Jaunt to Vancouver

Gabriola is close to many different places. When you crave for a bit of city life, from Nanaimo you can take the Hullo ferry to downtown Vancouver. Yesterday I met up with an old friend Susan to visit the beautiful Van Dusen gardens, where the rhododendroms were blooming. I took an early ferry to Nanaimo and walked about 20 minutes to the Hullo ferry terminal. Once in Vancouver I found a nice cafe for a breakfast of almond croissant and capuccino - Giovanni Caffe. Then I went for an Evo car share - it has been a couple of years since I did this so it took awhile to figure out how to book the car, how to open it, and how to start it. Once I did that it was smooth sailing. After enjoying the gardens of Van Dusen, we had a delicious lunch at the Shaughnessy Restaurant, which we finished by sharing tiramisu with our coffees. After returning to the gift shop to pick up the yellow dahlia plant I had set aside, I discovered my phone had died, so we had to take a cab to Susan's place. From there once my phone was charged again, it was easy to find another Evo a couple of blocks away which I took to get back to the Hullo ferry terminal. A new found friend Amy from Bowser kindly gave me a lift in Nanaimo to the Gabriola ferry terminal, and I was able to catch the 7:40 ferry home. It was a great day!