2022-05-12: From Calgary to Vancouver

It’s vacation time again! Darrell worked until noon today. At noon we headed to the Rexall pharmacy near our house and got our anitgen COVID test completed. The cruise line requires a negative COVID test in order for us to board the ship. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at home, Amanda headed to the nail salon to get her nails all pretty for the trip. While she was at the salon, Darrell worked on getting the packing finished at home.

The kids came home at 3:00pm after school. They don’t listen very well as we told them to go straight to their grandparents house after school. Oh well. They grabbed a few last minute things and we all headed to Darrell’s parent’s house. We unloaded the kid’s belongings and the dogs and provided last minute instructions to Darrell’s parents. We said goodbye to Patrick and headed back to the house to grab our suitcases. Michael realized he forgot a couple of items so he came with us back to the house followed by Darrell’s Dad. Shortly after arriving at the house, Patrick showed up. Apparently he forgot something as well.

We said goodbye to the boys again, loaded our gear into Darrell’s Dad’s car, and headed to the airport. It was about 3:30 when we left for the airport. We were hoping it would be early enough that we’d miss the rush hour traffic. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. We gave ourselves lots of time to get to the airport so it wasn’t an issue. Along the way, Darrell realized he forgot the good camera and his wireless earbuds. Not a big deal. Those are things we can live without.

We arrived at the airport around 4:00pm. We got our bag tags at the kiosk and headed to security. The security line was incredibly long. It wound through the normal security queue and down the concourse hall a good 30 or 40 feet. Good thing we came early. As we got in line, one of the staff was asking if anyone had Nexus cards. We said we did and gave us directions to another line. We headed that way when another person with a Nexus care came back from that direction and told us the lady at the front of the line said we had to wait in the regular security line. So, back in line again. The original staff member was confused and asked what was going on. When he heard we were sent back, he headed to the front to investigate. He came back a couple of minutes later and told those of us with a Nexus card to follow him. He brought us to the front of the line and into the empty Nexus queue. Within a few minutes we were through airport security. Nexus really paid for itself in this case!

We made our way to the gate and parked in a couple of chairs while we waited to board the plane. Darrell realized he also forgot his jacket and hat at home while we were sitting at the gate. He has a sweater and his rain jacked packed so should be fine. About 20 minutes to boarding we decided to grab sandwiches and a drink to bring on the plane with us. Darrell went to Tim Hortons to grab sandwiches and Amanda grabbed drinks at Jugo Juice. Tim Hortons was SLOW. It took a good 20 minutes to get through the line and there were only a few people in front of us. Amanda had time to get the drinks and still had to wait for Darrell to get through the line. By the time we got our sandwiches and returned to the gate, they were boarding the plane to Vancouver.

We boarded the plane and took our seats. We were hoping the window seat beside us would be empty as it was when we checked in, but no such luck. The plane appeared to be full. The woman sitting behind Amanda was… interesting… She somehow lost her boarding pass while getting on the plane so didn’t know where her seat was. The flight attendant had to take her oversized carryon further to the front of the plane to find a place it would fit. The passenger didn’t like that very much. She sat down and started up a rather loud conversation with the person beside and she didn’t hold back on the cursing. Then she realized she couldn’t find her phone. She asked the guy beside her to call it. She found it in the galley behind her where she was talking the flight attendant. The flight attendants had to remind her to wear her mask several times throughout the flight and she kept worrying about where her bag was.

The gentleman sitting in the window seat beside us was quite lovely. He was a tall man so his knees didn’t really fit in the seats which resulted in him encroaching on Darrell’s legroom a bit. He was connecting in Vancouver to another flight on his way to the Phillipines. He said he didn’t have any plans when he got there, he was just going to play it by ear. Not our style of travel, but it seems to work for him.

It was a short flight and we arrived in Vancouver a little over an hour later. It was raining in Vancouver of course. The other passengers took their time getting off the plane. By the time we got to the baggage claim, our bags were riding around the carousel. We picked them up and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. We booked the Best Western Plus Sands hotel at English Bay.

We got ourselves situated in the room and headed out for a walk. We walked past a display that had a bunch of statues of laughing characters on our way to English Bay. We walked along the waterfront for a bit before coming to a barge that had washed up on the shore. We turned around and headed back towards the hotel. We stopped at the gelato shop across the street and explored the area a little more while we ate our treat. We started to get cold so headed back to the hotel.

Darrell went down to the lobby to print off some last minute paperwork for the cruise that came in while we were in transit and then we watched a bit of TV in the room before calling it a night.