Into Canada...

We left Lisa and Matt's house Tuesday, rushing to catch up with some other friends (including frankenboob) with whom we would be camping near Victoria. We rushed to Port Angeles... then watched the ferry fill up and depart. The next one was in 4 hours... so we went to nearby Olympic National Park, and had lunch in the mountains before catching a 5pm ferry to Victoria. The 3 boys probably did better in the outdoors than at high tea, anyway. ;-).

We drove around Victoria... the butterfly gardens were reserved for a private function, and we arrived at Butchart Gardens too close to sunset (since we had to set up camp, still). What I saw was lovely, reminiscent of Keukenhof in the Netherlands.

Our camp was in an RV park on the beach... great setting. The kids were in a tent and Pat and I slept on the floor of the van. We had there... a total of 5 adults and 11 kids.

( some photos... )

Meltdown...

In travel, sometimes one hits a day when everything and everyone suddenly goes awry. Wednesday was like that.

One of our group, J, lost her car keys. So... we scoured the beach and campsite. No luck. We missed our ferry to Vancouver. Finally a locksmith cut a new key, and we broke camp and headed onward. Waited an hour in the heat for the next ferry, in midafternoon.

Received a text message on my cellphone from geekchick, while standing on the ferry, underway in the San Juan Islands. My cell mailbox is full. Tuesday afternoon (24 hours earlier) it was empty. Ulp. I called her from the ferry, getting a scratchy analog signal, and heard the news about eck. I sort of blanked after that... I remember wandering around the boat decks. Probably in shock... I had seen him just 12 days earlier, had hugged him after a visit to his new apartment. J found me in the bow and engaged me in conversation, bringing me back to the present. Sigh.

We checked into our Vancouver hotel, then headed to Chinatown. Found out that other travel plans had changed, by reading a sweetie's LJ. Got disturbing email from someone else. I was in bad shape emotionally, and was taking it out by snarling at everyone else. And Pat's fibromyalgia flared and it hurt her to walk...

Chinatown... it may be the largest in North America, but everything closes at 5pm! A shadow of what I remembered from the 1980s. So we found a pasta restaurant in Gastown and patgreene and I bought everyone dinner.

( day's photos )

Whistling

I'm waiting on laundry. This hotel in Vancouver, in addition to having the world's cheapest continental breakfast (tiny muffins, dry cereal and... toast. People actually lined up to make toast... jokes about bread lines. This would be laughed away on the Continent... where's the jam? Boiled egg or cold cuts or cheese? Or at least bagels? And there is a guest laundry with one key. Someone checked it out a dinner yesterday... and didn't do laundry until this morning. Grr. So my plans are screwed up, we won't leave until 1-2pm and won't camp on the Columbia River, all because of someone's thoughtlessness. Probably another guest from the US, as Canadians seem to be generally more considerate.

Anyway, I'm still reeling from Wednesday's news. I thought about checking airline tickets to Edmonton (WestJet?) but have no idea what the arrangements are.

Yesterday... we stopped in a group in Stanley Park, rode a miniature train, then drove up route 99 across the Lion's Gate Bridge and on to Whistler, BC. The town itself is just another ski center, but the drive... breathtaking. Like a 40-mile long Yosemite, with the ocean filling the valley. Then we rode a gondola up the mountain, and myself and some of the kids spent an hour hiking up to a glacier (6100' base, 800' increase in 0.9 mile). I was able to describe flow lines and glacial features and point out crevasses.

An incredibly-beautiful drive back, as the sun was setting...

( Thursday's photos )