Today started with a quick breakfast at the hotel, then headed to get gas and a decent coffee. We stopped at the Chevron, which not only had good coffee (well mine was good…sorry about yours, Mum), but also a car wash. After gassing up, getting coffees and washing the car, we were heading north towards Canada.
Before we knew it, we were approaching the border. It was very quiet and there were only a couple of cars waiting. I pulled into the first lane – then watched as the agents in the other lanes moved the cars through a bit faster. Great, I thought…I picked the lane with the agent that asks a thousand questions. (Don’t get me wrong…I’m not trying to smuggle anything across the border, or bring across more than my allowance…I just hate trying to explain the “why” of our trip to a non-foodie; although I will admit, we’ve only gone to secondary once in five years, and we passed with flying colours.)
It was finally our turn, so I pulled our car up to the booth and handed over our passports. He asked how long we’d been stateside and the purpose of our trip. I responded by saying…15 days and we that had been on a Food Network trip. To which the agent responds…I’ve always wanted to do that. Are they as good as they look on tv? How many have you been to? Etc… I told him that in the fifty or so that we’ve gone to, we’ve only disliked one. I also told him about the Food Network and TVFood apps and also the flavortown website. He wished us well and said that he hopes to be able to do a tour himself soon. I thanked him and told him to go to Portland first. Now those are the crossing I love…
We continued on towards the ferry, then decided to veer off the highway and find a Tim Hortons, as we had plenty of time to kill. We found a Timmie’s in Surrey and I got our first Timme’s coffee in two weeks. After our coffees, we were off to the ferry.
We arrived with over an hour to kill before the ferry left Tsawwassen. We were parked behind a couple from Alberta, and the husband kept offering us wine from the box in his trunk. Mum and I decided to go into the terminal and get ourselves some lunch, and I got a ridiculously good Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and Mum got yogurt and a slice of banana bread.
We went back to the car and waited to board the ferry. We were one of the first to board and were in the middle row, three back from the bow. It was great because we could stay in the car and not feel closed in. It looked to also be a cloudy, windy crossing so we weren’t too excited about going up on deck. Not long before we sailed, the husband from the Albertan vehicle, which was parked in front of us again, came up to my window and slurred out something to the effect that we should go up on deck because it’s a nice view. I politely declined and Mum and I went back to eating our lunch. After eating, I decided to go up on deck and report my concerns to a BC Ferries worker. I was told that my best recourse was to contact the RCMP in Nanaimo, as I was the one that witnessed the behaviour. I agreed, but had to wait until I got signal. I returned to the car, after brief visits to the gift shop and coffee shop. Mum informed me that a ferry employee had spoken to both the husband and wife, and she had heard him say something about drinking. By the time we were entering Nanaimo Harbour, the husband got into the passenger seat and the wife got behind the wheel. We docked and they let the first car off, waited for it to get off the ramp, let the Albertan off, waited for it to clear the ramp, then let the rest of the ferry disembark. I am not sure if they did that because of what we said, but I give them a big thumbs up for the way they handled the situation.
As we were approaching the wharf, I had used Find my iPhone to see where Francis was, and noticed that he was at the Tim Hortons already. Though, when we arrived at Tim Hortons, he was nowhere to be found. I, again, pulled up his location, just as he texted to tell me he was at the wrong Timmie’s. Mum and I went in for a pit stop and coffee and then waited for Francis to arrive. Before long, he was there – with flowers for both of us. We transferred my stuff over and took our end of trip pictures. We said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways.
We emailed each other in the evening, letting the other know that we’d made it safely home. Then I was ready for bed.
Thank you for reading and I leave you with a few picture from today.
L
