Two Kinds of H2O

Yesterday we drove to Regina as we heard reports of freezing rain (see first photo).  Luckily the roads weren't too bad and we were able to get a room overnight.  Another person at the hotel drove in from Saskatoon and saw more than thirty vehicles in the ditches.  Most of the bad weather stayed to the north.

Our flights this morning were both on time and they brought us to this more wonderful kind of H2O  (see second photo).

photo 1:

photo 2:

We'll be on Vancouver for 10 days using some of that time to hang out with our favorite daughter Elizabeth who is stage managing Chemainus's Christmas Production "Elf."  We're looking forward to the opening tomorrow night.

We spent a bit of time with Elizabeth until she headed off to work and then we headed up to Nanaimo to visit Protection Island.  It's a short ferry ride from Nanaimo and its claim to fame is the Dinghy  Dock Pub which is Canada's only floating pub.

The company, the view, and the food were most excellent.

My food was salmon fettuccine with mussels, shrimp, and cod.

We walked way more of the island than we intended because we took a few wrong turns.  The island is home to around 300 people and all the homes are very different from each other.  I loved some of the gates and entries:

Lots of the homes have benches and chairs in front of them and we loved this one which was somehow carved from rock.

A few homes on the island are for sale but they seem to be out of our price range.  Then we spotted this and thought we could buy it without incurring too much debt.

We walked a lot but the walking was comfortable because the ground was damp and coated in pine needles.

I'm here to be near the water (the unfrozen kind) ... I must be a changling whose original parents were lighthouse keepers.

I should mention a last type of H2O.  Nanaimo had a bad storm earlier this week so they are under a "boil water" advisory.  I hope it doesn't last long.

You'll read more about our BC adventures here in the next few days.

Cheers!