Morning broke on the right coast yesterday with diffuse golden sunrise light filtered through the high level falling snow as we headed south east into it on the 103 - a sight not often enjoyed.
The remainder of the drive to YHZ was uneventful... except, as my first and only mate reminded, for our rental Kia Rio with ON plates, pounding shocks and insufficient power under the hood to rapidly ascend 103's south-west mountain range; it had obviously been 'ridden hard and put away wet' in it's previous 40K Km lifetime... probably not a bargain...
Halifax - bright, sunny and cold... at least for Halifax. The second most important thing was the eventual loading of the baggage... we could see ours on the ramp and, for the better half, that was warm comfort - our luggage should arrive at about the same time as we do!
Ottawa - or more appropriately YOW - home of SJ and A and the city that had been our home for so many years, welcomed us with grey skies but no snow... from inside the terminal building, it really didn't matter. It was a place to sit quietly, read e-mail, enjoy a cuppa', and call SJ for an update on her life. SJ - a busy 30-something with season's tickets to the Sens (but secretly harbouring a wish for the Flames to take it all... )... still the beloved daughter but with her own life; sometimes hard to remember that...
Sun broke thru just as we scarfed a couple of slices... haute cuisine YOW style; the next leg of the journey beckoned... YVR was a six and a half hour ride - a bit longer than advertised - but that was OK... I had taken the precaution of ordering up seats with extra legroom with the attendant extra cost so I wasn't concerned.
Well... surprise! the seats with extra legroom came with a minor inconvenience - no arm rest on the bulkhead side and no ability to adjust the pitch of the seat-back. Six and a half hours of 'sit up straight' and 'you didn't really need your right arm anyway.
Through the rain clouds and onto the runway... almost on time... YVR's lights in the drizzle... and, once muscles and bones re-animate, the long walk to the luggage carrousel followed by the even longer 'stand' while bags from three earlier flights from somewhere we weren't, came tumbling down the chute.
Ah, relief - two greens and one grey appeared looking none the worse for wear.
Shuttles are great. Even greater when they arrive just as you exit the terminal. For almost 40 minutes, we enjoyed the rain and buffeting winds, huddled next to the terminal wall and watching every bus, stubby and van pull-up, take on passengers and depart into the night... finally , it was our turn. Along with several other couples and small groups, all of whom arrived at the shuttle stand just as the shuttle arrived, we toured the Richmond hotel circuit; each stop lessened the load until we were the only people left on the bus, excluding our chauffeur, of course; out of the drizzle loomed our hotel - the YVR Days Inn - and the first segment of our journey was behind us.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Maritimes behind... YVR ahead
1 comment:
Yo you Two:
It's 6:20 P.M. here as I write this note and guess what? It's snowing... a lot. My accounting class (Simply Accounting) was canceled.
I had a site to follow your air flight antics, but it's down for your flight info.
http://flightlite.com/
It's early morning there now, so if you look at this message soon, have a breakfast with NZ champagne and a kiwi :>)
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