So we decided that a trip to Vancouver Island would be a good thing to do before summer ends (apparently on Aug 27th this year).
Already the leaves are turning in Calgary and I'm sensing that certain "fall" feeling in the air even at this early date.
We'll be on the island for four nights and then on the mainland for four.
First two nights in Victoria then a couple in Tofino where I will try to catch a whale.
We flew WestJet this time. If you sit in the first three rows - and pay a bunch more - they give you a free drink. Whhhoooppeeeeeee!
Here's us taking off from Calgary. You can see the new addition to the terminal and the brand new runway.
A shot of the terminal. The new runway at the top and the new terminal buildings just above and to the right of centre. It's going to be a pretty big airport when the new buildings open.
Flying over the rockies. These pics won't look very good on a small screen. Zoom in on 'em.
Over Vancouver.
A couple shots of arriving over Vancouver Island.
Here's a shot from our room looking toward the marina. I believe that is the ferry to Seattle.
Our hotel. Terri got us another good one.
And of course our first beers. And only about $5.00 (3.50 €) ....it's good to be back in Canada!!!
So we did the Hop On Hop Off bus thing and got these shots:
The Empress Hotel
And British Columbia's Parliament Building..for those of you who don't know (and I was one of you until a minute ago) Victoria is the capital of BC and therefore home to its parliament.
This pic doesn't look like much but if you look close (zoom in) it says "Mile 0" - it is the actual starting point of the Trans Canada Highway. Cool eh?? Wouldn't it be cool to start here and drive right across Canada to the final mile? I guess the part across Saskatchewan wouldn't be that cool though. Trust me...been there - done that.
The bus driver insisted we visit this church which, I guess, is something to see - according to him. After all the churches we saw recently in France we weren't that fussy but didn't want to hurt the guy's feeling. After all he did let us ride for free.
A sufficiently sized pipe organ.
And nice stained glass.
The two retardess. We seem to love these red bus trips and this one was particularly good because the driver actually narrated the trip - versus a recorded version with stupid music, as is the norm, and as stated before - he let us ride for free!!! Saved us $66.00...gotta love it. I gave him a $20 tip mind you.
Back at the room we watch a ferry leave for Seattle.
And the water taxis
A couple of shots of the harbour at night.
Day 2 - August 7
A view across the water at the Shoal Point condo complex. There's one for sale there for 2 million.
Here's another closer shot of it. The 2 million one is at the top just to the right of centre.
We visited Fisherman's Wharf and saw these houseboats here people actually live in. Can't imagine what that must be like. Hauling out the honey bucket each morning. Yikes!!!
A beach in Saanich. No topless.
This is a shot just outside our hotel. The geese are running wild here. Actually they are very tame. And the place is covered with goose $hit. They need to hire a cougar or a coyote.
We came across this...not sure what it is actually..someone's idea of art I guess...on the beach walk
A HUGE ocean liner across the way. The Celebrity Solstice.
This is a shot of the state of Washington across the water. Looks cold eh?
All day long these small planes come and go. They're essentiall air taxis. What's neat is the sharp angle they come in at
Tonight we had supper in a place called the White Swan. It was a rat trap but it was still OK. Got this shot of a tourist carriage. You can see that it wasn't shorts and tee shirt weather.
BEDTIME
Day 3 - August 8
We're in Tofino for a couple days.
Nice little town. They even have beer here.
Terri got is a place right on the beach. A shot from the balcony. Our resort is on Cox Bay a popular beach for surfers.
The bedroom.
A shot of the exterior. The only downside is that all the trees make it shady.
Some surfers. Apparently this is a popular surfing destination. They all have to wear wet-suits because the water is freaking cold. Maybe somebody should tell these guys about Hawaii
Parts of the beach are covered with these things, some kind of jelly fish maybe? These ones appear to be still alive and I assume they are left behind when the tide goes out. There are many dead ones too.
You can see hundreds of them in the shot below.
This is a shot at the end of our beach looking back to the resort.
So it seems to be low tide during the day here and when we reached the end of the beach we saw all these neat critters.
The two shots above were actually of critters still under the water. They were in little pools that were left as the tide went out.
This bunch are out of the water though
Some sort of star fish?
I think these two were just about to consumate their marriage when the tide went out - bad timing bud!
And this looks like some sort of a sea food orgy.
Day 4 - August 9
Cox Bay Beach early in the morning
An artsy-fartsy shot.
A shot of Cox Bay from way out on the rocks. There was this path you could take that leads way out onto a promontory that overlooks Cox Beach and Chesterman's Beach.
A shot of Chesterman Beach.
More artsy-fartsy shots.
Back at the resort for lunch. Terri keeping in touch.
A couple more shots of our place at the resort.
We also visited Tonquin Beach, which is actually in the Town of Tofino. Mostly deserted except for these Chimeans playing soccer.
This is amnother shot of Chesterman Beach from the opposite end of the beach as the first picture. Huge beach. You could hold a drag race on it.
We drove up to Ucluelet (no idea how they pronounce it) one afternoon. Kind of a "poor man's" Tofino. Nice marina and scenery. The beach below was deserted - it was breezey and cool.
The Canadian Princess is moored in the Ucluelet marina. We had a beer here. They also have rooms but I can't imagine what it would be like staying there with the tiny little windows. Maybe if you were an albino...or a vampire
The resort we were at advertised a salmon Bar B Q for $35.00 per person. We signed up. Bad mistake. It really looked good as he was taking ot off the fire but it was the least tasty salmon I've ever had. In fact it was so bad we didn't eat it and went and got a frozen pizza to eat later. It was the sh!ts too.
This little bird came for a visit after the salmon fiasco and we'd never seen one like it, black head and blue body. Kind of looked like a cardinal. Zoom in.
Click here for more info on this bird.
Day 5 - August 10.
Today we drive to Comox to catch the ferry to Powell River. We left early. Along the way there is a touristy kind of place called The Cathedral of the Trees. Stop here and walk around if you're ever on this highway. Very cool and calming. Lots of krauts here. Must remind them of the black forest back home.
There is a house on the far shore of this lake. What a great spot it would be to spend a couple days.
These tress are massive. It's hard to take a picture that shows their true size.
Sometimes when a tree falls other tress, such as the Hemlock in the shot below, take root and grow on the fallen tree. They refer to the fallen tree as a nurse tree.
The large trees in the cathedral are Redwood orDouglas Fir. This is the remains of a large Redwoo. You can really see just how red the wood is. Zoom in.
The ferry we take to Powell River. You CANNOT buy a beer on any BC Ferry.
On the beach while waiting for the ferry to load we found all these little dead crabs.
A shot of the water from our dinner spot in Powell River - The Tree Frog Bistro - one of the better meals we had.
Beat, apple and goat cheese salad.
Seafood medley. They give you a good portion here.
And Terri had the salmon.
A ferry arriving.
Day 6 - August 11
We take two more ferries to get to Vancouver today.
One from Saltery Bay to Earl's Cove. And then one from Langdale to Horsehoe Bay. Costs about $90.00 for the trip.
This is a shot of Saltery Bay. What is not seen are the 10,000 chineese kids waiting for the ferry. WTF???
On the way...
The marina at Sechelt. We stopped for lunch and a beer. DUH. Every time we stop we have a beer...it's our religion.
Here's an air taxi approaching.
We stopped in Sechelt to look at some real estate we've been following for a while. The Watermark At Sechelt.
Further down the road from Sechelt is Gibsons Landing. This is where they filmed The Beach Combers - remember that one? Bruno Gerussi...Relic...Jessie Jim...eh???
Here's the boat from the show.
And Molly's Reach.
Saw some great boats in the marina and just about bought this one - just under a million - damn good thing we never brought the cheque book along. Right!!
These next shots are of a couple house boats that people live in.
We finally made it to Vancouver and Terri got us another great room. Right down town. I'm glad she's paying for it - I don't even want to know!!!
Some pics of our view:
Some night-time shots:
Day 7 - August 12
An overcast day to start. We are going to Whistler - home of the 2010 Winter Olympics It's a couple hours north of Vancouver.
This is a shot of Shannon Falls along the way to Whistler.
A couple shots of the streets on Whistler. It's very touristy here.
This is a stream running through the main commercial part of toen. I've no idea why the strange colour - not very appealing though.
BAck in Vancouver we visted Grouse Mountain and loopk any good tourist we rode up the gondola lift to the top ofthe mountain.
The have a couple of male grizly bears here.
At the top of the skil hill is this wind powered generator. The glass thing is an observation deck. $15.00 per person to go up.
So up we go and here's a shot from the top. It was such an overcast day it's not much of a picture.
This is a shot looking straight down at the ground below. The pink and green things are people
The retardees
After we got back down we visted the bears.
And a shot of Vancouver on the way back down.
And a wee video
Day 8 - August 13
Last full day here - weather's shitty again. You just can't tell what kind of weather you're going to get in Canada.
I'm contemplating a move to the sunny side of Venus. Ya ya ya - I know it's 800 freakin' degrees there but I'll get air conditioning. At least we'll get a bit of sun.
We drive down to White Rock which is a place right on the US border. Supposed to be nice here according to Claudia at the Bay. Might be nice if the freakin'sun would shine but it's still OK.
The town is named after this rock. It's a huge rock that was brought here by 1) the ice age 2) the ancient Egyptians or 3) Wilhelm Klumpf. Thake a guess.
The answer:
Wee get back to Vancouver about 4PM and the sun has come out again. It seems to do that every afternoon.
The tall building to the left of centre has some abailablilty on the 44th floor. $4 million will get you a nice place.
Zeffereli's Pasta Joint. A great place to eat if you're ever here. Above the Cactus Club which might not be such a great place.
Golden beet, candied walnut and goat cheese salad. Great salad. But you gotta love beets and goat cheese though...but who doesn't...??
Grilled calves liver and spaghettini. Spaghettini is a skinny kind of spaghetti. I find that I prefer it to any other pasta.
Back at the hotel another another night shot.
Day 9 - August 14 - last day.
We have to take the car back to Victoria where we first picked it up. When I booked the car I wanted to pick it up in Victoria and drop it in Vancouver but Enterprise (the car rental company) wanted almost $1,000 extra to do this so we decided to just cross back over and fly home from Victoria.
On the way to the ferry we stopped down by the waterfront - False Creek but across from Granville Island - to look at some real estate. There are some fantastic condos and townhomes here. Very expensive I'm sure. But what a place to live - right on the water, miles of bike paths and walking trails.
The Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay Ferry. This one's heading to Nanaimo.
There is a huge ship loading terminal just north of the ferry docks.
Looks like a coal loading operation.
A couple short vids of the ferry trip.