A Surprise Trip!

 Hullo!!! We are down by the waterfront trying to get ourselves onto a Harbour Air flight! We were going to take the Hullo but they cancelled all sailings today due to mechanical issues... so here we are...

It was a bit pricey but... we are booked! I wonder where we are going?? This is all a bit of a surprise trip for me and no one is telling me anything!

That's our plane over there somewhere...

This little bear has never been on a float plane, so this is a first!

Ooohhh... ahhh... this one is C-FHAD and was born in 1955, for the United States army. It served in Vietnam. In 1972 it was declared military surplus and by 1974, it had ended up in Canada. It's had a few accidents over the years... and in 2007 go a fancy turbon engine tacked onto the front, instead of the original one.

OMG... these are tight, narrow, squishy seats!! But we got a window seat!

I mean... almost every seat is a window seat... really. In addition to the seat belt, the humans all strapped on a waist life-preserver too... charming.

And... we're off!

We have to taxi for a bit to get to the "runway"...

Almost there!

Here we go!!! It was super smooth getting into the air.

And we are up in the air!

We're in an Otter...

We should have brought Otto the Otter!

Ooohh... nice view of the harbour here.

And the industrial lands...

And lots of logs...

Now we're over the Salish Sea and that's one of the BC Ferries boats.

Hmmm... Harbour Air flies to two locations in Vancouver... and this one looks like it's going into an arm of the Fraser River, to the South Terminal of the airport.

Yep... definitely the South Terminal, not downtown Vancouver!

And we're down! Also very smooth.

Seee... C-FHAD... it was cool to learn a bit about the history of the plane. (Read more about the aircraft on this link page)

Now what? Oh, we are getting a shuttle!

I wonder where we are going now... this not knowing is hard for a little bear!

Hmmm.... that's the skytrain line... are we going to YVR?

Are we getting on another plane somewhere!???

And yes... we are at YVR!!!

Are we going to Mexico? London?

International check-in is over there... could it be...

Um. No. We are at the ticket kiosks for the SkyTrain...

Where are we going???

Well, on the Skytrain obviously... to downtown Vancouver?

We got a window seat at the end of the train, where I could muse on the options... maybe we are catching a train? A real train?

Are going on the Via Rail???!!

All this wondering and thinking is making me hungry... need a snack!

TO BE CONTINUED

Victoria's Russell Books and the Drive Home

 Soo... where was I? Oh yes... I had just finished visiting Miniature World and was feeling peckish... where do you think we ended up?

Ah-hah!!! A Starbucks... how convenient!

And a busy one too, but with lots of room to sit.

And yes, I did have a chocolate brownie!! Warmed up, of course... sooooo yummy!

Righto, off we went to find a Victoria icon... Russell Books!!! It is a used bookstore... but that does not do it justice... it is sooo much more.

It is on two floors and there are soooo many books! And all well-organized.

So many choices...

This was one book we picked...

And we debated t-shirts... we think Beanie Mouse might appreciate this one...

But perhaps not this one... 

Then we found a Persian take-away place!

So many choices!

We had a shwarma wrap and it was quite yummy!

After that... we headed off to check out a few thrift stores... but the one we wanted to go to was closed (like gone-closed)... and the other one had nothing interesting. Ah well... time to head home!

But... the Malahat had had some snow and its windy, curvy road meant... there was an accident and traffic was seriously backed up!

What normally takes 20 minutes took almost 2 hours!

Snacks... I need snacks!!!

Except we'd already eaten most of the snacks but I did find a chocolate covered date/pecan concoction... yummy!

Sigh... we'd move 20 feet and then stop again. Ugh.

Grapes anyone?

Ah, we are getting closer!!! We can finally see some opposing traffic getting through! This was all compact snow and seriously treacherous.

We made it through!!! Now we just have to navigate all the backed up traffic.

And we made it home!!

I know stuffies want to know what sticker I got from the RBCM... ready...??

We got this one!!! It has a mastodon on it... beary cool!

And that ends our mid-February adventure to Victoria... we still have a March adventure to Vancouver we haven't even started posting about! Is it possible to have "too many" adventures??