Made it out to a few rugby games while in town. Started off with a game at the Irish fields. Cheered on the Hornets 1st XV against the Irish. Jimmy was kind enough to pick me up and take me to the match.
We then started going through all of our stuff in storage and separating all of the clothes and putting them in their own boxes. We spent about a week hauling boxes out and then putting them back in. I had entered all of the information as a note on my old blackberry phone but had misplaced it in the last 5 months. Either way, we had to go through them again anyway to pick out any clothing as it has to be separated and on it's own. There is a limit per person on weight of clothing.
We managed to catch a Wolfpack game one evening and a Rugby Canada game against Romania in the freezing rain. Standing there watching the game reminded me of my days filming where you are a captive audience.
Made a pot of chili for our daughter as she had not tasted it in a while and wanted to know how to make it. So I drafted up a menu along with photos as I was making it and emailed it to her. Hope to enjoy a pot of it some day when we return.
It was now time to organize some help for loading day. Some friends of ours offered to help out. The sea can arrived on the 15th early in the morning around 9:30 AM and we slowly pulled things out of the storage garage at Springbank Storage and loaded it into the sea can. It was pretty steady moving with two of us on the ground handing items to Harry up on the sea can as it was still on the bed of a highboy trailer. Occasionally one of us would have to jump up to assist him. He did a great job of packing all the items good and tight. We had to leave behind all of the dining table chairs and patio chairs as it took 4 of us to close the doors on the sea can so not another item would fit. We plum filled a 20' sea can.
We then had one day of relaxation before heading to Vancouver Island so we headed over to my uncles for the afternoon. He's also looking at moving to the Island soon as his house just sold and possession is coming up. He already owns a home on the Island. He has owned it for several years. It's a little ways from our time share on Vancouver Island. Which is where we are headed for a week.
Saturday morning and we are up at a reasonable time, and started packing. We had 4 bags including our carry on's which we had to pack up and take with us as we would be flying to Ecuador from Vancouver. Our daughter drove us to the airport as we had a flight to Vancouver at noon.
Once we arrived in Vancouver, I picked up the rental car at Hertz and we were then off to the Island. We chose to take the Tawassen Ferry over to Nanaimo. Once on the Island it was just a short drive North to Parksville where our timeshare is located. We purchased our timeshare back in 2002 and this will be our 5th time back to the resort. We typically frequent other RCI resorts in between our own resort visits.
One of my favorite spots to BBQ is out on the Point. It's a great spot to get to meet other people who are also visiting the resort from other parts of North America.
One of the things that I love about this location is that Craig Bay pretty much drains when tide goes out and you can walk all over the bay. The photo above is about an hour from high tide. You can get stuck out on the Rock and have to walk back through the water if you're not careful.
We spent the week just relaxing around our accommodations as we had been pretty busy during the past couple of weeks packing and unpacking boxes, etc. My back really needed the break. At the end of the week we packed up our bags and checked out. God! I am going to miss this place. We headed to Nanaimo to catch the ferry over to Horseshoe Bay. It's about a two hour ride over to the mainland.
Once we embarked the ferry it was then a race on Highway #1 to Carl's place as he and his wife were heading to a wedding in the late afternoon. They had recently sold their dairy farm and purchased a former chicken farm that was located on the side of a mountain between Abottsford and Yarrow. We pulled in after they had left so we relaxed on the patio while other people came and went. We discussed our ventures with each of them as they arrived. Carl then stepped out of the wedding and raced home to meet us. He helped get us set up before racing back for the reception.
The photo above is the view from his house of the Frazer Valley below. They purchased 29 acres and part of it is mountainside forest at the back of the lot and really steep too. Carl suggested that we could heat up some left over ribs in the fridge or check out some restaurants in Yarrow. We decided to head down to Yarrow to see what was available. I drove through town and just kept going until we got to the Cultus Lake turn-off. I suggested we check it out. It had been almost 40 years since I had been there. Once we arrived, I looked for a place to park and then we checked out a restaurant which ended up having a 20 minute wait so we headed over to the beach to see what was happening.
We then enjoyed dinner once we got back to the restaurant, just in time as we were next in line. Following dinner, we headed back to Carl's place and they showed up shortly after we arrived. Carl then took me on a tour of the barns which were now housing equipment of all sorts, even some old cars. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking both that night and the next night. We had to be fly on Monday at 3:00 pm so that meant that we would have to depart Carl's place by 10:00 am which turned into 10:30 am as we just couldn't say goodbye less than 20 times.
We made it into Vancouver by noon and dropped the car off and checked in with time to spare. Now it was time to sit back and relax for the long 5 hour flight to Mexico City followed by a flight to Bogota, Colombia and then a short flight from Bogota to Guayaquil. It was a sleepless night and we sat around Bogota for 8 hours waiting on the connecting flight. Enjoyed flying with Avianca. It was tough keeping my eyes open on the bus trip to Salinas, but I did it and once we got home we stayed up until 11:00 pm before sliding into bed. We slept until 10:00 am the next day.
Once we were all settled back in, I then called my bank about wiring funds to either the US or my HIFX account in Toronto and was told by several people that the only way I could wire funds would be to go into my bank in Calgary so they could see me alive and in color. I argued and complained with at least 3 people who all told me the same thing. Shoot!
Now it was down to looking for the cheapest flights back to Calgary. After a couple of days I managed to find some flights through CheapOair from Quito to Houston to Calgary for under $1100 US. And I would fly out shortly after midnight and arrive in Calgary before noon the next day. That sounded good. The return option flew out of Calgary on Friday at 9:00 am and I would arrive in Quito at 11:30 pm. So now I just had to book a room nearby for the night. I found the Quito Airport Suites Hotel to be nearby and within my price range so booked a night with them through Priceline for my return flight. Now it was just down to booking my flights to Quito from Guayaquil. Found them on CheapOair for just over $100 US.
Now to relax for a few days and pack up what I will need for the week. I have a few items that arrived late from Amazon that I will be bringing back, so best pack light on the way there so that I have room.
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