Travelling 2 RICE

So how did we get out of Sombe 'ke? Departure day was 1/1/11. It seemed an apt day to start an adventure. Alex, Chloe, Maia and I left by car Saturday morning. Ava flew out with her Granny and spent several days in Lund, BC making a pottery rendition of the Beatles (was there ever a question?). Thank fully the drive was uneventful (only one minor ding to the windshield), the ice road was in great shape and we stayed in Peace River, 1004 km from home that night.

Sunday dismissed all of my worst fears about the drive. I mean really, it's winter, it's Canada and it's mountains. Anything was possible. But amazingly the roads were bare from Peace River, Alberta to the Tsawassen Ferry Terminal outside of Vancouver. We slept on Saltspring Island on day 2 of the drive! Around Jasper we called a friend on Saltspring Island who told us that there was a 9:35 pm direct ferry. When we gained an hour coming into BC we calculated that we might, just might have exactly enough time. We made it to the ferry 6 minutes before the cut off for ticket sales! The first thing I did when we rolled into the line up was to call and thank two very dear ladies who, during our tearful goodbye Saturday morning, offered prayers to keep us safe on our journey! No easy feat as we'd covered some 1500 km that day.

But really, there's no pleasing everyone; Maia kept asking “are we in Bali yet” and was very put out that we went to the ferry instead of the airport. In fact, every airport we passed through Alberta she asked if that's where the plane to Bali is. When she eventually understood that it would be several days to get to Bali, she demanded to go home.

The concentrated drive meant we could avoid holiday traffic and enjoy a few days on Saltspring Island. It's a special place for all of us because Alex spent a significant portion of his childhood living there, we met and married there and we have great friends and family that still live there. The girls were adored by grandparents for three days, we visited friends, and had some beautiful hikes.

So now we're buzzing toward Hong Kong high over China. Ava pointed out a while ago that we crossed the international Date Line. Chloe asked the flight attendant how long until we land and looked like a deer in headlights when she was told 6 more hours.

The past few days all of us have had moments of being quite edgy (ok, downright cranky, if I'm to be frank). There have been some wrap up stresses and a duanting “to do” list. The list included getting our Indonesian Visas, dealing with Revenue Canada matters, banking, getting International Driver's licenses, getting new glasses (I can finally see!). But it's all behind us now. Maia is sleeping peacefully next to me, Chloe is watching her upteenth movie, Ava is talking to Nana and Alex is in the zone courtesy of Bose noise-cancelling technology. So while we already feel like we're missing out on the fun back home (hanging out with a member of the royal family and such), I'm also pinching myself that this is a moment in my life where a dream is truly coming true; I'm travelling with my family to an exotic place for a specific and purposeful reason. Thanks be!