From Nanaimo to Calgary

Well, we made it to Calgary!  It was looking a little touch-and go for a while there :) 

Yesterday we packed up early, drove to the (tiny) Nanaimo airport, returned our rental, and headed through security. Rosie was randomly selected to be swabbed for explosives and was quite puzzled by the whole affair :) But we made it through without incident (despite an overzealous person on the xray machine) and hung out at our gate. Then things started to go sideways on us. They announced our 12:10 flight was going to be delayed due to an unforeseen mechanical problem, but couldn't initially give us a timeline. When they eventually did, it was 5pm :(  Being such a small airport, they had to fly a mechanic in to deal with the issue. We were escorted back outside of security and picked up our checked bags to settle in and wait. 

Thankfully our little travelers just rolled with it without a word of complaint (although having their devices, charging stations, and decent WiFi certainly helped them pass the time). With no airport restaurant available and several hours to kill Leslie ordered us a pizza through Door Dash and the delivery guy met her outside. 

 

Around 4pm we headed back through security, only to eventually hear at 4:59pm that our planned 5pm departure was now going to be 6:30 :(  With no meal being served on the flight and such a late arrival time in Calgary we decided to order Subway for dinner - thankfully being such a small airport the security line was negligible so it was quite simple to head back through security, meet the delivery person outside, and return. However the lady in the security line was utterly confused how I had nothing in my bin to put through the xray machine except for a cell phone, ball cap, and bag full of sandwiches :) 

Eventually we made it to Calgary after a long day, but the kids were angels throughout the entire ordeal - they are seasoned travelers now and they know it comes with the territory :) 

Today we are killing a bit of time in Calgary before getting picked up between 3-4pm at our hotel to be whisked off to spend the next 7 days hiking and camping through the mountains - I can't wait!