MONDAY,
AUGUST 4 :
THE
GOOD: Even though we had to check
out of our RV park by 11:00, it had a place where we could leave the trailer
for the day for only $18. Such a deal! We wanted to see Vancouver Lookout before we
left. This is an observation deck on top
of a glassed-in elevator which swoops you to the top on the outside of the
building. We thought it would be a fun
way to end our stay here – to see all of the places we’d been from a bird’s eye
view.
So we
walked once more on the Seawall from Stanley Park easterly, towards Canada
Place. A couple of cruise ships were
docked this morning. Either on their way
or coming back from Alaska. Hope the
passengers had, or will have, decent weather this late in the sailing season
thru the Inland Passage. The Harbour Centre, which houses the Vancouver
Lookout, is just a few blocks west of the Seawall. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the
observation deck. We spent a good amount
of time just working our way around the 360-degree views, and then joined a
tour guide, who was very engaging and reinforced a lot of what we’d learned and
experienced in our week here, as well as adding some new anecdotes & info
(including the fact that Vancouver is the 3rd largest film industry
city in North America – after of course Hollywood & NY). It really was fun to view all the places we’d
been. By now, we had a good grasp of the
layout of the area, including downtown, and could identify which direction we
were looking, what we’d expect to see, etc.
On our way stroll back, stopped at a fish place to get a quick bite, which we enjoyed on the Seawalk across from the Harbor. Reminisced about our Harbour cruise as a boat went by.
Continued
our last walk to the truck, our last drive over the Lions Gate Bridge, to the
RV park, where we hitched things up, and were on our way.
We’re so
glad we got to experience Vancouver as we did.
We were here long enough to really get a feel for the city. We saw for ourselves its reputation as a
cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic international-flavored city. I read somewhere that over 50% of its
residents has a language other than English as their native tongue. Literally everywhere we went, we heard a
plethora of languages . . . lots from tourists, but lots from locals as well. And I think I already mentioned that it’s one
of the most densely populated cities in North America, and one of the youngest
– in the West End of the city, right around 50% of its residents are between
the ages of 20-40. I’m sure that, in
large part, what attracts young, bright people here are a lot of the same
things that attracted us – the cleanliness of the city, its vibrant, colorful
diversity, and of course its gorgeous
location, surrounded by water and mountains, lending themselves to a perfect
climate in this season. And the city
appears to make every effort to encourage its residents (as well as its
visitors) to get out and enjoy its wonderful outdoor opportunities – miles and
miles of bike paths and trails, an abundance of lovely parks, lots of public
beaches, easy access to the waterfront, etc.
The only thing we’d do differently if we came back is spend more time
and bring more money – ha!
So we
drove to the ferry terminal, the one at Horseshoe Bay at the very west end of
West Vancouver which we passed two times
every day when we were staying in Squamish. At the urging of a ferry employee when we’d
made a stop here earlier in the week, we’d made reservations. However, the only sailing they had available
for us was 9:30 p.m. We didn’t like
that, as it meant that we’d be driving almost all the way in the dark to our
next campground, a good 1.5 hours away. But
we found out later that they only book 25% of their fillable space via
reservations – the others are all walk-on/drive-up. So we were hoping that we could get on an
earlier sailing. Yet, we didn’t want to
get over there early in the morning, just to be told that we there was no room
til 9:30 and then be stuck there with the RV waiting all day. So that’s how we arrived at the compromise we did –
enjoy our last morning/early afternoon in Vancouver, and then hope we’d “luck
out” with an early evening sailing. We
did! Got on the very next ferry – at
5:30.
But had some time to wait, and the very
nice employee invited us to leave our vehicle in line, and stroll over to the
Horseshoe Bay Village. So we did. Another lovely park. We found a shady spot and relaxed while we
listened to yet another entertaining street musician – this one specializing in
Jamaican tunes, mon.
While he was playing, we saw our ferry come in. Didn’t look as big as the ones we remembered
from Alaska, but must be – they sure packed in the vehicles!
And we’re on our way to our next place to
explore – Vancouver Island. The trip
over only took 1 ½ hours and was very, very relaxing. Just what we needed. But no spectacular scenery, like we were used
to in Alaska while ferry-cruising.
Most of the 60 or so miles south from Nanaimo (where
we docked) to the southern shore of the Island was pretty non-descript. Dotted with generic small towns, endless
strip malls, no scenery to speak of. Only
when we got within 10 or 15 miles of the southern shore did it begin to get
pretty.
Once we
found our RV park, and got settled in (see THE BAD and THE UGLY),
we were aware of how quiet and peaceful it was here. Will explore it more tomorrow.
THE
BAD: (1) When we left our downtown
RV park in Vancouver, we had to make a pretty sharp turn to get out. Bill thought he had plenty of room, but as we
were turning, we felt the trailer hit something with a Thud. Turned out that it went over a curb, and it
was the side with the steps to get inside the RV. So that night when we were setting up, we
discovered that the unit which holds the steps was mangled, rendering the steps
unusable. Neither of us can jump that
high! So Bill got the stepstool he uses
to get the kayaks on & off the truck roof, and that helped. But we still had to streeeetch!
(2) The
ferry arrived in Nanaimo around 7:10, and by the time we got off and on the
highway, was probably around 7:30. We
knew it was about 60 miles on the highway, and then a series of lesser roads to
the campground. Since it wasn’t getting
dark until around 10:00, we figured we had plenty of daylight to find
everything ok. Well, it took longer than
anticipated on the highway, because of hitting lots of red lights, etc. Then, once we were supposed to exit the
highway, we couldn’t figure out the Google directions – gave us non-existent
streets, or at least we couldn’t find them. Long
story short – it was now 9:30 and quickly getting very dark on these semi-rural
roads with no lights. We knew we were
close, but, in these conditions, “a miss is as good as a mile . . .”
As Bill was trying to turn around in a Y to go back to civilization, a
car approached from the other direction.
I boldly went over, and the guy and his wife immediately knew we needed
help. I asked if he knew where Peddler
Bay was . . . yes, he did, just follow him to the road which leads there. Truly an angel sent from Above! (Guess this last part would go under “THE
GOOD.”)
THE UGLY: When we opened up the RV (with the aid of
our stepstool!), that Thud had opened a couple of the kitchen cabinets, and two
ceramic mugs had fallen out and shattered, as did a couple of hard plastic
plates and glasses. There were pieces,
large and small, of glass everywhere; some got in the slides, unbeknownst to
us, so when I opened them, there was an excruciating sound of glass/plastic
breaking under pressure. That must be
what hell sounds like. Well, with everything opened, I carefully
cleaned all that mess up, while Bill was trying to extricate one of Pappy’s
plastic feeding bowls from underneath the kitchen slide. We have no idea how it got stuck in there,
but it was. Hard. It took Bill a full hour with various tools
and brute strength to finally get it out so that it wasn’t sticking out in the
middle of the kitchen floor.
THE
GOOD: I never did like those
ceramic mugs anyway – they were Bill & Katy’s old ones – just took up room,
and we never used them. And we had a
good reason to finish off a box of wine before bed!
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