Day 4

Today we woke up to clouds! Quite a change from yesterday's sun. After eating breakfast at the hotel's continental breakfast, we drove into downtown Victoria. We took some time to stroll along the streets. Stopping in little shops and souvenir places. We took some pictures in front of the Empress Hotel, which was celebrating it's 100th birthday, and the Parliament Buildings, and the harbor.

After shopping we went to an Indian Curry Housef or Dinner. We really enjoyed the Curry Chicken and the Nan. It was delicious.

 

After dinner, we headed back to the car, which we had parked in a public parking garage (Yates and Landberg). It cost $11 for the whole day. We decided to stop at a grocery store (Save-on-foods) on the way back to the hotel to pick-up one more souvenir for Raj's Grandmother (Canadian Back Bacon). We found lots of interesting grocery products that we bought to bring home. We also bought a Garden sculpture. It's a metal bronze sun. We are hoping it will bring us sunny weather back home! We want to hang it up on the porch.

After the grocery store, we went back to the hotel to do some research on the ferry going home. We had wanted to take the Ferry from Sydney to Anacortes. It takes longer, but winds through the San Juans so you get a spectacular view. Unfortunately, we found out you have to make reservations 48 hours in advance, so that route was out of the question. We thought about driving back up to Nanaimo, but decided that was out of the way. We finally decided on the CoHo Ferry which leaves right from downtown Victoria and goes to Port Angeles. it costs more, but is less driving.

Day 3

Today was our last day at the B&B. After breakfast, and meeting two other guests, Warren took us out one more time to see the Eagles get their breakfast. It was just as amazing as it was the first time. The babies were still in the nest and hadn't attempted to take flight yet. We checked out around 11:00am and headed south towards Victoria. Warren's wife Jan, suggested we stop along the way and see the "City of Mural", Chemainus.

We could visit a tourist office, and then they could show us some great side trips to take on the way to Victoria. Raj had done some research online previously, and wanted to see some wineries, and a cidery. We had been to Chamanus one other time, but it had been dark, so it was nice to see the town in daylight. We looked around the town a bit, viewed the museum and then headed to the tourist office.

They suggested we take the scenic route down to the cidery. It was a beautiful day, and perfect for a scenic drive, so we chose that option. We got lost a couple of times, but there was such great scenery it didn't matter much.

We stopped first at the Cherry Point Winery. It is the only winery in the world run by Natives.

Then we made our way to the Merridale Cidery. We arrived around 2:30 and stayed until 6:00pm. We had a lovely time. We visited the tasting room, did a self guided tour and learned all about the process of making cider, took a walk around the Orchards, and then sat on the porch in the sun in an Adirondack chair and took a quick snooze.

 

 

At 5:00pm, the restaurant opened for dinner. The special tonight was brick oven pizza. It was delicious! Ours had chicken, mushrooms, and pesto on it. We also ordered Taziki with bread, and a fresh salad. And because we were on vacation, we ordered an apple strudel with ice cream and a maple tart. Both were delicious.

From here, we drove the rest of the way to Victoria. We had a hard time finding the highway, which took a while, but we found this gorgeous lake area called Shawnigan Lake. It would be a nice place to rent a house for a week! (We will have to keep this in mind when we plan our next trip!) We finally found the highway and made it down to Victoria.

Our hotel is about 5 miles from downtown Victoria. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites on the Gorge Waterfront. We got it free from using our Choice Rewards Points! We booked a 2 bedroom suite on the water for 12,000 points per night. We will be here 2 nights. We were amazed when we arrived and saw the room we'd be staying at. The website didn't really show any pictures of the suite. Oh my gosh, it was a little cabin right on the water, with a porch and a gorgeous view. Not bad!

 

After getting to the Hotel, we were pretty exhausted. We decided to spend the rest of the night at the hotel, and planned what were were going to do tomorrow in Victoria!

Day 2

The B&B we stayed at was called Grey Cliff Cottage .



Our room was Gardenroom #2. It was a very nice room. It had a queen bed, dresser, closet, fridge, and full bathroom. They had nice touches all through out, like a drawer full of movies and a shelf full of books. Since we got in so late, the owner, Warren said we could come to breakfast late. Usually they have it at 9:00am. We arrived at breakfast at 10:00am, and Warren was just about to show another couple who was staying there, the eagles. Warren feeds them most days in the morning. So, we went out with them to see the show before breakfast. Let me just say it was absolutely amazing! I will remember this for the rest of my life. They are such amazing birds. I's quite something to hear them swoop down and grab the food with their claws. There were two baby eagles in a nest up in the tree. You could hear them squeaking. Warren said they will be taking their first flights this week. Unfortunately we weren't able to see them fly, but we saw them come out on limbs and flap their wings. The eagles have made the same tree their home for the last 12 years. Warren and his wife have have seen 25 eaglets born. Pretty amazing!










After the show, Warren made us breakfast. Eggs, Toast, Ham, and fresh fruit. It was very rich, and very good! After breakfast, we decided to take a quick dip in the hot tub before getting ready for the wedding. The hot tub sits in the back yard and overlooks Nanoose bay. It's a gorgeous view. The sun finally came out once we got in the hot tub. It was very pretty. We also got to see the tide go out.










After a quick shower, we were off to Seema and John's wedding. Only one problem, we couldn't find the map with the directions. After searching online and getting no where, we decided to just start driving, and to ask a service station along the way. Luckily they knew where it was and we arrived only 20 min's late, the groom however was 30 min's late, so it all worked out. The wedding was very cool. It was part Indian, and part Christian. Most of the women wore Sari's and they were so pretty! Seema looked beautiful in her two gowns she wore. They also served dinner, which was very good. (Great Indian food!) we had a nice time.

















After seeing the sunset from her parent's yard, (they have a very nice house with a million dollar view), we headed back to our B&B and spent the rest of the evening enjoying a nice cool summer's evening relaxing in the hot tub...which for this trip seems to be our favorite part!

Day 1

Today we started on our trip to Vancouver Island. We are going up for the wedding of Raj's co-worker, Seema. After the wedding, which is in Nanaimo, we will travel south and spend a couple of days in Victoria before going home. We rented a car through Budget for $98 for 5 days. It's a black Chevy Cobalt.



We didn't want to drive our car because of the amount of miles, and also because our car hasn't been getting very good gas mileage. This one is suppose to get 30 mph compared to our car which has been averaging 17mph! The car we rented drove ok, but it's was little "light" on the road.

We decided to stop in Seattle on the way up and eat at one of our favorite restaurants, Salumi! Unfortunately, they were out of what we really wanted, Finocchiona salami, but what we ended up getting was just as good. We had a sandwich and a bowl of veggie soup. Delicious!





We crossed the border in Blaine. While waiting in line, we enjoyed looking at the Peace park gardens.





It took about 30 mins to cross into Canada. After crossing, we drove to Twassan to catch the Ferry over to Nanaimo which is operated by BC Ferries. We arrived at the ferry station at 7:45pm hoping to get on the 8:15pm ferry, however it was full! So we had to wait for the next and last one, which wasn't until 10:45pm! Luckily there was a nice market with plenty of restaurants and shops. We picked up some souvenirs for family members at the market, and got a slice of pizza and a crepe with maple syrup on it. The crepe was good, and the pizza was so so. Here are a few shots of us at the ferry terminal.







The cost to ride the ferry with 1 vehicle and 2 people was $30. The ferry was very nice, it appeared brand new. Very modern with cafe's and flat screen TV's! Unfortunately it was dark outside, so we weren't able to get any shots of the view from the boat, but here are a few of the inside.











During the ferry ride, I finally finished Ammon's baby blanket, only 8 months late! Yeah!!



The ferry ride was 2 hours, so we ended up in Nanaimo at 12:45am. We were tired, but still had to drive to our Bed and breakfast, which was in Parksville. It only took about 15 mins to get there. The owner left the door unlocked, and we quickly brought our bags in and went right to sleep!