We had decided a while back that while I was on maternity leave we should go on a trip somewhere in the nice off season in June or September. We had been thinking of visiting the Maritimes for a while and since we had enough aeroplan miles to take us, we thought the timing was perfect. We booked our flights in June and put together a trip plan so that we could book our accommodation. It was very strange planning everything so much in advance, but with Rhys we really wanted to try to find places to rent with a kitchen and 1 bedroom.

Packing for travel in Canada was much easier in that we didn't need to think about currency, phrasebooks, plug adaptors etc. However it did pose a set of problems for us… since we didn’t have restrictions on what food we were allowed to bring, we ended up doing a bunch of cooking the night before. Rhys had quite the smorgasbord of pesto, cheese, garden carrots & beans, peppers, plums, cantaloupe, grapes and an omelette. We had packed apples, some cut veggies, bagels, blueberry muffins, Purdy’s chocolates and our best thought, pizza for the flight. It was quite the job getting it all together, but we were sure glad to have it all when stuck on a flight with not even pretzels or cookies offered! Also in our carry on were a few pounds of tomatoes. They were ripe at home and we just couldn’t not pack them!

As we were booking on points, our flights took us on a rather roundabout route. Our first flight left at 8:20 am and took us all the way to Victoria. Yup, a grand total of 30 minutes and that included taxiing! We flew quite low so the view was great and we enjoyed seeing all the gulf islands from above. The Victoria airport was really cute with gorgeous hanging baskets greeting us as we got off the plane. There were plenty of seating areas and we found a spot out of the way where we set up for a wait. We managed to get Rhys to have a nap and he woke up just in time to board the next plane.

Our flight to Toronto was 4.5 hours long; we had hoped to have a row to ourselves, but it was a full flight so we made do with the middle and aisle seat. Rhys had a snack, played a bit, went for a wander with Anoop and then it was time for another nap. After that he continued charming everyone around him until we landed.

Our transit time in Toronto was so short that we walked off one plane and directly on to the other. It was a huge plane going on to London afterwards, and also full. This time it was 2-3-2 seating so we had the space to ourselves which was great. After a catnap, Rhys had dinner and then we were making our descent! The time went by really quickly between naps, eating, changing planes and entertaining Rhys! He was an amazing traveller and everyone around us said how he was a happy chap!

The Halifax airport is about 30 minutes out of town so after stuffing in all of our luggage, we caught a cab to our place. We got Rhys set up in the bedroom and off to sleep; afterwards we had a quick bite and got ready ourselves. Because we are 4 hours ahead, I had a hard time nodding off but Anoop had no such problems!