New Years on Salt Spring Island

Watercolor World

This post is a bit late, but I decided a post with blue sky and sunshine and beautiful scenery was an appropriate antidote for the grey skies, dark, cold, and snow that is the current reality.

My daughter was in Victoria with friends for New Year's Eve, and then caught the bus up island on the first day of the year to spend the weekend with me. On Sunday, we decided a day on Salt Spring Island would be enjoyable. So we boarded the ferry near my house and headed off just as the mist was rising over the waters.

Mist rising on Crofton harbour

We checked out the fair trade store (where I bought a nice warm hat), had a very nice lunch at the Oystercatcher overlooking the harbour, browsed through the tall, old wooden stacks in our favourite used book store, had a latte at the Saltspring Island Coffeehouse, and picked up a gift I needed for a friend on the mainland. It was a great way to spend the day. And like a dolt, I forgot to take pictures of any of those things.

My daughter lives in downtown Vancouver, so decided to take the plane from Salt Spring Island to downtown, rather than the four or five hour trip by car, ferry and bus from Crofton. We had booked the ticket by phone, and been told to just wait on the dock for the three o'clock plane - no airports, no security check, no baggage handlers, no boarding passes here! It's a beautiful area to wait.

Salt Spring harbour at Ganges

Waiting for the plane

Here it comes!

We watched the yellow and white Harbour Air seaplane come in and discharge its two passengers, then my daughter walked down to the wharf and hopped on board.

Airline travel made easy

Soon it taxied across the water, close on the tails of a boat heading out.

It passed the boat and was soon airborne.









It would make one stop at Maple Bay (back on Vancouver Island, about ten minutes from Crofton!) and then off to downtown Vancouver, where it would arrive at 3:45.

I drove the fifteen minutes back to Vesuvius Bay to catch my little ferry to Crofton. I arrived just in time to watch my daughter's flight take off for the second time, this time from Maple Bay, and fly overhead as it continued on to the mainland.



I had some time to kill (ironically, my daughter would get home before I would!), so took some photos around Vesuvius Bay.







As my ferry arrived, the sun was just setting and we sailed home on a golden sea.

A wonderful weekend to start a new year.


Note: This will likely be my last blog post until next week, as I'm off to the mainland tomorrow until Saturday, if my petsitter can get over the Malahat and I can get to the ferry. Forecasts are for a big dump of snow tomorrow - I am soooo hoping the weatherpeople are wrong.