Flying Over to the Sunshine Coast

I don't like to fly...I figure that if the Big Guy wanted me to fly, he would have given me wings. I prefer my feet on the ground.

BUT...after I left the Island, I had a choice....6 hours on two ferries, plus wait time. OR a 15 minute flight, yes really. The ferries go "out of the way". The Coast is just across the Strait. So I figured I'd put on my big girl panties and fly over.

I used to take float planes a LOT when the Gman and I were dating. He lived on the Coast and I lived on the Island. So I got used to flying in the Beaver float planes and knew all the pilots. That helps me a lot, knowing who is flying me over. For some reason, it helps me to build trust, lol.

This time, it wasn't a Beaver that came to get me, it was a little 4 seat plane, gulp!

If I have to fly on a jet, I try to take an aisle seat and then spend the entire flight staring down the aisle towards the cockpit. I pretend I am on a Greyhound bus. My alternate ploy is to stick my head in a book or magazine.

I read something once that I thought made a lot of sense....flying is like a bunch of humans being jammed into a sardine can. Then, someone picks up the can and hurtles it thru space.....yup, that about sums it up for me.

I got down to the dock a little early and took a couple of pics. These little boats look cute, I wonder if I could just ride on of those over instead.

Here's a little plane taking off, mine looked like that, only smaller. To me, they look like they are made out of balsa wood!

OK, load myself in after explaining to the pilot I don't like to fly and want to sit in the back of the plane. Aw he says, no sweat...yeah I know. The good thing is that there are no mountains to fly over, it is all water, and the plane has floats, so if something goes wrong, we can land using the floats. That's the plan.

Pilot on the left, the other passenger on the right in the co-pilot seat. We had just moved off from the dock, so they didn't have their ear muffs on yet.

We're moving out into the Channel, close to where the BC Ferries dock, at least I don't have to ride one of those again....

Biological Station on the far right of this pic....

Piper's Lagoon

Newcastle Island to the right. We spent a lot of time sailing around this Island when I was growing up....

Then we head out over the Strait, and I'm feeling pretty good. The pilot turned around to see if I was freakin out, but I gave him the thumbs up and he grinned at me.

Man, it is so beautiful out there when the Sun is shining and we're buzzing along. I think we go up about 1000 feet, I would be surprised if they fly higher than that....Here's the Coastal Mountain range....

Off to the right, using the zoom, I pick up the City of Vancouver.

The White Cliffs of Thormandby Islands....you can see these easily from my parents house.

Oh look! There's a BC Ferry way down there, one that I DON"T have to take, lol!

Ah, getting close now to the Coast. I can see Nick's Rock down there. That's not the real name, we named it after the Nman. The boys went out with the Gman and I on his boat, and we dropped Nman off on that big rock for awhile. He thought we would wait for him, hahahahaha....silly fellow! Instead we left him there for about 45 minutes, to hang out with the seals and seagulls....we sure laughed over that one! (I can be a wicked Mama)

Trail Islands, off of Sechelt.

A tugboat, pulling a log boom. He's probably headed for Vancouver with his load.

Here you can see the itty bit spit of land that holds the City of Sechelt. The water in the foreground is the Strait of Georgia, the water in the background is the Sechelt Inlet.

Ah, memories. Here's the deck outside the Pub and Airline Office. This is where the Gman and I got hitched years ago....we held the ceremony there because that is where we always used to meet, when I would fly over for the weekend. My attendants and I arrived to the ceremony by float plane (we first did a Fly-By). Man that was an awesome day....after we got hitched, the Gman and I (and all our attendants) boarded the float plane again and took off for a short flight before returning to Sechelt for our reception.

Poise Island, in the Inlet. The Gman and I used to live just to the left of the Island.

JP picked me up in her new ride! Pretty nice, eh? Styling! I had a great, but too short, visit with JP and the Eman, it was great to see them!

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