Summer Vacation

No doubt about it, this is about the most beautiful place on earth in the summer. For our family vacation, we decided to stray not terribly far away. We took a journey north of the border to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Since we were island bound, ferry travel was in order. We set sail from Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC, and from there drove up to the beach town of Parksville where we stayed in a vacation rental for a week. So much to do! We took in three provincial parks with great hikes, beaches and even caves. Parksville is along the Straight of Georgia, and the community beach boasts some shallow, which means warm and swimmable, water. Yes, warm water in Canada!

We took time to enjoy the very English sites of Victoria on our way in, and continued to enjoy the overall British feel of the province during our stay. We even came home with a can of Haggis! On our way home, we took a different route. Our ferry departed from the east coast of Vancouver Island and took us the city of Vancouver on the mainland. We saw some of the Olympic venues, as well as the beautiful views from the waterfront. The biggest deal of all, of course, was riding on the Skytrain, Vancouver's mass transit rail. When we looked at pictures of Vancouver prior to our trip, all the boys could talk about was the possibility of riding the Skytrain. Please, please, please, let us ride the Skytrain! Well, dreams do come true, for $1.75 Canadian.

From Vancouver, we drove back across the US border (cleared customs in a record 35 minutes!) and on back to our home in Bremerton.