Adventures in Canada

We have kind of been out of communications for a while because we went to Canada for a few weeks and did not have good access to the internet. Our phones could not be used because data access was too expensive and it seemed that every campground we went to had terrible internet access. So, enough excuses.

From Seattle we went north, across the border and to Vancouver, BC. Our campground was pretty nice, but the spaces were a bit cramped and the internet was only available in their lounge which closed at 11:00 PM. But we had a great time visiting in Vancouver. We were there for 6 days.

• Day 1: We went into the downtown area, and got on the Big Bus. This took us on a tour of the city and we could jump off and back on at any stop. When it got to Granville Island, we got off and explored. We got back on a couple of hours later and rode it back to the starting point.
• Day 2: We took the tramway to the top of Grouse Mountain, a local ski hill, where we could see all of Vancouver. It was quite a view too. There were also some entertainment things going on up there and we made a day of it.
• Day 3: We went to Stanley Park, a huge, tree-covered park at one end of Vancouver. It has many gardens, an aquarium, and other attractions. After that, we went down to the beach and got some take out and sat in our chairs for about an hour.
• Day 4: We went back to Granville Island to do some shopping at the market. We also rode our bikes around False Creek and then took the water taxi back to Granville.
• Day 5: It was a rare, cool, rainy day and we went to the Capilano River Facility where they have salmon ladders and a salmon hatchery. We had a great day just watching the fish. When it cleared up, we went to a dam and a lighthouse.
• Day 6: We met up with our friend Dave Cole's sister, Cyndia and her companion, Angie, and they took us on a tour of Richmond. We had a great dinner with them and then ice cream. It was a nice round-out to our stay.

We left Vancouver on a ferry boat and landed at Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island. We stayed over night at a campground near there and then headed across the island. We stopped half way at Port Alberni, which is at the end of a long inlet from the Pacific Ocean where a lot of shipping is done. There we learned about the big tsunami which hit there in the 1950's.

Then we went to Ucluelet on the Pacific coast and its sister city, Tofino. We spent 3 days there and enjoyed strolling their shops, eating at their restaurants and a boat ride up the coast to the hot springs, where we dipped between the springs and the sea.

Then we headed back across the island and down to Victoria on the southern tip. This is the capital on British Columbia. We spent most of our time there in the harbor area, where there was a market, entertainment, food, and the Royal BC Museum, which had some fascinating displays on their First Nation people and an Imax movie about Amazing Caves. We also went back there the last evening to hear a group singing sons of the lumber jacks (and I am not referring to Monty Python either).

Finally, we got onto another ferry in Victoria and landed in Port Angeles on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula, our return to US soil and our beloved internet access.