There are compensations to a stopover at YVR.

[electricland]

For example: This is what I am looking at RIGHT NOW.



(They also have free wifi, as perhaps you have surmised.)

I'm on my way home after a fantastic week on Salt Spring Island, of which it is very possible you have never heard. My parents have been house-sitting there every year for the past 5 years, and have been urging me to join them for nearly as long -- so this year I finally did. Definitely glad. The house they sit is perched precariously over the waterfront on Scott Point Drive, with an incredible view west. Here was the view this morning:



It's occupied by three dogs (of the small white mop variety) and a cat, and contains about a hundred paintings. (Also white carpets and a white couch and chairs, which seems rash to me, but there it is.)

Salt Spring Island itself is occupied by about 12,000 people, many sheep and birds, innumerable artists' studios, and some very nice restaurants. As is usual for me while on vacation I went a bit nuts for the bird life ("what is that?!"). Less usually, I actually kept a list. Plenty of sure-we-get-those-in-Ontario-too birds like robins, gulls, crows, Canada geese, but also lots of exotic-to-me species like juncos, house finches, a spotted towhee, harlequin ducks (they are spectacular), oystercatchers, eagles, a guillemot, red-breasted mergansers, etc. I think I might have to get a bird feeder -- they are so cool to watch.

To get to Salt Spring you have to take a ferry (well, or a seaplane, or you could sail in, but most of us mortals use the ferry). There are actually 3 ferry terminals, none of them in the main city town village, Ganges, which is confusing as all hell until you figure out the system. (BC Ferries' website is not the most intuitive ever.) I flew to Victoria and took the ferry (in this case, the Skeena Queen) to Fulford Harbour, where there is a restaurant called the Rock Salt Cafe with the following sign on all the tables:


Fulford Harbour is adorable and picturesque as you might expect (here's the post office):



And this morning I did the same thing in reverse. The ferry times worked out awkwardly with the flight times to Vancouver (on the cutest little Dash-8 ever) so I have been sitting around a fair bit. Suspect they are about to call my flight now though.

Comments

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Lovely light in that second wonderful shot, great to see the photos. And to know the importance of not panicking. ;)

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Thank you! More to come, possibly, maybe next week after I finish The Fiscal Year End That Will Kill Me and The Conference That Will Stomp On My Twitching Corpse.

...possibly I should get to bed before the optimism kills me early. ;)

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Ack, sounds like it's going to be an interesting few weeks, be safe out there. *hugs*

[mrs-cake.livejournal.com]

Oh man, your country. YOUR COUNTRY. *sigh*

[electricland.livejournal.com]

That part of it is very pretty!