A Serious Shopping Run and a British Wedding

February 26 - March 26, 2022

Our time in Victoria was very busy.  Since we didn't have internet at home in Ocean Falls we had been unable to do any research into certain materials that we needed for our house.  We spent more than a day with both of us nose deep into our laptops going through our lists, researching different brands, and figuring out where to get certain items.  Finally, with a long list in hand, we headed out shopping.  Our goal was to get as much of our shopping done in advance, so that it would only be our big grocery stock-up that would be needed right before heading back home.  A pile of stuff began to form on my parents' living room floor, and as the week went on the pile grew and grew, as our list of items got shorter and shorter.  

On March 10th Jason and I flew to London with my parents to attend my brother’s wedding.  It was a very busy trip with many planned pre-wedding events, an opportunity to meet some wonderful people, to eat a lot of very good food, and to spend some time with my third cousins. 

 

Tea at the Lanesborough Hotel

Some of the planned events included seeing a live production of "The Mouse Trap", going to the Greenwich naval museum, and enjoying High Tea with all of the female family members of the bride, Ashley Pearson. 

Rhubarb tea

 

Jason and I also had time to do some exploring of London on our own, and we walked along the banks of the Thames to the Thames Barrier Park. 

The barrier is a set of retractable structures that cross the Thames River, and are designed to close off the extreme high tides and storm surges in order to prevent London from flooding.  

My Brother’s wedding was held at Hotel Endsleigh in the British countryside, and with the wedding being a weekend event, Jason and I had the opportunity to take some time to wander on the 100 acre property.

 

The Hotel itself was unique and enchanting, and the wedding was beautiful. 

It was a very special trip.   

 

We arrived back into Canada on March 22nd, with only three days to finish getting everything that we wanted to bring back to Ocean Falls all organized and packed into our truck, and then to head back up island for the ferry.  

My Mom and I went on a big grocery-shopping run to Costco, Walmart, and Superstore, and then Jason and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening cutting up, dividing up, and packaging into meal-sized portions, all of the meat that I had purchased.  Since we can only order from Save-On-Foods when we are up in Ocean Falls, and since we pay an additional 55 cents per pound for freight on shelf or refrigerated items, and 65 cents per pound on frozen items, it was far less expensive to be able to buy groceries from places like Costco, and to bring it up to Ocean Falls ourselves.  We froze what worked out to be 60 meals worth of meat, and once it was solidly frozen we boxed it up just before leaving Victoria, and thankfully it was still fully frozen when we arrived in Ocean Falls more than 28 hours later.   

Our trip home was a long one.  We left my parents' place in Victoria at 09:30 on Saturday, March 26th.  We had some stops to make along the way and our ferry was scheduled to depart at 20:00.  At 20:00 the ferry had not even begun the loading process and we were told that we would be delayed by a couple of hours.  This announcement happened a couple of times and we did not end up leaving Port Hardy until 00:30 on Sunday morning.  It was Sunday afternoon by the time we arrived home in Ocean Falls, and then we had to unload our entire truck.  Load after load we brought down our 24 steps, and by the time our truck was unloaded we were exhausted, but we were also eager to get our living room finished with the ceiling paint that we had with us.  Then we would be able to begin work on our kitchen.