Canada

CANADA!!!! July 9

My first PASSPORT STAMP!!!! Although I've been to Canada (Niagara Falls) and also across our southern border to Mexico, those times I was able to use my driving permit and driver's license. Call me crazy, but I was SO PUMPED to get my passport stamped. To back up...

When we arrived at Fidalgo Bay, we met our neighbors and asked them for recommendations of things to do around here. They said one of their favorite trips was on the ferry over to British Columbia. So we decided to take their advice. At first, we thought we would just get off the ferry and be in Victoria, the capital of B.C., but learned the ferry terminal was in Sidney, B.C., about 17 miles north of Victoria. No problem, we decided to take the bus for the second part of our day in British Columbia.

After our busy days in Seattle, we decided that we would go to Canada Sunday, but the buses rarely ran on that day so we quickly decided to extend our stay at Fidalgo Bay to total a week (that required moving the Newell to a new campsite - but all good decisions there). So Monday was the decided day to leave the good ol' US of A.

If you haven't caught on yet, we plan fairly well what our day is going to be like if we are leaving the Newell. Dad spent a few hours on the Washington State ferry website learning about the ferries, their schedules, parking, and other aspects of our adventure. I, however, spent a few hours deciding what to WEAR! Just kidding, I did quite a lot of the planning for this expedition, but I also did think a lot about what to wear. I did not want to have to carry around a lot of extra clothes when we arrived in Canada, because I knew I would get toasty and tired of carrying around extra stuff. However, I also knew that it would be super cold in the morning. I just took a gamble on what the ferry would feel like inside. Finally, I decided on Toms, shorts, a t-shirt, and a long sleeve shirt. And boy, did I pay for it!!! SO COLD IN THE MORNING!!! But once we got off the ferry, it felt great.

But not to jump ahead of myself - from our research, we decided that we needed to be in the Jeep, and on the way at 7:30 am. We knew there were 1200 parking spots to choose from, and we knew what time the ferry left. Well, both Mom and Dad have a tendency to park far away from the final destination in order to protect our cars as much as possible. So Dad passed TWO, TWO!!!! half empty lots for the third lot that was up a hill and we had to take a NATURE TRAIL to the ferry. In the cold. I was not thrilled about this at all.

Here I am walking to the ferry. Not even kidding. Pouting definitely.

Our ferry tickets to Sidney, B.C.

Not happy with the parking situation.

This is what our ferry looked like. There were so many ferries sailing along.

What it looks like on the  northern Pacific Ocean at 8:00AMin the middle of the summer. COLD.

Wake of the boat - pretty significant.

Such a beautiful life.

Friday Harbor - we left the port and then went back in - after, we found out that someone had fallen asleep and didn't get off so the boat actually went back to drop them off!

Pulling into the Sidney, B.C. port - CANADA!

Hi, Canada!

Walk-on passengers were allowed to exit before the cars and head towards customs. I have never been through customs before so I was bit nervous, but managed to get through and only made one mistake as I walked up there with my sunglasses on. I had to ask for my passport stamp, but by golly, I GOT IT!!!

Foreign land! Here's where things really start to get fun. Remember the Newell friends we met in OR? Well, they live in Victoria, B.C. and Murray emailed Dad telling him to give them a call when we got off the ferry, so we did. Murray said, "well, forget the bus, we'll pick you up at 5th and Beacon in ten minutes." Well, our trip to Victoria is about to get 100 times more fun. We decided to exchange a little money for the bus back to the ferry so we went into the bank and teller goes "oh do you want that in loonies and toonies?" Excuse me? Apparently, that is change so that's what we got.  Still have them somewhere!

Murray and Mary picked us up and took us to lunch at the Empress Hotel in downtown Victoria. This hotel was built in 1908 for when the Queen visits. So, in modern terms, if Will and Kate ever show up in Victoria, they will stay there!!!! What a wonderful lunch we had! We ate outside on the veranda and because it was a bit chilly, Mary and I covered up with the blankets the restaurant provided for us. This is living. Murray, Dad, and Mary had the fish and chips and I had a salad with salmon. But that's almost totally irrelevant to what we had for dessert. In the White family, we never order dessert. Never, ever. But apparently, much of the rest of the human race does, and when it shows up, we eat it. Well, I ate A TON of it to say the least. I don't even know what this was called, but let's call it totally amazing.

Ice creme, whipped creme, lemon puffs, chocolate pieces, strawberry filling. It goes on and on!!!!!!

Never eating again!!!! It took me two hands to pick up the bowl even when it was empty.

The Empress Hotel - where there is still high tea and it is fit for a queen

Flowers at the Empress Hotel

Windows at the Empress

Wonderful lunch with Mary and Murray. Such great tour guides.

View at lunch of the Victoria Harbor. We saw a few sea planes land.

For the rest of the afternoon, Murray and Mary drove us all over Victoria!! It was a delightful afternoon seeing Parliament, more ocean, beautiful homes, and all the old buildings in Victoria. We even got to the see their Newell again at the their house before they dropped us at the ferry. How lucky are we??

We stopped to check out this guy who was soaring in the wind in this special chair. SO beautiful!

There he is again in the background. We also saw him land like it was no big deal!

Victoria is the capital city of B.C., and this is their legislature building.

Mile Zero exists in Canada, too!!

The beautiful shoreline.

After a wonderful afternoon with our friends, we returned to the ferry terminal in time, passed through customs with flying colors, and boarded for the 3 hour ferry back to Anacortes. Luckily, we didn't have to go to Friday Harbor twice like we did on the way to B.C., and made it into port on time at 8:30 and just in time for this beautiful sunset!

Our ferry, the sun, and the tree in the way

Every day on this trip seems to get better and better. What wonderful luck that Murray and Mary pulled into Seven Feathers, and we went over to introduce ourselves. And what even better luck that they are such amazing people to take care of us when we were there for such a short time!!!


Oh, Canada...