The Sea Plane

Our trip to Canada was so "calming" to be with Dan away from home for a few days. He had a lot of work going on so had to be on the phone a lot. And I had to work on my homework a couple of evenings. But when we were done, we were done. No landscapers to talk to or decisions to be made. No church responsibilities. We were on our own time schedule. We slept in and stayed up late. And the days were filled with beautiful places. And of course great food. I even think my appetite is coming back!

In order to make the timing work to stay in Victoria until Thursday, we took a seaplane early Thursday morning from Victoria to Seattle. Then flew home from there. (Travel Hack: The seaplane dock had their own customs guy. We were the only people in line so it only took 2 minutes.)

The best thing about the flight is how dang excited Dan was. Instead of waiting in chairs in the waiting room like everyone else, he stood at the door to watch the plane arrive. When the gate agents were scanning our passports and checking for our flight arrival, he corrected them..."No, we're on a Cessna 180. Its here. Its already landed. Right there. See?"

He loved flying in the front with the pilot. And as we flew over the beautiful Northwest, he was very excited to turn around and point out to me other planes that were also flying by in the sky. (Think of our BMW factory tour in Germany where everything was amazing. Dan: "Look how cool! They have cars on all 3 levels of the building!" Courtney whispers to me sarcastically, "Yep. Like a parking garage.")

Seriously he was so excited. He said it was just like the old days how they flew with his dad. (But in a Cessna 210.) And except that we landed in water. So this was more like an extension of our trip -- a fun excursion and experience that also served a purpose!

On the flight home from Seattle we could see 5 different volcanos in the chain. Mt. Rainier on the other side of the plane, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood and another one in the distance. It was quite spectacular! In addition we sat next to a chatty guy who was just arriving home from 1 month working in China where it sounds like no one except his translator spoke English. He talked the whole time, showed us pictures of various meals, pictures of his ranch in Montana, and took the Chinese tea set they gave him as a gift out of its box to show us. Dan was dying. But we kept up the friendly conversation deciding that he was probably just so excited to talk to people in English, he couldn't help himself!!

One of the volcanos in the chain...

When we landed we drove straight to Provo to pick up Nick and Ryan from lacrosse camp.