Home again on Vancouver Island

After horrendous stop-and-go driving through the snow on the freeways around Portland we made it to Vancouver on Tuesday night. The traffic on I-5 in Portland was actually completely stopped for about an hour.

It seems there has been an awful lot of snow in this area. My brother tells me the snow that fell before Christmas is still on the ground in places in Vancouver--five weeks later.

We stayed overnight with with Jock and his family, then scooped up Jamie after his 9:00 a.m. class for a quick breakfast out, and drove out to catch the 1:00 p.m. ferry. The weather cooperated a bit for our re-entry by providing an hour of two of sunshine just as we were getting on the ferry. It was absolutely beautiful as we crossed the strait and we even had three killer whales jumping off the bow.

You know how when you're away from home for a long time, as you come in the front door you see everything with new eyes? Well the ferry ride back to Victoria was kind of like that. I was up on the sundeck with the rest of tourists, clicking away taking pictures through active pass. We really do live in a beautiful part of the world.

Linette brought Geordie over before dinner and it was so great to see him. Maggie greeted him with a symbolic growl to show that she is still "top dog" but within minutes they were friends again. The two dogs are quickly re-establishing their routines. It's taking Harry and me a little longer to gather up all the loose ends of our lives and catch up on things like bills and home maintenance.

We had a lovely time on this year's trip. Maggie was an awesome traveler and I have to hand it to Wanda, our minivan. She took us over 4,000 km to Mazatlan and back without even a sputter. She's a bit more dinged up than when we started and certainly needs a good wash inside and out, but she was stellar. Here she is on the ferry coming home

It was such a relief not to be worrying about mechanical breakdowns. This trip was very different from last year's odyssey with Mohita. Less adventure and more relaxing. Mazatlan is a great place to hang out for a couple of months and we are thinking that we'd like to head down next winter for a while with both dogs--if we can find a good place. We have a couple of feelers out so we shall see what turns up. Of course it all depends on finances, health and the world situation....as does everything, I guess.

Meanwhile it's back to real life and this chronicle is ending. However, I've become a bit addicted to blogging and so I'm going to set up a "life" blog where I can post some ramblings and ideas on a less intensive schedule. I'll post the link here once it's set up.