Sleepless in Nanaimo

After all of the planning and goodbyes, we are finally here on Vancouver Island. Thankfully, Canadian Immigration saw fit to let me back into the country! Arrived last Thursday (14th July) to a grey rainy day, followed by another grey rainy day. That was fine by us as we struggled to get over the fatigue of the past few months.



Our plane...

Are we there yet?

Almost!

Finally off the plane...we are here...

in Nanaimo, the harbour city.

Despite the jet lag, on Friday we were up and about and by the end of the day had bought ourselves a lovely new vehicle - a Honda. Special feature...heated seats in anticipation of some cold days ahead. We also finally have a GPS system whom we have affectionately called Zelda and we have enjoyed getting to know her.

It didn't take us long to make our first trip to "Timmy's"! Tim Horton's is a Canadian institution (their claim to fame is coffee & doughnuts/muffins but they also have great soup & sandwich lunches at very reasonable prices). Now it feels as though we are in Canada.

Last weekend was spent driving the streets of Nanaimo's neighbourhoods and looking at houses. We have met and are working with a lovely real estate agent named Braden who is VERY young. He says his clients often call him Uncle Braden - I assured him that would not work for us. We are getting a handle on the layout of this very beautiful city - far lovelier than we expected as when we were here last year for a brief visit, we didn't really see a lot beyond downtown and the main highway. Everywhere you drive, there are views of the water - because the island is so close to the mainland, you can see it in the background with smaller islands in between - very pretty.

One thing which has been interesting about Nanaimo is the number of deer we see in the suburbs - blithely munching on anyone's plants which take their fancy. We have seen whole families of them enjoying the smorgasbord of delights which are readily available.

We are off this afternoon for some more house hunting with "Uncle Braden". We've seen some possible contenders but want to take our time making a decision. There are homes with fabulous views which would be nice but the house has to work as well. This morning will be spent doing some more of the paperwork necessary to get our lives organised here. All in all, we are feeling pretty good about things so far. People here have been very helpful and pleasant.

Our temporary "home"