Day 5 (September 20, 2021): Farewell, Vancouver Island!

Election Day in Canada!  We have never traveled on a federal Election Day, so it feels odd to know we will arrive home at midnight tonight, having spent the entire duration of the electoral reporting coverage in the air with no access to the evolving results. 

We had such a comfortable evening at the Marriott Inner Harbour in Victoria last night. Just two blocks from the famous Fairmont Empress Hotel, it was a luxury splurge to end our mini-vacation. But instead of forking over $100 for two plates of bacon and eggs with coffee, I zipped over to Starbucks for breakfast sandwiches, pastries and lattes, which we ate in our room while enjoying our 9th floor view of Victoria!

We checked out at 10AM, made it to Victoria International at 10:30, and finally boarded our flight to Toronto at noon (the inbound flight was an hour late). The packed flight was smooth, but no food was onboarded, so there were just a few leftover items from the inbound Toronto flight available to purchase. For 160 people in the Economy Class on a five-hour flight, it was yet another example of an Air Canada flop. But hey, after a summer of Air Canada flop experiences, don’t get me started… First World problems at the end of the day. 

We ended up arriving in Toronto 1.5 hours late and our flight was already boarding when we reached the gate. Fortunately, it was the gate next door!  Here we are, in our seats and ready to leave for Halifax.  It has been a great vacation to one of Canada’s great islands. 

A special thanks to Pam for her wonderful photography, which is the backbone of all our travel blogs.  Her tireless search for the best angles and creative photo ops impresses me on every trip, and this was no exception. 

And a special thanks to you for following our journey and for your interest! Happy travels, everyone. 

A field of pumpkins on the Saanich Peninsula, enroute to the Victoria International Airport in Sidney. 

Inclusion of this photo is in no way an endorsement of the Green Party!  Rather it is simply to note that the lower part of Vancouver Island is “Green Party Central”! And we were surprised to see former leader of the Party, Elizabeth May, re-offering as the local MP. She seems to have simply fallen off the map since giving up the Party leadership role. Tonight will tell whether or not her re-election bid was successful. 

We include this simply because the topic of Canadian airport codes was one that we discussed on our way down-Island yesterday. Vancouver Island has four airports served by Air Canada, Westjet and Pacific Coastal Airlines. It seems like “a lot of airport” for a relatively small population. In any case, the codes seem completely disconnected to the name of each city served. For example, YCD for Nanaimo. And, as shown in the sign above, YYJ for Victoria. Someone… somewhere… must know how it all evolved and why the code selections were made the way they were! 🤔

One last totem photo for the trip! These are on the grounds of Victoria International.  

It’s like déjà vu! 96 hours ago, we deplaned from what was perhaps the same Boeing 737 Max 8 (fin #507) at the same gate where we boarded today. Another Boeing 737 Max 8 (fin #506) is carrying us from Toronto home to Halifax. 

Just southeast of Lethbridge, we noticed these circular crop formations. I’ve always struggled to understand them. Perhaps a watering arm stretches over a field from a central point and waters in a circular motion? It just seems to be a very inefficient use of a square section of land. The photo below is from the airplane’s map of the area, showing how prolific these crop circles are in the Lethbridge area. 



An Election Day full moon welcomed us to Toronto.