Our British Columbia Vacation - Part 2

Sunday we left the Okanagan Valley and headed further west to Vancouver Island.  We took the ferry from Tsawwassen Terminal (south of Vancouver) to Swartz Bay (north of Victoria).  We rented a cottage near Duncan and although we intented to drive the long way through Victoria, we didn't pay attention to where the GPS was taking us so we ended up taking a second (very small) ferry from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay.

 

Monday morning we went to the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium.

Wade's dad flew in to join us for part of the week so we went and picked him up at the airport and then went to the Buchart Gardens.

Wednesday we went for a short hike and then checked out Rathtrevor Beach.  We got there just before high tide so we played around for about an hour while the tide started to move in.  Ethan had fun finding a few shells and Abby just walked around and splashed.

Wednesday we headed to Tofino on the west side of the island.  It was about a 4 hour drive from Duncan so it was a long day.  We decided to take a water taxi to Meares Island and did a hike that is called the Big Tree Hike.  It was about 2.5km round trip and was mostly on a boardwalk.  An interesting hike with some amazing trees.

We also stopped to sample some beer at the Tofino Brewery which was started by the nephew of one of Wade's bosses.  Last we stopped at a beach to watch some surfers and then started the drive home.  We suspected everyone would be tired the next day so we went to the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan.  Not a lot of forestry in Kansas, so it was education to learn more about the forestry industry plus they had a train which is always a hit with Ethan.

Friday, we headed to Victoria and looked around in the BC Legislature Building, the Inner Habour, and the downtown area. 

We dropped Thane and Edith off at the airport and then went for another hike in Goldstream Park.  We went to the top of Niagara Falls and saw a train trestle that went through the park.  It was only about a 30 minute hike but was very steep and was definitely our hardest hike of the trip.  We also stopped back by the lower falls since it wasn't as busy as the day we were there earlier in the week.

Saturday we started the trip home.  We took a different ferry this time, we left from the Departure Bay in Nanaimo and got off at Horseshoe Bay north of Vancouver. 

We split the trip in about half and stayed in Kamloops.  We seem to have the worst luck with ice cold pools when traveling but we finally had a pool that was comfortable.  Plus there was slide that was separate from the pool so Ethan could do it and we didn't have to worry about him being dumped into the pool.  We could see a train going trough the spiral tunnels so we made another quick stop to see it.  It's hard to see in this picture but if you look close you can see the train in 3 different areas.

The cottage we stayed at near Duncan was on a farm.  Here's a few pics we took around the farm.

And here's a cute picture of Abby during the trip.  It was a lot for a one year old but she did well.  On the trip home we saw 2 more teeth breaking through so she was probably fighting that some during the trip also.