The big picture: Seattle – Vancouver – Whistler – Vancouver Island – Seattle
This was a big vacation for us, one not done justice by these photos. Eileen had a business conference in Whistler, so I tagged along. She went up alone, I flew through Seattle into Vancouver, and took a scenic bus ride to Whistler. I had a short layover in Vancouver and the bus station was near Chinatown, so I was able to snap just a few pictures there.
The weather was good for the bus ride to Whistler. I sat on the port side looking out the window at the Sea to Sky. Amazing. We killed no more than a day in Whistler, rented a mountain bike, got up in the woods, took a few pictures. We were near the longest day of the year, and further north than I’d ever been. I remember coming out of an indoor function with Eileen at around midnight. It looked like 8pm dusk on a normal summer day. We hit the hay, later I remember looking out the window at 4am, and it was already quite light out.
The conference wrapped up, we drove back to Vancouver in our rental car, and hopped a ferry to Vancouver Island, coming in at Sidney. The size and complexity of the ferry scene up there was impressive. This very organized and extensive network of these giant car carrying ferries between the dozens of San Juan Islands. We had great weather and a scenic boat ride.
Eileen had found us a “Bed and Breakfast” (advertised in Sunset Magazine!), along the southern edge of the island, past Sooke. As the pictures show, our lodging was a micro cabin set apart from the owner’s house. It was barely big enough for both of us to sit down, but it was tall. The bed was up a ladder in a loft.
There was a 30 mile “rails to trails” path that ran right through this property, and all the way into Victoria. We wished we had bikes, but had to contend with some hiking.
Old Victoria was charming. Our weather was warm and dry, but we could tell by the way the locals had their bikes set up that they were used to rain. Every single one had fenders front and rear.
One interesting thing we did was pay a local guide to take us kayaking out to an island is one of the bays. He built his own boats, accompanied us, and fed us on the island.
Our entry back into the USA was via Ferry, coming into Port Angeles. We drove around Puget Sound to get back to Sea-Tac, killed half a day in downtown Seattle near the water.
