On Saturday I headed out to Tsawwassen ferry terminal to catch a lift over to Vancouver Island. Immediately upon walking up the terminal ramp to the berth I got chills from the view. Across the water, below a clear blue sky I saw 
the familiar horizon outline of the west coast gulf islands in the distance. It felt good to be back as I boarded the ferry. I spent a good amount of time wandering the ship and then after passing through active pass and too many photos taken, I headed for another much missed aspect of the west coast ...BC Ferry french fries! But much to my horror, the old curled spiced fries that I used to order with every crossing have been replace by White Spot french fries!!! ...sacrilege!!! However, I still managed to get through an order.
Once across I was met at Swartz Bat by Angus and his now three year old son Taiyo. We had a long car ride home as we had to stop off to watch airplanes, helicopters and some guys on go-karts at the end of the Victoria International Airport runway. Angus is a waterbomber pilot and Taiyo definitely shares his dad’s interest in planes. To the point that Angus had seen enough and was ready to go, while Taiyo probably would have setup a tent to live and watch planes round the clock ....really what more entertainment do you need at three than planes taking off and landing.
A special treat was dinner on Saturday night. Kumiko had prepared an unbelievable Japanese feast for the four of us and a couple of their friends; Mayumi, a former ELS student that had stayed with them for a 6 month period when she first came to Canada, and Ken, a commercial tuna fisherman from Victoria. It was an excellent meal with great people and great conversation. After a bit of chocolate cake and ice cream we were treated to our own personal piano concert. Mayumi is a very accomplished pianist and it was very relaxing to sit back in the living room and listen to her twinkle the ivories through some Chopin and a few others (that I did not recognize, but certainly enjoyed)
This morning after a morning tea around the Forsyth kitchen table we all parted ways and I headed out for a run. I hit up a bunch of my old haunts around Victoria, starting with a run up to the summit of Mount Doug, which unfortunately was found fogged in by low lying cloud.
The last time I was up there was back in September 2007, down on one knee proposing to Elena. ...wow, how SO MUCH has happened since that day; you can never predict what direction life’s going to take around the next corner!
After my long run which also included a visit to see the new construction at the UVic campus, I hooked up with my former MSc partner in crime, Laurie and her husband (Ian) and their two year old son (Logan). Laurie always makes me laugh and she and Ian are doing an amazing job with raising Logan. I only hope that someday I can be half as good a parent as these two are. For our visit we hit up the pet food store in the new Tuscany Village at MacKenzie and Shelburne (yeah, I felt just like I was in Italy! ...including the Starbucks and Blockbuster for that authentic Italian flavor) for some duck 
food and then Starbucks in hand we walked to the duck pond at the end of Feltham. What an incredibly cool place to take a kid! I had no idea this little pond existed and have criss-crossed the trail network in that area many times ...including during my morning run! We had fun with the ducks and then continued our stroll through Gordon Head area, before I headed off back to the Forsyth’s.Kumiko was kind enough to feed me another excellent meal and Angus schelpt me out to Swartz Bay. Currently, I’m sitting on the ferry enroute back to the mainland. Although it was only a short 24hrs I spent on the island, it felt like a multi day vacation. I look forward to future weekends of popping over to the island for visits, runs and cycling. Infact it will only be another couple of weeks before I cross the Strait again, however, that trip will be limited to the retrieval of my stuff from the storage unit I’ve held for almost three years.
469 days to go...
C.
