Vancouver Island

A bit of land completely surrounded by water, allegedly

So we got on the ferry to Canada. We only had to sit in line for seven hours.

This particular ferry runs a first come first serve line. The boat has about 12 FCFS spots. We showed up at 10am to get in line…and just missed a spot on the 12:45pm boat. We were moved up and assured we’d get a spot on the 5:15pm boat. At 5:13pm - having been in line all afternoon - we realized you still need a ticket even in the FCFS line. We did not have a ticket. The ferry attendant told me if I hurry I could get a ticket and they’d get us on.

Let me tell you: I ran like the wind. Casey says she’s never seen me move that fast. I sprinted to the ticket office, knocked down a wall like the Kool Aid guy (OH YEAH), paid for two tickets, and sprinted back to the car. We cut back in line (sorry, random angry guy) and were able to get on the boat. Whew.

(For the record, in multiple conversations nobody actually said to us “hey you need a ticket for first come first serve line”. In retrospect it’s obvious but…whatever, it’s not important, we got on the gosh darn boat.)

After a rough 90 minute ride across the Juan de Fuca and short stint getting through customs, we plunked down at Bamberton Provincial Park. It’s only about 30 minutes outside of Victoria so we got a spot for two nights (for $30 USD total, nice). We wound down fast and knocked out.

The next morning, Casey declared we had the supplies and wherewithal to make potato and egg tacos. So so we made potato and egg tacos.

We talked a bit over our tacos about what we’ve learned in the last few weeks. One of those things is that this trip isn’t a vacation. That idea takes many forms, but one of them is that we don’t have to cram in a bunch of activities in because we have to go home soon. We don’t have to be anywhere. It’s hard to get used to. (And yes, I’m typing this while playing the world’s smallest violin. We’re very lucky.)

Since we didn’t have to be anywhere, we decided to be somewhere: Butchart Gardens.

The gardens are very much a “you have to see it to believe it” thing. It’s visually overwhelming - everything is planned out and manicured to be just so and it’s a jaw dropping experience. We went on a pretty drab day; I can’t imagine how colorful and over the top it would be on a sunny one. Go if you can, it’s absolutely worth it.

On our drive home, we saw a sign for “Malahat Skywalk”. I don’t know either of those words, so we pulled off to check it out. It is, basically, this:

The Malahat Skywalk is a 107 foot tower sitting on the edge of a cliff. There’s a spiral walkway up to the top, where you end up about 800 feet above sea level. It’s pretty wild view.

There’s the “adventure net” too - a section of the floor where there’s netting instead of a floor. It wobbles and is, according to Casey, “very uncomfortable”.

But the best part about the entire thing is how you get down off of the tower…a giant slide. Like 200 feet of slide. You can see it spiraling down inside of the tower here:

You sit on a felt pad and the attendant person pushes you off and there’s little windows to see and you go surprisingly fast! Also they let full sized man babies like me slide down! It was rad.

The next morning, we ended up back in Victoria to see the Royal BC Museum. They have an exhibit on about the Khmer Empire, which is the civilization responsible for Angkor in Cambodia. We also did a small walk around downtown Victoria.

After a day in the city we ended up on the southwest coast of the island at Juan de Fuca Provincial Park. “An evening walk through the old growth forest to the beach” is a great way to end your day.

That brings us to today. We were supposed to do this:

This did not happen. There’s a pretty nasty forest fire near Cameron Lake that has shut down highway 4, so all east west traffic to and from Tofino and the surrounding communites is being escorted in groups through a series of logging roads. That doesn’t impact us directly - we’re coming from the south - but BC recommends essential travel only to prevent congestion and let supplies through. Fine with us. I really wanted to see Tofino, but this kind of thing happens. We’ll be back.

In any case, today we drove back up the northeast coast to Nanaimo. It’s a neat little town - about the size of Bellingham - and we’ll be here for two nights before we ferry across to the mainland. See y’all out there.

ps. All these photos (and more) are available to view here as well.