Three full weeks!

This will be a very long post about or BC trip May 25th to June 15th. It was 3 full weeks of touring around, and 3,200 km of driving! Glad we rented a hybrid, as the cost of gas in BC was very high.

We arrived in Vancouver after an uneventful flight and took an Uber to get to our rental car place off-site. 

At YVR

After getting the car, our first stop was to visit our friend Penny, who we went to Iceland with in 2012. We stopped by her beautiful apartment and visited for a while on her balcony overlooking the Vancouver skyline. 

Penny's view of downtown Vancouver

We stayed at my niece's place in Delta. Leanne and her family (Scott, Elyse, and Brynn) hosted a dinner so we could catch up with the rest of the family after so many years. 

Eric, Wendy, John, and Nur

Andrea, Leanne, Eric, and Wendy

Scott, Eric, and John

The next morning we decided to do the Iona Jetty hike - essentially, Vancouver's sewage disposal into the ocean.  We all took the exceptionally straight hike there and back (8.25 km). Weather was thankfully cool and we all survived the hike with no problems.  We were ready to eat lunch, so we headed to the Flying Beaver (home of Harbour Air) for a great meal while watching aircraft taking off. 

Eric, Leanne, Wendy, Elyse, Scott, and Brynn

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Lunch at the Flying Beaver

Our adventure continued as we headed from Tsawwassen to Victoria. First stop on the island was the Mile 0 marker (beginning of the Trans-Canada Highway). Wendy realized she really liked rhododendrons while we walked around the area. A Terry Fox statue was right next to the Mile 0 sign (he never made it this far), and there was a nice beach nearby with some overly friendly beach-goers. We went to visit the Craigdarroch Castle, and our hotel for the night was right next door (sharing the same walkway). It was called the Craigmyle.  We also visited Wendy's Uncle Dave and Pati-Ann while in Victoria. Had a great dinner and were able to catch up with them since it had been so many years.

Craigmyle with the Craigdarroch castle in the background

Craigdarroch Castle

Wendy worked on a puzzle in the drawing room

Continuing our castle theme, the next day we went to Hatley Castle on the grounds of Royal Roads University. The castle had a long wait for a guided tour, so we just took in the gardens instead. Beautiful place to visit!

For a bit of excitement, we decided to go to the Malahat Skywalk - a spiral observation tower in the middle of nowhere not too far from Victoria! Great views from the top and even more fun was had when we went down the slide to get to the bottom!

Interesting wood art along the walk to the tower

The silver tube was a 10 second slide to the bottom

We decided to hike to the Kinsol Trestle Bridge. It was exceptionally hot at that point, but the wooden bridge was a sight to see.

We got all the way to Tofino on the west coast of the island and stayed at an AirBnB right in town. Lots of quaint little shops. We walked to the pier to watch the sunset. The next day we checked out then went to some very chilly and windy beaches. Saw some surfers, but it was warmer when we took a hike at the Shorepine Bog - an area of very strange stunted growth trees that often looked like Bonsai trees. 

Tofino sunset

Shorepine Bog

There were many places to stop, so we just poked around to see what we could find. 

We drove back across the island and went to visit Cathedral Grove - a stand of first growth forest with huge fir trees. Reminded us of the home of the Ewoks and Wookies in Star Wars. 

Our destination for the night was Comox, and we had a great view from our AirBnB. We then went for an afternoon visit with my Uncle Barry and my cousin Kevin dropped by. 

Kevin, Barry, and Eric

Kevin, Barry, Wendy, and Eric

On the beach

On the beach

Our final stop in Comox was the Comox Air Force Museum, where I met a guide who lived in the same places in France and Belgium at the same time when I was born. Great chatting with him. 

Off to Horne Lake lake for an underground cave tour. We took the less strenuous version, but still had to be on all fours crawling around on rocks underground. 

We stayed at an AirBnB in Nanaimo overnight and set out early in the morning to the nearby Departure Bay docks for the BC ferry. Back to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) and then north along the Sea to Sky highway towards Whistler. Stopped at Shannon Falls for a break, found Brandywine Falls along the way, then continued to downtown Whistler. 

Shannon Falls

Brandywine Falls rainbow

In Whistler, we wandered around the town and did some shopping. Went to the Squamish-Liliwat Cultural Centre, then called it a night. The next morning we were up very early for a private fly fishing tour! Wendy and I learned how to fish and we both caught and released rainbow trout. 

The rest of the time in Whistler was spend shopping and resting. 

The next morning we drove north to 100 Mile House. We checked into the hotel and rested for a while before going out and finding a fantastic Indian restaurant for dinner. On arriving back to the hotel, we learned that the water was off and would not come back on for at least a day, so we got a refund and headed over to another hotel two doors down. Much better place with a room with water!

In the morning after a nice breakfast, we continued north past Duffey Lake and stopped to climb up to the Begbie Mountain Fire Lookout Tower. 

Duffey Lake

On the Begbie Mountain Tower

Williams Lake Dairy Queen

We arrived at my sister (Cathy's) place outside of Quesnel on the Barkerville Highway that afternoon.

Anywhere of 2 to 10 Hummingbirds at once at the feeder

Tina, Cathy, and Wendy relaxing (Wendy still doing a puzzle)

We took a long drive one day to check out the scenery. Visited the store where Cathy and Tina sell some of their crafts, then headed out to the Pinnacles Provincial park for a short hike.

Visiting the Caribou Keepsakes store where Cathy and Tina have a booth

Hiking at the Pinnacles Provincial Park

We drove along the Fraser river and went on an hour's long detour on gravel roads through some beautiful country. Stopped to have lunch at the side of the road. Also stopped to check out the Rudy Johnson Bridge and a small beach underneath. 

Went to the Xatsull Heritage Village, which wasn't really open, and walked around and chatted with the guy doing the lawns.

Went through a lot of dust today!

The next day, Eric's brother-in-law Bill took us in his truck for a drive up the Troll Resort Ski Hill mountain (they live at the bottom of the mountain). We played with some snow, drove on roads that probably shouldn't be considered roads, and even got to check out the Snow Cats that Bill operates in the winter. 

Yes, snow in June!

The next day we all headed to the Gold Rush ghost town of Barkerville. Hadn't been for almost 30 years, so it was nice to see again. 

The Hotel - Cathy and Tina used to work here

Had lunch here - served by a former student who took Bill's school bus every day

On the way home we stopped to check out the wildlife. She didn't seem worried about us.

My sister's house from across the street

After 5 nights at my sister's, off to Sorrento we went. We stayed for two nights at Don's Bathhouse, and AirBnB that included a full suite upstairs and a spa downstairs (5 showers inside, one outside, a jetted tub, and a steam room).  We essentially didn't go out the whole time, just stayed and had a short vacation from the vacation. 

Spa

On the way out, we stopped at Margaret Falls (Herald Provincial Park) and checked out the scenery. 

We continued south to the Okanagan Valley and arrived at Kelowna for two nights. The day we arrived (Saturday) just happened to have the Pride Festival underway, so we checked out the festivities before dropping into the Kasugai Gardens - a Japanese garden at city hall. 

Kasugai Gardens

The next day we searched for Pixie Beach, where Eric had camped in the 1970's.  Was essentially gone and the whole area was high end cottages and wineries. We stopped about 100 metres away and got a picture of the view. 

Pixie Beach, sort of...

We also tried to hike at Crawford Falls, but the two main trails were closed. Not much to see, and it got very hot.

Near Crawford Falls, Kelowna in the distance

The next day we went to Bear Creek Provincial Park for a hike. It was blistering hot and there was a helicopter circling us with a water bucket - we were the centre of the loop where they picked up water from the lake and dropped it on a forest fire. That fire was just ahead of us (maybe 1km), so we got out of there ASAP. 

Foreshadowing for the fire ahead of us?

After Kelowna, we headed along the crazy Coquihalla Highway (120 km/h speed limit) to Hope, then went back north to Hell's Gate in the Fraser Canyon. There was a fire north of there, so looping down then up was the only way to get there. Took the gondola across to the other side and had lunch while watching the powerful river flow by. 

After Hell's Gate, we continued straight to Langley, where Eric used to live (1969 to 1976). The first place he lived had been torn down last year, so all we saw was a street full of apartment buildings and a construction site where the house used to be. The second house was still standing and looked quite good after all these years. 

53A Avenue

20199 53A Avenue, or where it used to be

20440 46th Ave

After so many hours in the car, we continued on to North Vancouver and had dinner at a restaurant at the Shipyards.  After dinner we headed to Wendy's cousin's place (Cathy & John) to stay for the final nights of our trip.

The Lighthouse Park (Point Atkinson Lighthouse) was a great place to hike with Cathy and Pax.

While in North Vancouver, we had two dinners with the family, and Wendy's Aunt Anne and Uncle Roy came over both evenings. We also got to see Cathy and John's son Simon, as he was home from school for the summer. 

Our final excursion on the adventure was a trip to Grouse Mountain (only 8 min away from Cathy's). We waited as long as we could for the cloud to dissipate, but that did not happen. 

Two grizzlies (Grinder and Coola) live on the top of the mountain, and we got a great look at them while they were eating. They soon shuffled away and were not seen again for the rest of our time on the mountain. 

We saw the Owl show and the famous lumberjack show that they have every day. Sometimes it was clear, sometimes everything was in a cloud. 

After 3 weeks and 2 days, we were ready to head home. We returned the car, took the Skytrain to the airport, and got on our flight for an uneventful trip home. We had a limo waiting for us, and got home to see Maddy and Adam, then soon after Parker came home from work. Glad to be back. Surprisingly, we thought going to BC would be where all the forest fire smoke was, but all of it seemed to be at our place!