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The flight back to Vancouver was not as comfortable as the one up there - no spare seat between us, I was in the middle seat with a big man next to me so we sat for 2 hours with squashed arms!! Oh well, it ended, with no-one sicking the sniffer dogs on me!! We grabbed our bags, headed straight for the sky train, managed to hop on one straight way, got to Bridgeport Station with 10 minutes to spare for the bus to Tsawwassen ferry, and had about a 45 minute wait at the ferry terminal across to Duke Point. Grabbed a taxi - Sandi had said it would be about $25 HA… we arrived in Ladysmith as it clocked over to $50 and then the driver cruised up and down 4th Avenue, finally finding our address as it clocked to $75!!! We let ourselves in, and then went for a walk into the village- about a 2 km walk ending in a really steep downhill section of about ½ km - of course I was already thinking about the return trip at this stage!!! We wandered the street, bought a couple of meat pies - ah home sweet home - to have for tea, and back home. After tea ( read supper or dinner for Canadians), we drove Gord and Sandi's car to the airport to pick them up - kinda weird picking up people in their car and driving them back to their house! It was great hearing about their trip to Lebanon, and it was just as if it had not been 3 years since we last saw them.
We all slept in the next day and then went to Renee's café for breakfast before visiting the op shop - oh yes, we continue on our quest to find all Canadian Thrift Stores possible. Spent the day catching up and went for a walk along the logging road looking into people's back yards - always good for entertainment.
Sam got up at 4 am the next morning to take Gord to work so we could have the car, and Sandi left to go to Vancouver for meetings, so we drove to Mt Washington - The Island's ski resort. It was quite impressive to us Aussies- we even had our first Beaver Tail- a delectable delight one has to experience to understand. On the way home we went into Courtenay and Comox - a couple of waterside villages - more op shops and coffee and then a rush back to Nanaimo to pick up Gord - 45 minutes late - oops sorry Gord.
It was a great day even though it has not stopped raining since we arrived on the island.
The next day we got up earlier and headed to Renee's for breakfast again- the place is a small café real home style where the cliental are obviously locals who hang out there regularly.- not your upmarket type place at all - unfashionable retro furniture, but homecooked meals and endless coffee!!! After that we headed to Chemainus to catch the ferry to Thetis Island - brilliant timing- managed to park the car, buy a ticket and walk on to the ferry just in time. The ferry is a one level ferry- looks much like the Murray ferries, only not on a cable, with a long narrow "lounge" to sit in and about 4 times the size of our ferries.. We briefly chatted to one of the 2 ferrymen on the way in- this fact becomes relevant later- and stood outside for the 30 min trip watching the beautiful view. Capernwray is absolutely GORGEOUS- you see it as you arrive at Thetis Island as it is where the ferry docks- originally a farm and still being run as a farm in a way by the Bible School. Ashleigh Bogle met us and took us on a tour of the place. It was so lovely catching up with her and having a personal escort. She is the only Aussie there so she enjoyed introducing us to everyone as fellow Aussie!!!
We had about 1 ½ hours there before we saw the ferry returning and bolted for the dock ready to return to our car on the main island. As we left the captain announced a welcome to everyone and "a special welcome to the 2 Australians who have come all the way from Australia for a ride on our ferry" - guess the guy we met on the way across had told the captain!!! The people next to us turned and asked if that was us, so we chatted with them the rest of the way- they were local Thetis Islanders- and ended up inviting their 16 year old son to visit if he came to Australia. We then had a look around Chemainus at the murals - the town is famous for them, before heading to Victoria (100 km south),to pick up a hoodie from Lululemon for Heidi - that's the kind of parents we are!!! We drove into Victoria, found Johnson St- not bad considering we had left our map behind- where we were greeted by a girl who knew who we were and got her manager to get the hooodie - oh yes… Australians all let us rejoice - we are in Aussie friendly territory. The street was a lovely eclectic area similar to parts of Melbourne so we wandered around down some historic market alleys and had lunch at a small Polish restaurant run by an older couple - she made all the homecooked meals , so advised us what to get- potato pancake stuffed with Hungarian Goulash, with a Polish beer for Sam and a vodka with apple juice and cucumber for me-and he came out and chatted with us about Australia. It was so much fun. Of course we couldn't leave the place without visiting a leather store to buy buckles, and a sports store - I wouldn't be travelling with Sam if we didn't do that, but we also found a thrift store too, so all was not lost. The trip back to pick up Gord was pretty easy once we cleared the traffic in town, with a short stop off in Gordon to check out the totems they were famous for and a Tim Hortons coffee and donut to keep us going. We actually managed to make it to the pulp mill at 4.58 - 2 minutes early!!! Yay. Gord took us on a tour of the mill- amazing - it is huge and it was really interesting- I even climbed a spiral staircase and walked across a platform- I am SO brave. It was my turn to cook dinner that night, but Gord ordered in a Canadian pizza -yum- while I chatted on skype to mum, then all the girls- bonus - my kind of cooking.
Sunday was our last day on the Island - boohoo - so we went to church- Calvary Baptist - with Gord, before coming home to pack. Sandi arrived at the same time as Dave And Joanne- other friends from Victoria- who had driven up so we could go to lunch together at the Crow and Gate English Pub at Nanaimo. More reminiscing from Taurenhof and the afternoon went far too quickly before we had to head of to Duke Point to catch the ferry back to the mainland. Once again, the timing was perfect- few minutes wait for the ferry, straight off and on to a bus, then dropped off by the kind driver a block away from the B&B we were booked at in Richmond, where we had the best accommodation - beautiful big, comfortable 4 poster bed, huge ensuite with a bath, sauna - which we didn't use!! and huge TV!!- even had a ride to the airport in the morning for the same price as catching the bus and skytrain. SWEET. Smooth transition on to small 50 seater Jazz plane and scenic flight to Kelowna for the next stage of the trip.
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