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Holiday Traversal
Dec. 22nd, 2015 10:00 amOur holiday visits are very Canadian, in that the involve repeatedly traversing enormous tracts of land and sea as though that were a reasonable thing to do with your down time.
I travel from Vancouver Island to the Sunshine Coast, a process that involves taking three busses, two ferries, and the Skytrain, not in that order, and takes between 4.5 and 7 hours. (If I am feeling flush, I can take a helicopter for the first leg of the trip, saving two to three hours, but spending the same as a plane flight.) Generally I am picked up at the final ferry terminal, although this year because of a scheduling conflict it has been suggested that I take the bus to the IGA and wait at the Tim Horton's, which lacks only a maple syrup candy cane latte and a surprise visit from Hockey Santa to make my life into a regional holiday commercial.
Then there is the "family get-together" of cousins and aunts and uncles, which is back in Vancouver just after Christmas. We all pile into the car, drive down to the ferry, take the ferry, drive into Surrey, and then come back the same night. Travel time -- two and a half hours each way, maybe?
It's perfectly possible for me to spend the holiday in transit between three distinct regions of the province. Generally no one even thinks about this, because this is how you get to see people, and, of course, lots of people travel further than that -- I think it's the frequency that seems impressive to me.
{rf}
I travel from Vancouver Island to the Sunshine Coast, a process that involves taking three busses, two ferries, and the Skytrain, not in that order, and takes between 4.5 and 7 hours. (If I am feeling flush, I can take a helicopter for the first leg of the trip, saving two to three hours, but spending the same as a plane flight.) Generally I am picked up at the final ferry terminal, although this year because of a scheduling conflict it has been suggested that I take the bus to the IGA and wait at the Tim Horton's, which lacks only a maple syrup candy cane latte and a surprise visit from Hockey Santa to make my life into a regional holiday commercial.
Then there is the "family get-together" of cousins and aunts and uncles, which is back in Vancouver just after Christmas. We all pile into the car, drive down to the ferry, take the ferry, drive into Surrey, and then come back the same night. Travel time -- two and a half hours each way, maybe?
It's perfectly possible for me to spend the holiday in transit between three distinct regions of the province. Generally no one even thinks about this, because this is how you get to see people, and, of course, lots of people travel further than that -- I think it's the frequency that seems impressive to me.
{rf}
