When I went to bed last night, there were still a handful of seats on the float plane bound for Seattle that I had listed us on. I called in the morning to follow up, when Julie from Kenmore Air dropped a rather unsavory piece of information. She only saw one seat. We ate our breakfast vigorously as we pondered other options. “Would you like me to take away that cinnamon roll?,” asked the Inn’s server. “Still working on it,” replied Nicole. I looked up other flight loads, but nothing looked good. “Finished with that cinnamon roll?,” interrupted the server. “Nope.” It didn’t help that flights were being throttled down across the United States thanks to the ongoing government shutdown. It also didn’t help Nicole’s stress that the server at the Inn asked five times to take away her cinnamon roll when she wasn’t finished with it.
The best plan we could think of was try the floatplane anyway and spend another night if it came to it. Naturally, this option wasn’t great because I am supposed to work tomorrow. To kill some time, we drove and walked a bit around nearby Beacon Hill park. We saw peacocks and an infinite number of cyclists, pedestrians, and other people enjoying the fleeting glimpse of the sun.
We soon had to both check out of the Inn and also return the rental car. When I was about 1 km from the National car rental site, the gas gauge dipped down a notch. Ugh. I altered course and went to a Shell station to top off. After 10 minutes, and three different credit cards, we gave up. Chase was not keen on me getting gas there. I went to an Esso, which Chase did not find fault with and we turned back toward National in downtown.
It was now almost 1pm, and the floatplane was scheduled for 215pm. We approached the desk and the worker in Victoria stated that she saw two seats. Apparently one was blocked off for weight-and-balance. After a bit of back-and-forth with my new friend Julie at the main office in Seattle and weighing our bags, we were given the green light. Kenmore restricts each passenger to 25 lbs of bags total (including backpacks, purses, etc.) This is actually not an easy feat considering an empty suitcase weighs nearly 10 lbs. I ended up swapping out my crew bag for my lighter ebag that I hadn’t used in years prior to commencing this trip. Many sacrifices had to be made. My camera and lenses alone weighed almost 10 lbs, and that was with my minimal kit.
Anyway, it wasn’t long before we began boarding the DHC-3 Turbo Otter bound for Lake Union just north of downtown Seattle. It was roughly a 45 minute crossing at low altitude — taking in views of the fall foliage on the San Juan islands. We also caught a glimpse of the Space Needle just before landing, but it was directly into the sun and hard to capture properly. Being an international flight, a one-man customs office was operating on site. It basically entailed a glance at our passports and we were on our way. . .almost as fast as Global Entry.
We then took a Lyft to SeaTac airport. It was about 35 minutes and cost more than the float plane, but that’s the life of the standby traveler for you. I’m glad we were able to at least have the floatplane experience for one of the legs. It wasn’t our first floatplane flight, but it was the first time using a standby listing for one, so a unique way to get from point A to B (and more scenic). It was a bit tight for getting from Lake Union to SeaTac in time for a 4:30 pm flight to Los Angeles on Alaska. A day ago, this flight looked golden, but on the ride to the airport, revenue standbys and others kept pushing us further down the standby list.
Fortunately, we sniped the last two seats on the entire plane. We were naturally not sitting next to each other. I would much have preferred Nicole’s presence over the 4 year old “lap child” that kept having leg spasms in his sleep and kicking my leg and iPad. We touched down in LAX a couple hours later. Los Angeles at 66 degrees felt like arriving in the tropics. And without checking the forecast, I can just assume it will be sunny tomorrow whereas Victoria or Seattle will just prepare for drizzle and overcast.
I enjoyed getting hygge in Canada in front of the fireplace with a tea (and Nicole), but as a long term way of life, I would never survive. I need sun, warmth, and a donut shop on every corner. Tim Horton’s, as true donut aficionados know, is rubbish. Alas, with the holidays upon us, I must work. But with a government shutdown continuing on and on, maybe I won’t be working as much as I thought. Nevertheless, you’ll have to hit that “random post” button on the page and enjoy my past adventures until we can deliver some new material in the new year. See you in 2026, eh?
passports & pepto bismol 