Across to Vancouver Island

The girls and I woke up early on Saturday March 26th.  We checked out of our hotel in Hope, stopped for a quick breakfast at a nearby restaurant, and hit the road.  We got onto the Trans Canada Highway and headed towards Vancouver.  Within a couple of hours we were passing through Vancouver, over the Second Narrows bridge and were on the north shore.  A number of friends had warned us that we should make a ferry reservation.  We just didn't know what time we would arrive and were reluctant to do so.  As luck would have it we rolled up to the Horseshoe Bay terminal just as they were beginning to load the ferry.  We were one of the last vehicles to be loaded, but we got on the boat with no more than a few minutes wait.

The Queen of Oak Bay took us across the Strait of Georgia to Departure Bay in Nanaimo.  The girls were pretty excited as this was the first time they had ever been on a ferry, and the first time they had seen a ship of this size.  The crossing was pretty uneventful.  Being still early in the spring, it was still fairly cool, and the ocean breeze out on the water was brisk.  We wandered around out on deck for a little while, just so there girls could experience it, but mostly we were inside the ship while we crossed over.

We drove off the ferry in Nanaimo around mid day and were relieved that our destination was near.  We stopped at a grocery store and picked up supplies.  Then it was back on the highway, this time the Island Parkway, for the 90 minute drive up the island to the house we had rented in Courtenay.  We arrived at the house just as the cleaning staff was finishing up preparing for us.  By this time it was about 3:00 in the afternoon.

We unpacked all of our luggage, all of my cameras, and the groceries we had just bought.  There were two bedrooms that had to be shared between the three girls so they bickered a little before eventually figuring out a schedule for who would sleep with whom over the coming days.  Worn out from all the hours spent on the road, and not feeling much like cooking, we headed over to a local restaurant for supper, then eventually back to the house to relax and unwind, excited about all the things we would see and do in the coming days.