Category: Travel

It’s about 3:45 in the afternoon here and we’ve spent the whole day preparing for this moment. Pushing away from port is a big deal wrought with checks and double checks. Winding our way through line after line, we are now settled in our room, took a nap, had a bite to eat and are now waiting for them to push away from Vancouver and into the wild exotic frontier, inside passages, and ancestral waters of Alaska & First Nations of Canada.

Vancouver was nice but it’s too small for all that is expected of it. Like London, it’s grown out of its’ intention and now there are aerial cranes and construction everywhere trying to catch up to growth. Had to be shuttled right through the city to get to the Port. Once there, it was hard for the bus to park. People and traffic everywhere.

Now, we can look forward to some RnR a first night steak dinner and a thermal spa. The dramatic views are clouded by fog and thick over cast clouds. It’s chilly of course. We never thought to bring gloves and I can feel arthritis in my hands. dmc

An in-between events kinda day, getting the car dropped off, a shuttle to the cruise ship port, and boarding. Shoving off at 4:00pm PST.

Alaska or bust!

Made one more visit to the waterfront for dinner, and stumbled into the first ever White Rock Night Market. There was live music, food trucks, local artist’s works, and what seemed like half the population of the Vancouver area, all having a great time. Quite the event, these will happen on the last Friday of the month through September.

Took a drive south and since we’re only five minutes from the border, went to see The Peace Arch. From its website: “The Peace Arch, the only international gateway ever erected in the interest of peace among nations, was constructed on the boundary between Blaine, Washington and Douglas, British Columbia. The Peace Arch was dedicated in 1921 by Washington businessman and philanthropist, Sam Hill, to celebrate the existing century of peace between two great nations, the United States and Canada.”

Side note: the Arch sits right on the international border. Once past the Arch, we were on U.S. soil. There’s a turn around before the U.S. Border Checkpoint, which we took, of course. Which means we then hit the Canada Border Checkpoint, without badging into the U.S. I guess we were a couple without a country for a few minutes.

Always have your passports with you when out and about in foreign lands, kids.

Today, clear skies and sunny. No coat needed in the afternoon. We found ourselves at the VanDusen Gardens. A welcome relief from the traffic congestion around Vancouver. The traffic here is very frustrating. Yesterday it took us 2 1/2 hours to get back to our place. The evening before, just 45 minutes. We took side streets through neighborhoods trying to navigate our way quicker but so did everyone else. Watched our GPS go from green to red to yellow to red. It made our little seaside town a welcome relief.

Tomorrow we leave here to get “all aboard” and head north. A thermal spa awaits us. It’ll be nice to relax and let Holland America do the driving now.

So for now, here’s some beautiful flowers instead of traffic. And by the way, they don’t do emissions here. How would we know that? Driving behind old jalopies spewing pollution in such a eco delicate and aware place forced us to hold our nose and look it up on line. dmc

We were hoping to get to Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island today, but it’s a two and a half hour trip including the ferry. Opted instead to head back north to Vancouver to check out VanDusen gardens. Glad we did.

SO much color, so much in bloom. The Pacific Northwest is a little slice of botanical paradise.

Nectar collectors workin it everywhere.

Many paths taken, some paved, some mulched, some grassy.