Thursday, June 26, 2014

From Ferry to Ferry

Thank goodness for Starbucks! Hate all you want on the corporatization of America, I have really appreciated being able to stop at Starbucks along the route to get internet! Unfortunately, we’ve been travelling slowly and pretty far away from any major towns, so Starbucks have been few and far between. Alas, we found one in Centralia so posting and charging time it is!

Anyway - for the route so far, this is roughly where we've traveled:

Our first ride, Vancouver to Tsawwassen, 32 miles.
From Tsawwassen, we took the ferry to Victoria. Or rather, we thought we took the ferry to Victoria. Turns out, the ferry actually drops off about 30 miles north of Victoria near Sidney.  Here's the route we took:

Our second ride, Tsawwassen to Victoria, approximately 22 miles of riding for a total 54 miles so far.


As the ferry headed towards into Victoria, we passed by some islands and saw some beautiful waterfront homes.
Beautiful homes set along the coast as we head to Victoria.

Gorgeous coastline

Thankfully, there was a separated bike path that took us all the way into town. The route was gorgeous, thickly wooded and not too hilly.

Pedaling down the beautiful path.

The trail went over several idyllic creeks. The views were amazing but the bumpy wooden road was annoying!

The best parts were the parts that were paved!

Our first stop when we made it into town was the Swan’s pub for dinner. Several locals recommended this place for its local brews, so we gave it a try.

Getting dinner at Swans “brew pub” and hotel

While we were outside locking up our bikes, a bunch of people stopped to ask us about our bikes and our trip. One couple, Yves and Patti, had done several previous tours and they invited us to stay with them for the night! We gladly accepted, thankful to have a warm shower and a nice place to sleep for the night. We ended up having a great conversation with them about their past trips and getting tips for starting out. Unfortunately, we totally forgot to take a picture with them. They are really into kayaking and do sea kayaking instructions. You can check out their website at www.gokayak.ca. Yves baked the most delicious maple syrup chocolate chip brownies and they sent us off with a few for the road. In the morning, Yves graciously biked us to a local outdoors store so Ethan could get a set of fenders. He also led us to the ferry station before we parted ways. Thanks to Yves and Patti for being amazing hosts and a great start to our trip!

From Victoria, we had originally planned on taking a ferry to Seattle, but turns out that ferry costs $240 for us and our bikes. We decided to take the cheaper route to Port Angeles even though that meant about 150 extra miles of biking. Even though we arrived at the station around 11 am, the next ferry to Port Angeles didn't leave until 3 pm so we had a lot of extra time to explore Victoria. We took our loaded bikes and biked around the area for a bit.

Checking out the Parliament building.

Totem poles! They seem to have a bunch in the Northwest region.


Queen Victoria – a reminder of Canada’s British heritage.


Ethan got really excited about this tree, he wanted to climb it!

After exploring the city a bit, we went to go check out Huntingdon Manor. It’s a beautiful little bed and breakfast that also serves High Tea! We went in and enjoyed some delicious high tea.


The entrance to Huntingdon Manor.


The manor

Hanging out in the gardens

I got a green tea and Ethan got a chai. They were both delicious!

Ethan enjoying his chai!

We had a lovely view of the gardens.

Our first course was strawberries tossed in sugar served with Chantilly cream. Delicious!

The traditional three tiered serving. Beautiful presentation and delicious taste!

My personal favorite thing was the croissant with prosciutto and aged cheddar. 

Close up of the pastries. We were in sugar heaven!

After leaving High Tea it was back on the boat for another ferry to our next leg of the trip!

Loading the bikes on the ferry to Port Angeles.

Well that’s it for Canada! We had a great time exploring and I’d love to go back some day! It will just have to be during summer because I don’t think I could handle a Canadian winter!

No comments:

Post a Comment