Somewhere in the depths of my brain I knew there was full day workshop today, but any planning for it had kind of slipped my mind given two weeks of vacation and a week in the field, and the days ahead of my vacation were a bit bonkers with busy-ness and meetings.
I realized that I hadn’t done anything about transportation on Friday and took a look at the Harbour Air flights….the one I needed to be there on time was already sold out.
Dammit!
Next option, the new fast ferry…which didn’t leave Vancouver until 8:00am and didn’t arrive in Nanaimo harbour until 9:15, follow that up with a cab to the station and I’d be at least 30-40 minutes late.
I hate being late.
Option 3 was the regular ferry. On Friday there were plenty of reservations available but I didn’t make one, and I let someone know that I would probably call in from Vancouver. Except then I got two guilt trippy messages. So I went back online last night to make a reservation home only to discover that, while the 6:25am ferry still had reservations available, the earliest boat home with an available reservation was the 8:30pm.
Well crap.
And then someone reminded me about SeaAir seaplanes. To be fair, I’d also forgotten about HeliJet, but I don’t have an account with them and we aren’t permitted to purchase flight tickets on personal credit cards.
SeaAir had a seat there at 8am, and a flight back at 3:15 (too early) or 5:30 (too late, but better).
Burrard Inlet was gorgeous this morning and I loved that a cruise ship was backing into dock, the Hullo fast ferry was just coming in, and the planes were being prepared for the days flights, all as the sun was starting to blast up over the mountains.
When I landed in Nanaimo and the plane taxied to its dock in Departure Bay, the ferry I would have been on was just starting to unload. I appreciated not getting up at 4:30am to catch that boat.
I do love seeing Vancouver from above on a sunny day, it really is a jewel of a city, despite all of its flaws. These flights just never get old.
