Last of the month and travel to Victoria for our trip to Puerto Vallarta January 26 - Feb 1st

Much busier days with a year old puppy in the house. lol Within 15 minutes of arriving at our house and checking for his family who are not here, he chewed apart 4 of his fuzzy toys with fluff everywhere. I guess he's frustrated. lol

Sunday, we took a drive to Osbourne Bay to go for a walk in the sunshine, bringing Olaf. A beautiful day on the ocean. After our walk. we ate lunch at the pub before heading home.

Still freezing outside. 

Ray finished off another puzzle.

Tuesday my new expresso machine arrived. 

We're busy, keeping Olaf busy.... eventually he rests lol

Wednesday the kids flew back to Nanaimo.  We decided to deliver Olaf and make the kids dinner. I prepped the chicken and veg, put it in the cooler and we headed out at noon. Unfortunately Kristi texted me, once we were on our way and almost in Nanaimo, that they'd landed at 1:10 pm .... early. Also Amelia came down with a cold during the flight with a lot of coughing and she isn't feeling very good.

We did a pass off of the cooler in their driveway and said they could cook it lol We don't want to get sick before our flight on Sunday.

The first snowfall of the season is scheduled for Saturday, so we booked a second night in Sidney. It's near the airport, so we don't have to contend with the Malahat summit on Saturday.

Friday we left the house around 9am. The rain quit for a bit, so it's a nice drive to Victoria. Ray called up our friends Ivo and Sara Olivotti and made plans to visit them for lunch. Sara is only 2 weeks out from hip surgery, so they preferred staying home. We parked at Elk Lake for a bit to use up some time, as we were an hour early for lunch. lol

Great catch up and a delicious lunch, specially their famous scones! Thanks guys. We left shortly before 3pm to check-in at our hotel. For a "budget type" hotel, the Wyndam Day's Inn in Sidney is relatively new, clean and very friendly staff. They also include free breakfast and a 20% coupon to eat at the pub next door. BONUS!

It turns out they also have a park and fly deal with a shuttle to the airport. Including this is a few more bucks, but half the price of airport parking. As we don't get in until 8 pm or so on the 16th, we booked that night too.

Saturday, after our complimentary breakfast, we just relaxed in our room. At 11 we headed out to Jacks on the Water, which used to be the Rumrunner Pub. Boy what a transformation with their remodel. We both ordered tacos, me prawns and Ray halibut. Both were delicious.

Tonight we were supposed to go to Dianne and Steve's son's place for dinner. Unfortunately Angie texted that Rob just came down with a cold and does not feel well. Thanks for the heads up! We don't want to be sick. Instead we were back at the Dickens Pub next door.

I went to reception and they will keep our leftover wine and beer in their fridge for 2 weeks. It's supposed to get really cold here on Wednesday ... -11C (12F) Burrrr. I like this place to stay, only less than 10 minutes to the airport. At breakfast we ran into the flight crew that were going to Cancun today. They will be our crew in a month :)

I also booked our one night's day coming and going to Cancun in March. They also give a discount of $20 per night as we live on the island. Yay!

Ray managed to get a few pictures in between snow/rain showers.

Tomorrow we leave and hopefully not too much snow on the runway!