You know when you spend so long waiting for something to happen, then it is here and gone in a flash, well holidays always seem like that for me. 2 1/2 weeks here and it is nearly time for me to leave Salt Spring and my parents and head back to Seattle. The original plan was to go down to Portland for a couple of days then back to Seattle to fly back to the UK but on weighing up the financies and the extra time spent with my folks I decided to stay here till Thursday, get the Clipper ferry to Seattle (3hrs from Victoria) and spend just a day there, limiting the shopping time. I have to be at the airport stupidly early on Saturday morning so I am going to try and find a place to stay that is close and then I won’t have to contend with public transport not starting early. So that is the plan for the next few days but first, what haveI been up to since the last post?
Essentially life has been very chilled here, aside from the fact that I have been woken every morning at 6am! I must explain that the lifestyle here is somewhat different to the one that I chose to live. I wouldn’t necessarily classify myself as a night owl or an early bird. But it is totally alien to me that people would choose to be out walking at 6am and be in bed at 9pm but my parents have adjusted to this quite well (my mum really didn’t have any adjusting to do, she always fell asleep at 9pm on the sofa anyway!). Most people work from 7 or 8 till 3.30 or 4 but the bakery in Ganges opens at 4am so you can start your day with bread and coffee in the middle of the night, like I said totally alien to me.
I have walked down to the main Ganges Fulford road a few times and hitched a lift into the town to explore or go for a coffee. I have been on the ferry over to Victoria for the day a couple of times and explored round there, found some great book shops, walked up to Craigdorrach Castle and deliberated over a new laptop bag and managed to resist. I have been out into Ganges to Moby’s pub/seafood restaurant and to Auntie Pesto’s for meals out and have generally been enjoying the company and the situation. Last weekend we venture off island again to go over to Vancouver this time. I have to admit this was a bit of a disaster for me. I got up (earlier again on Saturday mornings!) and wasn’t feeling great and it got worse from there on really. We got the ferry over to Swartz Bay and then got in the queue for the ferry over to Vancouver from there which was over booked so waited for the next one 2 hours later and by the time we got on the boat I was feeling awful. I was eventually sick and things seems to be alot better till I nearly fainted in Granville market and had to make a not so hasty retreat back to the hotel where I proceeded to sleep for the next 17hours whilst my parents went exploring round Vancouver and had dinner at the Spagetti Factory in Gastown. I was gutted to have missed out on one of the highlights of the trip. Feeling a little better the following day we went back to Granville Island and I got to explore a little more this time. From there we went up to went up the coastal drive up to Horseshoe Bay to get a ferry over to Nanaimo and then another one back to Salt Spring. The coastal drive was lovely and reminded me of bits of the Great Ocean Road in Australia and also the road from Picton to Nelson through the hills in New Zealand. I am pleased to report that by the time we got on the ferries I was feeling quite a bit brighter and there was no vomitting on the return journey, just fantastic scenery and although a little misty still great. We went up to the top deck and got some great photographs.
Well thats it for now, going to get some washing done and then I suppose I should really pack. On second thoughts I might leave that till tomorrow and just enjoy the last night!
