864 total miles. 2 countries, 1 state, 1 Province, 1 car ferry, 1 National Park, 2 old friends, 1 major city, ½ dozen oysters all eaten by Erin, currently over budget for the week by….$109.
864 miles ~ Olympic National Park to Vancouver on our way to Banff National Park.
What a place Olympic National Park is ~ water, trees, silence….not sure I can describe it any other way.
We took the car ferry from Port Townsend, Washington to Whidbey Island up the coast across the Canadian border to Vancouver. Highly recommend car ferries….one of my favourite things EVER. When we got to Vancouver we only had to turn around three times before we finally got the correct exit for downtown….there were four exits and we got there through process of elimination as much as anything.
We are lucky to have friends who love to travel and with whom we have travelled before ~ nothing says travel like a dinner in a new city with Finessa and Kris Ferrell. Good food, laughter, stories, a little good natured teasing made it feel just like home in a far away from home place.
Vancouver ~ what a city. It rained and rained the first day ~ the first rainy weather we’ve had this whole trip and the first rain Vancouver had experienced for a month. Word from the locals was that it doesn’t usually rain during the summer in Vancouver, so our arrival and the rain were a welcome diversion for them I’m sure. :-D.
A jazz club with an amazing quartet, a bicycle ride around Stanley Park, a Belgian dinner at a restaurant called Chambar that had the very best mussels I’ve had in a very long time (the waitress asked if I wanted extra bread to dip in the sauce….duh……), a trip to the Granville Island Market and a hop on/hop off bus tour all gave us a wonderful perspective of this unique and diverse city.
With all of the fires in Canada in the news, I’m sure you’re not surprised that we had to divert for a fire ~ but truly, it surprised us a little. A lightning caused fire south of Kamloops blew up pretty quickly and by last night was only 6 miles (10k), from the city. Our diversion took us to a place we would not have known about ~ Kelowna, BC. HUGE lake, major wine producers, agricultural production center, outdoor concert, water sports galore and a bar with maybe my most favourite name ever…”The friends of Dorothy Lounge“.
Next week will be almost 100% in Banff National Park…..we’ll let you know if we have any bear trouble.
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