Seaplane to Vancouver Island

We drove to Kenmore, WA to the Kenmore Air hangar on Lake Washington for a lil seaplane flight.

They wanted us to get there an hour early so we had a lot of time to kill.

We had a little chat with the pilot before leaving.

I liked the little luggage holding net in the back.

I was struck by how low we seemed to be the whole time.

I was surprised how smooth the landings were. I guess if it had been windy or something maybe the waves would make landing unpleasant, but this was smoother than landing on.. land. We stopped on Lake Union before heading on to our final destination.

I guess this was to scare birds off the dock?

It as also fun that we were so low and slow that you could still use your phone normally.

We landed at Victoria, British Columbia, which sits on the tip of Vancouver Island in Canada.

"Named for Queen Victoria, the city is one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest, with British settlement beginning in 1843." The city is also the capital of British Columbia.

There were baked goods

We were very impressed with the selection of chocolate oranges at the drug store near the hotel.

I was initially attracted to going to Victoria in the first place because I heard they had good Christmas lights and events. I heard right. 

For dinner we went to Papa's Poutinerie.

I've had poutine a few times now in Canada and I think I just don't like it very much. In my head it's similar to the horseshoe of Springfield, IL fame as it has similar ingredients BUT... it's just not. For one thing... it needs some meat. Is this supposed to be a meal? I feel like the gravy is also always too salty. Disappointing.

I think this is a pretty nice place. The architecture is classic and fun and the lights were beautiful.

Seaplane Practice

We have a seaplane flight booked tomorrow so Ernie showed me how he expected the flight plan to unfold.

Garden d’Lights

Today we explored Garden d'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden.

"Garden d’Lights is a dazzling holiday tradition that transforms the Bellevue Botanical Garden into a magical wonderland of over half a million sparkling lights in whimsical shapes of plants, flowers, birds, animals, and cascading waterfalls, all set amid the Garden’s natural beauty. This beloved family event continues to enchant visitors with festive charm and imaginative displays."

I especially like how many lights look like fruits and vegetables.

Goodbye St. Louis

Our midwestern time was coming to an end. We cleaned up the Airbnb from all of our partying.

Fitz's root beer is a taste that I miss from the old country.

Uncle Austin made an appearance.

Lambert Airport is classic building. I understood on some level that St. Louis has a lot of special architecture but on a different level I think it's one of those things you don't fully appreciate until you're gone. Seattle doesn't have near the level of cool old buildings as St. Louis.

Ern helped Alaska Airlines decorate their plane.

I saw this cool pop up shop in Seattle's airport on social media so I was excited when we walked past it on the way to baggage claim. They had a lot of cool stuff from other countries. I was tempted but managed to pull myself away without any additional junk in my bag.

I was happy to go on Thanksgiving break as a diversion from work but it sometimes feels like I’m just trading one type of work for another. Packing, unpacking, dealing with the cold and snow in Missouri, driving for hours, carrying things to and fro, and navigating both myself and Ernie through numerous social interactions.

Ern enjoyed seeing the families so it’s hard to say the trip wasn’t a success despite the hardships and travel expenses. He even started learning some of their names that he hadn’t done before. Evan’s “granddad” has amusingly become “anddad”.

Life in the Midwest struck me as sort of coarse this time around. WA doesn’t have many billboards and STL is covered in them. There were a lot of giant ads for injury lawyers there as well as on the radio. One radio station had one permanently showing on the car’s info screen. Our grocery store in Kirkland is a magical place that features a wood fired pizza oven. In St. Louis the grocery store we went to in maplewood had an armed security guard and both of the lottery vending machines had lucky patrons.

There was a blue eyed woman giving out beer samples that made me feel philosophical for some reason. If you looked at our dna or our upbringing there might not be much difference. Somewhere along the line though I’ve turned into a person that lives one town over from Microsoft’s headquarters and who flies from Seattle to New York for the weekend to see one particular immersive theatre production that was about to close. I wondered if the woman thought we were still compatriots or could tell I was trying to pretend to be what I once was.

The difference in weather alone made me feel like I couldn’t cut it here anymore. It’s been really cold and snowy in St. Louis and my hands have felt very dry. Living in the PNW rainforest I had forgotten how uncomfortable feeling dry was.

Even after a few years of being gone I still get the “are you planning on coming back?” questions regularly. The answer is no. Not only do I not want to do that but I think it would be mean to Ernie. Especially during the current political climate I think moving to a red state would be very unpleasant.