Going West 2013: Tuesday July 9

Written in Sooke, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Yesterday I called around to various RV dealers to look at the camper. I have an appointment for Thursday for an evaluation. We met Jordan and Katie and Doug and Rosann Bowerman around noon to travel to Port Angeles, WA to get the ferry to Victoria, BC. It’s about a 2 ½ hour drive up Rt. 101 to the Olympic peninsula and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which separates the US and Canada. We drove up in two cars but left Jordan’s car in Port Angeles and all piled into the truck for the ferry trip and the next two days of travel. It’s really quite comfortable. The ferry ride is about 90 minutes and it was a sunny day, so a very pleasant trip. Once on Vancouver Island we drove to Sooke, where we rented a three bedroom condo. This turned out to be a wonderful idea, much cheaper than a hotel, and there is a complete kitchen, laundry, etc. It’s three stories, a bedroom on each level, and a deck overlooking Sooke Harbor on each level. TV, internet, phone included and everyone has their own private space. A winner!

This morning we were out by 7:00 to drive 90 km to Botanical Beach. This is an area of rock that has many tide pools, puddles that remain when the tide is out. Low tide was 8:30 AM and the road made it a 90 minute trip. Another rather twisty road, but not too bad in comparison to some we’ve been on. The round trip to the beach was a 2.5 km walk through the woods, well worth it. We saw many things in the pools, mostly anemones and small fish. The rocks themselves were covered with thousands of mussels. It was fun climbing around on the rocks, Jordan even climbed part way up a cliff to a hollow area.

From there we went back to the condo for lunch, then into Victoria to visit Craigdarroch Castle, a home built in the late 1800’s by a coal baron. He died before the house was complete , but his family had the mansion for a while.[He had 10 children] Back at the condo we grilled steaks for dinner and enjoyed a relaxing evening… Much better than trying to find a restaurant.