Category: Home

Starting Westward

Posted on by

Today is the day I rediscovered 3:30 AM. Gail tells me about it frequently, apparently she peaks at the clock. We had 3 alarms set, 2 iPhones and my regular bedside alarm clock set for 5 minutes earlier; needed only one. Once up, I attended to the most important task; getting coffee from the Tim Hortons across the street. By the time coffee was finished we grabbed the last suitcases, locked the door, took the elevator to the parking garage, loaded the luggage and began the drive to the airport. It was 4:15. 

I suppose we share the blame for selecting a 6:10 AM departure. The only other choice was an 8:00 AM departure from Toronto, the 6:10 was from Hamilton. Although the later departure looks good at first the extra hour needed at Toronto plus the longer commute equalizes everything. The 6:10 from Hamilton won! 

By the time we arrived, the place was in full operation. Check-in, with a REAL person was quick and painless. The Tim Hortons was doing a brisk business, although there was no long waiting line, so we joined the group of travellers sitting at tables with breakfast sandwiches and coffee before entering the departure lounge.

No long line to get through security either and the staff were actually smiling and seemed pleasant, perhaps even enjoyed their work. Once we passed the security check-point we waited in a lounge that was not over crowded until boarding. When boarding was called, passengers actually respected the boarding order as it was called out and, believe it or not, everyone got on board and found space for carry-ons.

Our stop in Calgary was just long enough to grab a snack or perhaps a second breakfast to be more accurate. We arrived at our departure lounge just in time to see our plane roll up to the gate. When the time came to board the aircraft all was well organized such that the doors closed and we departed just ahead of schedule.

Dave met us at Kelowna airport and before long we arrived at their home high up on the east bank of the lake. From there we have a clear view of the airport, the lake and the hills of West Kelowna.  It is here we stay until Sunday when we travel to Vancouver to join our cruise.

[quotcoll orderby=”random” limit=1]

First day of air travel, Feb 3

Posted on by

What we won’t see in Ontario ’til May

Let us begin on January 30. That was the date Gail had her second dental crown repair in preparation for our odyssey Moving forward, Friday arrived and Kevin was kind enough to transport us to the Toronto Airport Hilton for the night. Much thanks for that as it delayed our Saturday wake up time by 2 hours meaning we were able to delay our rise time untill 5 AM.

A full sized motor coach served as our shuttle from the hotel to the terminals. Amazing how many people are travelling on a Saturday morning. Even more interesting is the drop off procedure at Terminal 1. Even though your are departing, the shuttle lets you off in a desolate area of the arrivals level. If you happen to be with at least one other person who has done this before, you find your self in a very large elevator; reminded me of a freight elevator. We had the privilege of a jolly airport employee who inquired; “everyone going to the same place?” My immediate response was “I certainly hope not”. That stopped him for a moment but gradually a few announced their destination.

We arrive on the departures level at check-in bank 1, ours is 11. Fortunately the airport is not over crowded and checkin at the kiosk, luggage drop-off, NEXUS security and immigration all went uneventfully and we arrived at Gate F65 in time to have breakfast. Of course technology has taken over airport breakfast service. The iPad ordering went fine, credit card payment seemed to lock up their system for me, Gail’s worked fine. With assistance from a server/tech support person we both received breakfast, not too bad either.

We had checked two bags and had two smaller bags to carry on plus two very small bags with medical supplies and shoulder bags. The Air Canada offered to gate check our two small bags for free we said “let’s make a deal”. Boarding was easy as was reversing the procedure about six hours later. Then the miracle happened. The luggage carousel started to move and our two smaller bags emerged from the darkness below almost instantly. Only moments later or two large suitcases emerged and were claimed. This, without priority luggage consideration.

Our Cunard representative had met us at the luggage claim area and escorted us to a prepaid taxi to carry us to the Sheraton Fishermans Wharf. Apparently, everything was going far too well. As we travelled to the hotel Gail noticed another dental crown seemed too loose to trust for a three month tour. As we checked into the Sheraton, Gail starts talking to the Concierge who immediately called a dentist who actually answered the phone, on a Saturday, and was prepared to offer treatment, on a Saturday afternoon if we could get to her office in 15 minutes or so. Twenty minutes later we were at the dentist’s office. About an hour later, with the application of suitable inducement provided by our deal with Mr. VISA, we were off to start exploring the Embarcadero.

We took Taxi’s to and from the Dentist’s office which was a little less than 3 km away, up a steep hill, and down a steep hill. The two “steeps” helped persuade us to ride rather than walk. Once at the hotel walking on level ground along the sea front seemed like a good idea. After we wandered for a while we stopped for something to eat. For us it was dinner time but it was only around 3 PM local time. We found ourselves at an eatery called Castagnola’s where they had already declared it to be happy hour and they offered Dungeness crab and pasta which pleased Gail. What a way to try to forget about the dentist.

More walking, then back to the hotel. As I write this the clock indicates 6:30 PM but it feels closer to midnight. If we manage to keep the eyes open for four more hours perhaps we won’t wake up before dawn tomorrow. Here goes.

San Francisco Skyline

 

Alcatraz

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of housekeeping items:

Don’t forget to click on the text within a post. The email often contains fewer images than the full post.

I have made a number of updates to the website. Technology changes, new techniques replace old ones. During our last trip some of you attempted to add comments to a post discovered that the CAPTCHA technique I used to help avoid spammers malfunctioned. Should you add a comment to this or future posts you may notice the CAPTCHA is absent. However, the anti-spam prevention remains, it is just hiding. Hopefully this will make it easier and encourage more to add comments. I have also tried to identify potential problems and prevent them.

You may notice a couple of new features on this and some future posts. Each post will have a travel related quote at the end of my ramblings. I hope it may sometimes be inspirational. Some, probably not all, posts will end with a leaflet map identifying my exact geographical location at the time of posting. I have way points for maps today but I’m too tired to build the map. Perhaps I’ll backtrack on one of our sea days.

—30—

Almost Time

Posted on by

It has been a while since we have been traveling but we are about to begin again. We start with a Holiday Cruise to Hawaii and back. There will likely be a few short posts during the trip.

In February we set off for Australia then work our way back via Maui. There should be much more to chronicle on this journey.

So this is really just to check the website mailing list. We hope you’ll enjoy some of our posts.

Christmas & New Year Escape

Posted on by

We have remained at home since our return from Australia earlier this year but we plan to slip away for a couple of weeks and celebrate Christmas and New Years in the Caribbean. With the onset of colder weather and a bit of snow at home the warm weather is looking quite attractive.

We will be sailing on the Ocean Princess, a small ship, with about 700 others. As a result we will visit some smaller islands for the first time. While I doubt they will be substantially different from the many already visited I am willing to be convinced. Regardless of the new port experiences we will return to some familiar ports and we became familiar with this ship during our last visit to Europe and really enjoyed it.

So now we wait in anticipation for the next month!