Hope, B.C.

Joanne made pizza for supper. I lit our last fire in the fireplace, and we watched last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live.

Monday ; Mostly sunny, +8° C.

Today was dedicated to packing and loading in preparation for departure tomorrow morning. Apollo is excited, he recognizes that “something is happening”.

Tuesday ; Cobble Hill to Hope

Sunny on Vancouver Island, cloudy on the mainland, +13° C.

We were up at 7 AM with plans to check out of Xanadu Estate at 10 AM and make it to the Victoria ferry terminal in time to catch the noon ferry to Vancouver. Thanks to Joanne’s excellent organization and efforts of yesterday we were ready to leave Xanadu Estate a half hour earlier than planned, at 9:30 AM, which gave us a possibility of making it to the Victoria ferry terminal in time to catch the 11 AM ferry. IF ... <whispering> ... I ignored speed limits south on the Malahat Highway to Victoria, through Victoria, then north to the tip of the Saanich Peninsula, where the airport and ferry terminal are both located. We made it !

We noticed on previous ferry crossings that many people ignore the regulations to NOT remain in their vehicles during the crossing, but leave the lower car decks and go upstairs to the passenger decks, for safety reasons apparently. Today we decided to do the same, to give Apollo a break from the anxiety producing ordeal of spending another two hours alone in the car. He’s endured a lot of alone time in the car this past winter.

On the ferry crossing from Vancouver to Victoria last December 1, when we returned to our car a few minutes before arrival at the Victoria ferry terminal, the woman in the car behind us bitched at us about Apollo barking for the entire two hours he was alone in the car. Well ... sweetheart ... since you remained in your vehicle in violation of safety regulations, I don’t really give a tiny rat’s ass about your complaint. Have a nice day !

The ferry departed on time at 11 AM and arrived at Tsawassen (Vancouver) on time a few minutes before 1 PM. If we had been on the noon ferry as initially planned, we were going to eat lunch during the ferry crossing. But since we were an hour earlier than planned, we decided to defer lunch for about an hour, until reaching Abbotsford where we knew there was a very nice highway rest area.

NOT ! ! ! <sputter > The rest area was now ... <blink blink> ... a huge homeless encampment, filled with extremely decrepit RV’s, jammed in “shoulder to shoulder”, surrounded by junk and garbage. And large, ugly dogs ! Some of the decrepit RV’s were obviously abandoned, windows broken out, doors ripped off, interiors trashed. There was no room for vehicles coming in off the highway to park to use the restrooms. We squeezed into half a handicapped parking spot beside a decrepit trailer filling 1½ of the rest area’s two handicapped parking spots. We used the restrooms quickly, then got the hell out of there and ate our lunch as we continued driving east on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 towards Hope.

There were two police vehicles parked outside the rest area, with emergency rooftop lights flashing. The police officers were in the rest area, providing “security” to the three truckloads of BC Ministry Of Highways electricians who were working on repairing / restoring the huge lamp posts which had been “opened” at the bottom by “removing” access hatches, with a variety of “Mexican electrician” wires spliced in to power some of the decrepit trailers. SHEESH !

We had begun using this lovely rest area the first year it had been developed, somewhere between ten and fifteen years ago, sometimes when we were travelling in the fall from our summer home in the BC Okanagan area to our winter home in Yuma, Arizona, or returning in the spring, and sometimes when we were delivering trailers (our summer side hustle) to or from the Vancouver area or Vancouver Island. When the rest area was first developed it had the very unique feature of having a few RV electrical hookups for the convenience of RV’s boondocking overnight, which we did quite a few times there in the first couple of years. After a couple of years, the RV electrical hookups were removed, because they were already becoming monopolized by the homeless / near homeless.

What we saw there today was absolutely appalling !

We reached Hope around 4 PM. The first thing I did in town was go to Kal Tire to adjust the air pressure in the tire that has been losing air extremely slowly all winter long. It needs an adjustment about once a month. Then I refilled the minivan with fuel at a Chevron fuel station, one of the stations in town that had lowered its fuel prices today ... as all stations should have done ... due to the elimination of both federal and provincial fuel taxes effective today. Finally, we found our motel, but before checking in we went across the street to the lovely, large municipal park, and took Apollo for a long, leisurely walk.

At the Chevron fuel station, as I was pumping fuel, a dishevelled, scrawny, scruffy young woman (homeless ?) approached me and asked if we would give her a ride back to Manitoba. UHHH ... no !

On the wall behind the front desk of the motel was a huge blow up of a picture taken of Sylvester Stallone in a fight scene in front of the motel, from the 1982 filming in Hope, BC of “Rambo : First Blood”.

Wednesday ; Hope to Grand Forks

Sun, clouds, rain, snow blizzard, a little bit of everything, 6° C in Hope, 1° C through Manning Provincial Park, with snow blizzard conditions, 13° C in Keremeos, where we lived for about 14 years, 16° C in Osoyoos, sunny but I was too tired to notice temperature when we arrived in Grand Forks at 5:30 PM.

We checked out of our motel and left Hope at 10:45 AM, continuing east on Crowsnest Hwy. 3. The Hope to Princeton segment of Crowsnest Hwy. 3 is one of the most dangerous and difficult to drive sections of highway in all of Canada, in my opinion. Especially when towing huge fifth wheel trailers behind a one ton diesel dually truck, which I did too many times to count back in my trailer towing side hustle days.

Not surprisingly the weather was bad through Manning Provincial Park and the rest of the way to Princeton. Princeton to Grand Forks was sunny, except ... when we were eating our lunch at the municipal park in Keremeos we watched a small, but vicious rain squall pass over K Mountain behind the village.

Just before reaching Keremeos we drove slowly through Riverside RV Park Resort, our home from 2007 to 2021. A lot of properties are for sale in the community, and ... prices have plummeted since we sold and left four years ago. Our previous home is for sale again, for at least the second time since we sold it. In the village of Keremeos we stopped to buy some fruit (and pakoras and samosas for lunch) at what used to be our favourite produce stand, Sanderson Farms.

The area where we used to live always had been and still is still a beautiful place !

DSK

March 20 to 26, 2025 ; Cobble Hill, B.C.

 Thursday ; Sunny in the morning, cloudy in the afternoon, raining in the evening, +6° C.

I’m feeling a bit bored here at Xanadu Estate in Cobble Hill. The weather, ever since our arrival on January 31, has been less than ideal and not very conducive to getting out and exploring. There was more to do, the weather was warmer, and we were more active while in Victoria in December and January. I guess I’m feeling just about ready for our return back home to Dugald Estates in a couple of weeks. Oh, well ... lesson learned for next year !

I thought our plan for today was to go to Salt Spring Island for a day trip of exploring. Joanne thought our plan was to go on Saturday. HMPH ! Apparently I was mistaken !

This afternoon Joanne went by herself to replenish produce at Old Farm Market while Apollo and I napped.

In the evening I made another fire in the fireplace and we watched last night’s episode of Survivor

Friday ; Raining all day, +5° C.

We are all feeling SOOOOO bored, and suffering from “cabin fever”. We overestimated what / how much there was to see and do out here in our “mansion in the woods” suite, and were ignorant about how different the weather was here than in Victoria. In desperation I suggested, around 5 PM, that we go to the dog park for awhile just to “get out of the house”.

Well ... we did. But ... it was raining heavily, it was cold, and like all the rest of the dogs in the dog park, Apollo got quite muddy. Oh, well, at least we got out for awhile. It is now a little after 7 PM, Joanne has begun to prepare supper, I’m here typing on the laptop, and Apollo ... well, he’s still a bit wet and muddy, looking a bit miserable, lying on the couch, wrapped in a blankie.

Saturday ; Cobble Hill to Salt Spring Island & return

Sunny and 7° C in the morning in Cobble Hill, cloudy and 10° C in the afternoon on Salt Spring Island, raining when we got back onto Vancouver Island at 6 PM, and rain for the rest of the day.

Well ... better late than never ... we finally got to Salt Spring Island for a day of exploring. We left Xanadu Estate at 10:30 AM and drove north through Duncan to the little village of Crofton to catch the ferry to Salt Spring Island at 11:30 AM. The ferry arrived at Vesuvius Bay on the west coast of Salt Spring Island at noon. We drove to the centre of the island, to Ganges, the main town on the island.

It was a lot more “spring time” on Salt Spring Island than at Xanadu Estate / Cobble Hill. Daffodils were blooming, cherry trees were in blossom, etc.

We spent about half the afternoon exploring in and around Ganges, and about half the afternoon exploring south and north on the island. Most of our exploring in and around Ganges was on foot. We visited a glass foundry art gallery first, then a multitude of specialty food shops. We had lunch at Buzzy’s ... “A Montreal Jewish deli from an island with more bears than Jews” ... HA HA HA ! Exquisite Montreal smoked meat sandwiches and concoctions. I had a “Bare Naked Lady”, a smoked meat platter with everything except bread. But including a latke. Joanne had smoked meat chili. It was great ! I’d like to try making that at home. Lunch was so good ... how good was it, Dan ? ... I bought a half pound of Montreal style smoked meat to take home for lunch sandwiches. Before leaving Ganges we bought three loaves of bread and some pastries at a bakery.

From Ganges we drove south to Salt Spring Island Cheese, a cheese making goat farm. I had bought one of their cheeses while we were in Victoria in December. Very good ! Very expensive. Slightly cheaper at the farm gate / cheese making factory. In December I had placed then cancelled an order for one of their “Christmas baskets” as a gift for Joanne when she ... <ahem> ... “reminded” me that she doesn’t like goat cheese. But today at their cheese shop all their products were available for sampling. We tried some, she liked some ! (and I disliked some !) We bought three types of their goat cheeses today. They will be a great pairing with the sourdough and light rye sourdough bread boules we bought at Embe Bakery in Ganges.

We drove back to and through Ganges then to the north end of Salt Spring Island, to visit a sheep farm. We were unable to shop in their wool products shop because we arrived a few minutes after their 4 PM closing, but we did walk around outside and visit with Teddy Bear the sheep, Lexi the billy goat, and Nigel the tom turkey, a few of the friendlier animals around their farm. Nigel seems to be responsible for “protecting” a small flock of hen turkeys, and he was not shy about gobbling loudly and fan spreading his tail feathers to show how large and threatening he could be. He had a loud argument with Joanne. HA HA HA ... she started it ! Who knew that my 71 year old little wifey could imitate a turkey gobble so well ? HA HA HA <snort> HA HA !

While at the north end of the island we also visited a couple of farm stands before heading back south to the ferry terminal at Vesuvius Bay to catch the 5:30 PM ferry back to Crofton on Vancouver Island. We could see the very heavy rain on Vancouver Island as we crossed on the ferry. Sure enough, as we arrived back at Crofton, it was raining, and remained raining quite heavily for the rest of the evening.

On the way home to Xanadu Estate we stopped in Duncan to refill with fuel at Superstore’s Mobil Fuel Bar. We arrived back home around 7 PM just as it got dark. Hey, Apollo, how did you like your first ever visit to Salt Spring Island ? Poor Apollo, he was exhausted from having a big day of exploring.

Sunday ; Raining all day ... forecast to rain all next week ... 9° C.

Mostly because of yesterday’s adventure, we slept very late this morning. Mostly because of today’s weather, we had a fairly lazy day.

Joanne did some laundry. I wrote yesterday’s journal entry, did yesterday’s credit card accounting, downloaded yesterday’s photos from the i-Phone to the laptop and processed them, paid some bills online, finally received and downloaded the late T3’s, etc.

In the evening we relaxed in front of a fire in the fireplace.

Monday ; Cloudy, intermittent light rain, +9° C.

Today was another lazy day of computer work, and watching news, mostly because of the poor weather. Credit card bill payments and statement reconciliations, income tax preparation work ... got the T3’s entered ...

Tuesday ; Sunny, +12° C. Nice spring day ! Finally !

We went to Country Grocer just before lunch to pick up a few grocery items. I spent the afternoon finishing our income tax returns. WOO-HOO ... DONE !

Wednesday ; Mostly sunny and ... <blink blink> ... warm ! +15° C. Thunderstorms late in the evening.

I wasn’t feeling well today so this afternoon I stayed home with Apollo while Joanne went to Duncan to replenish groceries ... probably for the last time ... at Superstore. I did some work on income tax planning for this year / next year. I did some work on next winter’s accommodations planning.

Lately we have been spending a lot of our time chatting about politics and current events, both in Canada and ... to the south !

ELBOWS UP, CANADA !

<muttering> Asshole !

DSK

March 13 to 19, 2025 ; Cobble Hill, B.C.

 Thursday ; Mostly sunny, windy, a very chilly +3° C.

I spent much of today getting “caught up” after yesterday’s day trip to Vancouver ; credit card accounting, writing yesterday’s journal / blog entry, downloading and processing photos and videos from the i-Phone to the laptop, posting my weekly journal to my blog.

While Joanne prepared supper I made an excellent fire in our fireplace, and it burned bright and warm for the rest of the evening. We had supper while enjoying the fire and watching last night’s episode of Survivor.

Friday ; Sunny, +7° C.

This afternoon we went to Country Grocer in Cobble Hill, then Superstore in Duncan to replenish groceries. On the way back home we went to the Cobble Hill dog park. We were there between 5 PM and 6 PM so there were a lot more dogs there than usual. Apollo is not all that interested in socializing with other dogs, but he certainly enjoys meeting people.

Saturday ; Raining, +3° C.

Today was a long, difficult day of nothing but bickering, ending with a lot of anger and hurt. HMPH ! Haven’t done that in quite awhile !

Sunday ; Mostly sunny, still not all that warm at +6° C.

We will be certain not to repeat this year’s mistake of spending only half the winter in Victoria, where it was and continues to consistently be 5° warmer than here in Cobble Hill. <shrug> HMPH ... learning curve !

Tonight it was my turn to make supper. I made another Udon noodle stir fry creation.

Monday ; Mix of sun and clouds, intermittent rain ... and a short bout of hail (!), +4° C.

We had planned to make another visit to a local beach area today, but the weather was not co-operative. It seems as if we are going to have chilly, wet weather for most of the upcoming week. <sigh>

This afternoon I worked again on preparing our income tax returns. BORING !

And this evening I made another lovely fire in the fireplace, and we watched multiple episodes of The Dog House, a British show chronicling the workings of a dog rescue shelter.

Tuesday ; Mostly sunny, +7° C. Seemed a lot colder than that at the beach !

Mid-afternoon we headed to nearby Cherry Point Nature Park (beach). BRRRRR ! Windy ! We had not expected that, as there was no wind at home / Xanadu Estate. We didn’t stay at the beach long.

Back at home I continued the boring work on our income tax returns. I’m slightly stymied by a couple of late T3’s that I have not yet received.

Wednesday ; Mix of sun and clouds, +7° C.

This afternoon Joanne went grocery shopping by herself ; Country Grocer in Cobble Hill, Dollar Tree and Superstore in Duncan. I stayed home and napped with Apollo, then paid bills, reconciled February bank statements, and continued working on preparation of our income tax returns. Almost finished, just awaiting that last set of late T3’s.

DSK

March 12 day trip to Vancouver ; pictures & videos

 

DSK

March 6 to 12, 2025 ; Cobble Hill, B.C.

 Thursday ; Sunny, +9° C.

Today was a busy day of “catch up on errands at home” day. Joanne did laundry. We both cleaned a lot of dog snot marks off the car windows. The price we pay for leaving Apollo alone in the car for hours at a time. HA HA HA ! I did a lot of work on the computer and i-Phone, setting up some new apps on both, updating phone account records, posting my blog, putting away “winter stuff” and reloading it into the car, yesterday’s credit card accounting ... YIKES ... updating investment records ... YIKES ... figuring out how to access ... (new software required) ... and read my Rolex watch’s new service records “chip” card, figuring out how to access ... (new software required) ... a new messaging function for Winnipeg Humane Society volunteers ... <sigh> ... and so on and so on, all day long !

Friday ; Mostly cloudy and chilly, despite temperature this afternoon of 8° C. HMPH ! Thought spring was here ! Apparently not, looking at the forecast for the next week.

After an early lunch we headed out to drop our recyclables at a local recycling yard, then continue on into Duncan to visit a store that Joanne thought I would be interested in, an Indigenous art gallery / dealer. Well, the art gallery was interesting, but also a bit disappointing. I expected a larger store, with more inventory, and ... well ... a bit more reasonable pricing. And more representative Indigenous art from a wider geographic area than just Vancouver Island. This gallery’s offerings were almost all “local” artists.

We had also intended to visit some thrift stores in Duncan today, but ... I got pissed off (no pun intended) at the first thrift store when I asked as I was paying for my purchase if I might use their restroom, and was refused access. HMPH ! Take my purchase, put it back into your inventory, I’ll go take a piss and spend my money elsewhere ! ! ! The second thrift store wasn’t a charitable thrift store, it was a privately owned “used merchandise” urban junkyard store. Both of us decided that was enough, it was time to head home.

On the way home we stopped at the local dog park. Good dog, Apollo !

Today I finished acquiring and setting up a new e-mail account with a Canadian service provider, a process I started last Sunday. I have had an e-mail account / address with AOL, originally America OnLine, for 30 years. All change is difficult, but sometimes necessary, often desirable, and for me, always rejuvenating and exciting.

Saturday ; Light rain all day, +7° C.

This afternoon Joanne went by herself to Duncan to do some grocery shopping. I napped with Apollo then did more work on our income tax returns. After Joanne returned home I installed and configured our new Canadian e-mail service onto our i-Phone. SHIT ... that kind of techno-stuff is extremely difficult for an old man my age. It took me well over an hour to figure it out and get it done. However, I should probably be proud of myself. Based on my knowledge of our friends and neighbours, I would suggest that very few people my age could have done any better.

In the evening we watched a “comedy” entitled SHIVA on CBC GEM. Comedy ? ! ? I think not ! What a despicable character. Nothing funny about that at all.

Sunday ; Cobble Hill to Victoria & return

BRRRRR ... steady rain until late afternoon, 6° C.

We left home right after lunch heading to Victoria for a Victoria Symphony Orchestra matinée concert at 2:30 PM at The Royal Theatre. The heavy rain made driving to Victoria on the Malahat Highway difficult. We parked in the Victoria Public Library underground parkade about half a block from the concert venue, and left Apollo waiting in the car for about 2¾ hours. Very good dog, Apollo. We rewarded him with a stop at the local dog park on our way home. We arrived back home around 7 PM.

The concert was A Night (afternoon ?) At The Oscars, a Pops concert featuring Academy Award winning song scores from movies going back almost a century. It was okay, not great, first half better then the second half. We had front row centre seats. I like front row centre seats, most people don’t.

We arrived back home to the news that Mark Carney had won the (Canadian) Liberal party leadership, and therefore will become Canada’s Prime Minister next week. In my opinion that was the correct choice ... for now ! I’m disappointed that Chrystia Freeland did not do better, but Mr. Carney’s huge margin of victory indicates that the Liberal Party, and hopefully most Canadians, are united in believing that Mr. Carney is the right person at this time to take on Trump and his tariff nonsense !

VIVE le CANADA ! <mumbling> you orange piece of shit !

While Joanne made supper I lit a fire in the fireplace, and we ate supper in front of a nice, warming fire while watching last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live.

Monday ; Chilly again, raining lightly most of the day, +6° C.

For me and Apollo, a bit of a slow day. I graciously declined Joanne’s generous invitation to join her for an afternoon of Wal-Martin’ in Duncan ... <rolling my eyes>.

I did some routine monthly maintenance on the car after her return from Duncan. DARN ! AGAIN there is a low pressure tire on the car. One tire has been consistently losing about six pounds of pressure per month ever since we left home in November. And I am old enough and wise enough and experienced enough to know that most tire shops will find it impossible to identify / locate a leak that slow. The response of most tire shops will be simply ... “time to buy new tires ... <big smile>”. Tomorrow I will go to Kal Tire in Duncan (again) and adjust the pressure in that tire. After we return home to Dugald in a month and have access to my own air compressor in our underground parkade I will remove and replace the tire valve core in an attempt to identify / eliminate the problem.

Tuesday ; Raining all day, +6° C.

Right after lunch we headed out for a few errands. First stop was at a nearby tire shop to adjust the air pressure in the car’s tire that needs adjustment monthly. Then grocery shopping at Country Grocer, and finally, produce shopping at Old Farm Market. We were hoping to stop at the dog park on the way back home, but it was raining, so we didn’t.

Late in the afternoon we did some planning for what to do tomorrow in Vancouver for about five hours. We had previously made plans, but they were predicated on nice weather. That now seems unlikely !

For supper I made an Oyster mushroom frittata. HMPH ! I guess one can’t hit a home run every time at bat !

Wednesday ; Cobble Hill to Nanaimo to Vancouver & return

Raining all day, +7° C.

We were up at 8 AM and out of our suite at 10 AM heading to Nanaimo and our Harbour Air seaplane flight to Vancouver at noon. We left Apollo in our suite, having made arrangements with our landlady for her to walk and feed Apollo.

On the way to Nanaimo we stopped in Duncan to refill with fuel at Superstore’s Mobil Fuel Bar. We arrived at Nanaimo Harbour shortly after 11 AM, parked in an underground parkade and checked in at Harbour Air for our noon flight.

While I have flown Cessna 172’s on floats, this was our first flight in a seaplane larger than a four seat Cessna. Today’s flights, in both directions were on Harbour Air’s Canadian manufactured De Havilland Single (turbine engine) Otters, with seating for thirteen passengers. Flight time between Nanaimo Harbour and Vancouver Harbour was twenty minutes in each direction, flown at only 1000 feet. I was surprised at the low flying altitude, and that there was only a single pilot, no co-pilot. And surprised by the need to strap a flotation device (like a “life jacket”) around our bodies underneath our seat belts.

We had five hours to walk around downtown Vancouver. We actually returned to the Vancouver Harbour Seaplane Terminal after four hours, tired of walking around in cold, wet weather. We had a very interesting Persian lunch at a restaurant owned and operated by an Iranian immigrant. Just before returning to the seaplane terminal we had an excellent Coconut Milk Latté with Brown Sugar Boba Pearls at a bubble tea restaurant in one of the many food courts beneath one of the large downtown high rise building towers. We spent the final hour resting (her) in the seaplane terminal’s comfortable passenger lounge and (me) watching many float planes landing and taking off in Vancouver Harbour. <sigh> I want to go back in time about forty-five years and become a commercial seaplane pilot.

It was still raining heavily in Vancouver when we left at 5:30 PM but the rain had stopped by the time we arrived back in Nanaimo at 6 PM. After landing in Nanaimo we picked up some take-out Korean Chicken at Nanda Chicken in downtown Nanaimo, for dinner at home. We arrived back home at 7:30 PM.

During our 9 ½ hour absence our landlady had fed Apollo, and walked him twice. She took him to her home (next door, same building as our suite) and he visited with her, including having an afternoon nap on her bed. HA HA HA ! Good dog, Apollo.

DSK