With a few English and Spanish explorer nick names at hand, we embarked on an amazing 9 day circumnavigation adventure of the Salish Sea in our swagger wagon. Our fist stop: Vancouver.
Vancouver has many amazing things to do, but with only two days, we did our favorites. The first was Granville Island. The market was inspired by our own Pike Place Market, but in my opinion is much grander and includes not only a food market, but also buildings upon buildings for local artists works, children's things, galleries, glass works, wood, ceramics, etc.
Our second day was spent in the beautiful Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver. This park is over 1000 acres and has a totem pole park, flower gardens, hiking trails, water parks, beaches, and the Vancouver Aquarium. The kids especially love the aquarium, so most of our day was spent seeing Baluga Whales, Dolphins, Otter, BC coastal exhibits, and Cole's favorite, the Tropical Zone. With his extensive knowledge of obscure animals, he was ecstatic in the hot tropical river monster section. I'm constantly amazed at his ability point out obscure species and give a wikipedia definition. He's like a mini Steve Irwin.
After two nights in Vancouver, we took the Tsawwassen Ferry through the Canadian Gulf Islands to our second stop: Pender Island. The 2.5 hour ferry trip winding through the islands on a beautiful sunny day was spectacular.
Our destination on Pender Island was a little gem of a place called Poets' Cove. The highlight of the trip was our 2 hour kayak paddle. We anticipated seeing a few seals, but lucked out and had the orca experience of a lifetime. Nate, Teresa, and I all had double kayaks with a child in the front, so the kids got a front seat view. Quite by accident, and almost out of nowhere, we found ourselves in the middle of a feeding frenzy of orca. At first they were a couple hundred yards away, and we saw a dorsal fin pop up, wherein we'd, "ohh... ahhh". Then suddenly, there was one behind us, to the left, to the right.... we couldn't pivot fast enough to catch the next breaching whale. At one point, 4 orca were swimming quite fast toward us, all abreast and in unison. I felt like I was in the middle of a Sea World show, except getting quite nervous at the speed they were coming at us. Fortunately, the whales always seem to know where the boats are, so they dove underneath us, and breached again only 10 yards away.
Cole had another wildlife adventure on Pender Island catching shrimp at night with a bunch of other boys staying on boats mored at the docks. Cole learned how to shine a flashlight down into the water near the pier and pull up a net of shrimp. He did it for hours our first night there... and caught about 100 shrimp! |
| Orca swimming right at us... and very fast! |
Leaving the remote tranquil Pender Island was difficult, but like all adventures, there's a little excitement on what lay ahead. While waiting in the ferry line to Sydney BC, Cole had the second best wildlife experience of his life. As we walked toward the ferry dock, Cole spotted a snake in the grass, and before I could even register what was happening, Cole yelled, "Snake!" and pounced on the snake. It happened so fast, even the snake was taken off guard. Luckily, it was only a garter snake. I let Cole hold it for awhile, then he proudly released it back into the wild, proclaiming, "Mom, that was the first time I caught a wild snake!" 
The ferry ride from Pender Island to Sydney BC was breathtaking. The breeze was unusually warm, the sun was shining, and the water looked like a billion sparkling diamonds.
Our third stop was Victoria. While in one of our favorite little cities, we spent one whole day at Butchart gardens. Surprisingly, the kids loved it. The highlight being the Saturday night fireworks show. It's one of the best shows to music I've ever seen, and we had a front row seat on a warm summer night. 
The following day we spent discovering the west side of Vancouver Island, drove up north to Sooke Harbor and spent the afternoon on a beautiful beach. Dinner that night was spectacular seafood feast at a Bed & Breakfast Nate's been excited about for over 10 years... The Sooke Harbor House.
Monday was our only day of rain, but we made the most of it and spent the afternoon at the kid's favorite museum, the Royal BC Museum of Natural History. The museum has an amazing display of natural history from the ice age to current land/forest landscapes. The human history part of the museum is a time travel of exhibits from coastal native peoples to early European settlers, with examples of various industries prevalent in the BC region: Farming, Logging, Mining, Canning.
Tuesday, we completed our Salish Sea journey by taking the Black Ball Ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles BC, and then the drive home from there. On the way, we made a quick stop at the NW Native Expressions in Sequim Bay and saw an artist carving a pole. It was a perfect end to our trip, a complete circumnavigation via ferry and swagger wagon of the Salish Sea.
It sounds like a beautiful trip!! I'm glad you guys lucked out with the weather for the most part. Maybe Neal and I will one day make our way to the Sooke Harbor House too :)
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