Day 11: Kent, Washington – Victoria, British Columbia
Wednesday, October 28th - So we got up to have delicious oat and whole grain blueberry pancakes with Austin that had been specially prepared by Uncle Don. Drew, Brigit, Riley and I walked Austin to the school bus stop… lots of hugs to Don and Peggy and we were on our way to Canada. Mom shed a few tears as she reminisced about their visit.
Our BC Ferry reservation was for 3pm, so that meant departing Kent by 9am. We traveled North on I-5 through Seattle traffic… luckily missing the worst of rush hour. It was about 2.5 hours to the Canadian border. We shut down our cell phones and turned off the laptop. Which by the way, the laptop quit working at the border… just after we passed through the nuclear scanner… any connections???
Also when clearing customs, they asked if we had any firearms, pepper spray, etc. No weapons because we had left them at Uncle Don’s along with our wine stash. But we forgot that our friend Bud Schmidt had lent us some pepper or “bear” spray to have for the bears in the Rockies. Customs confiscated it… sorry Bud… we’ll try to pick one up for you in Idaho or Utah.
Once in Canada, we passed through acres of sugar beet and pumpkin fields and made our way to the BC Ferries landing in Tsawwassen which is just south of Vancouver, BC. Our departure time was for 3pm but we were early enough to get on the 2pm crossing. It was fun driving the 31 foot KeyZRV on to the ferry... bump d bump. Brigit and Riley were not allowed on deck so they had a nice nap while we enjoyed the 1 hour 40 minute crossing through the San Juan Islands. It was beautiful! We enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate and the rugged northwest island coast line.
We arrived Vancouver Island at Schwartz Bay and traveled about 30 minutes south to Victoria. We couldn’t wait to see Ritchie, Liz and their Standard Poodle, Raleigh, as in Sir Walter Raleigh. Their house is urban chic and just the right size and located within perfect distances to anything in Victoria. Mom stayed in their guest room and we stayed a 5 minute drive or a 15 minute board walk at the West Bay Marina and RV Park. It’s a great RV park right on the harbor in Victoria where you can see all the boat traffic and is also one of the busiest commuter sea plane ports. I have to mention that Ritchie suggested back in August that we should make reservations for the West Bay RV Park. I kind of thought that wasn’t necessary but we were all very glad that I complied and listened to my big brother because when I called to make our reservation, we reserved the last site available. Come to find out, Victoria is considered the "tropics" of Canada... 50 degrees and rainy. RV’ers come from all over Canada to stay in the Victoria area… I think we’ll keep our Marathon tropics for the winter.
Since it was raining, Ritchie came to pick us for dinner... we enjoyed a nice salmon dinner. Riley and Brigit enjoyed playing with Raleigh. For all my dog park friends, we were surprised at the number of dogs in Victoria and all of the off and on leash dog parks.
We drove 173 miles today... add in a ferry ride... and the KeyZRV is 3,757 miles at our farthest destination point. We'll be headed South and East on our next leg of the "Maye Baggs 2009 North American Tour"
Photos: Crossing the Canadian border, BC Ferries waiting line & drive on, San Juan Island passage, West Bay RV park view, Raleigh & Riley hangin' out
Wednesday, October 28th - So we got up to have delicious oat and whole grain blueberry pancakes with Austin that had been specially prepared by Uncle Don. Drew, Brigit, Riley and I walked Austin to the school bus stop… lots of hugs to Don and Peggy and we were on our way to Canada. Mom shed a few tears as she reminisced about their visit.
Our BC Ferry reservation was for 3pm, so that meant departing Kent by 9am. We traveled North on I-5 through Seattle traffic… luckily missing the worst of rush hour. It was about 2.5 hours to the Canadian border. We shut down our cell phones and turned off the laptop. Which by the way, the laptop quit working at the border… just after we passed through the nuclear scanner… any connections???
Also when clearing customs, they asked if we had any firearms, pepper spray, etc. No weapons because we had left them at Uncle Don’s along with our wine stash. But we forgot that our friend Bud Schmidt had lent us some pepper or “bear” spray to have for the bears in the Rockies. Customs confiscated it… sorry Bud… we’ll try to pick one up for you in Idaho or Utah.
Once in Canada, we passed through acres of sugar beet and pumpkin fields and made our way to the BC Ferries landing in Tsawwassen which is just south of Vancouver, BC. Our departure time was for 3pm but we were early enough to get on the 2pm crossing. It was fun driving the 31 foot KeyZRV on to the ferry... bump d bump. Brigit and Riley were not allowed on deck so they had a nice nap while we enjoyed the 1 hour 40 minute crossing through the San Juan Islands. It was beautiful! We enjoyed coffee and hot chocolate and the rugged northwest island coast line.
We arrived Vancouver Island at Schwartz Bay and traveled about 30 minutes south to Victoria. We couldn’t wait to see Ritchie, Liz and their Standard Poodle, Raleigh, as in Sir Walter Raleigh. Their house is urban chic and just the right size and located within perfect distances to anything in Victoria. Mom stayed in their guest room and we stayed a 5 minute drive or a 15 minute board walk at the West Bay Marina and RV Park. It’s a great RV park right on the harbor in Victoria where you can see all the boat traffic and is also one of the busiest commuter sea plane ports. I have to mention that Ritchie suggested back in August that we should make reservations for the West Bay RV Park. I kind of thought that wasn’t necessary but we were all very glad that I complied and listened to my big brother because when I called to make our reservation, we reserved the last site available. Come to find out, Victoria is considered the "tropics" of Canada... 50 degrees and rainy. RV’ers come from all over Canada to stay in the Victoria area… I think we’ll keep our Marathon tropics for the winter.
Since it was raining, Ritchie came to pick us for dinner... we enjoyed a nice salmon dinner. Riley and Brigit enjoyed playing with Raleigh. For all my dog park friends, we were surprised at the number of dogs in Victoria and all of the off and on leash dog parks.
We drove 173 miles today... add in a ferry ride... and the KeyZRV is 3,757 miles at our farthest destination point. We'll be headed South and East on our next leg of the "Maye Baggs 2009 North American Tour"
Photos: Crossing the Canadian border, BC Ferries waiting line & drive on, San Juan Island passage, West Bay RV park view, Raleigh & Riley hangin' out
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