Vancouver Island

YESTERDAY:

• head to work
  • got a bunch of things finished in the morning
• bento box for lunch!
• one nap
• head back early
• finish packing
  • forgot to switch my shoes
  • also left my kindle behind q.q
• Dad took us to the airport
  • Flair requires us to show up like 3 hours early
  • but flight was delayed by 1 hour
• found a cool exhibit on afro-futurism in the airport
  • with an artist from Pittsburgh!
• flight was pretty smooth
  • switched seats with lady so she could sit with her daughter
• got picked up by Jackie’s family
  • late night noodle soup at one house
• took Jackie’s dad’s SUV to his house
  • some trickiness with the gate remote not working

TODAY:

• woke up early around 7 am
• head to pick up Jackie’s family members
  • head to Vancouver island!
  • got to ferry terminal on time, about 50 mins before departure
  • crazy seeing 300 cars drive onto a ferry
  • very packed inside
  • food line took forever
  • Jackie had to babysit her cousins kids while they watched Paw Patrol
• head to Butchart garden
  • beautiful flowers and nature park
  • lunch was a bit pricy
  • one of the kids tripped while running around and scraped her knee
  • picked up a free 2x2 rubik’s cube at the first aid station
  • nice way to re-use items from lost-and-found
• drove down to downtown Victoria
• head to Beacon Hill Farm
  • peacocks and waterfowl everywhere!
  • also a petting zoo
  • huge turkey and chickens
  • you can also pet baby goats, alpacas, and some pigs
• caught up with Peter Kriss and his wife Amelia
• drop by the pier
  • had some excellent fish and chips at Barb’s
  • they also honored a free birthday meal!
• drove back to the ferry
• idled the car while on the ferry for a bit
  • car battery actually died!
  • after a bit of debugging, turns out the hybrid battery was depleted
  • confusing though since a/c and infotainment were all working
• ferry technician jumped the car for us
• drove back safely to drop off Mel and the kids
• got back to Jackie’s dad place without issue

LEARNINGS:

• you can’t idle a Lexus NX350h (hybrid SUV) for more than 15 minutes or the battery may die …