September 29 – October 2
All the sunshine left us on Friday morning so we headed to Granville Island which is essentially a market area with a great section for kids (especially Grandpa) and a sandwich in a crowded market food court looking back on the city and thought Walmart for a rainy afternoon. Finally found it, bought $5 Lotto ticket and high-tailed it back to our apartment with parking 10 stories underground!
Saturday we walked a couple blocks to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the final day of the Monet exhibition and standing in line we met a couple of women who were from Bateman, the next suburb over from us in Winthrop.
After Monet we rubbed shoulders with the well-heeled shopping in Nordstrom before heading for home to prepare for Whistler the next day.
Sunday returned to our usual extremely sunny days for heading north to Whistler—past mile upon mile of Douglas Fir trees down to the waterline of the massive inlet of the sea. We were left struggling for adjectives to best describe the wonders around every corner. Whistler in sunshine and no snow is a bit like the Todd river in Alice Springs; the affluent (of all ages) either riding mountain bikes at break-neck speed down the mountainside or sipping Chardonnay under the umbrellas. But what a great day with the return journey equally breathtaking.
Monday with the sun still shining we deposited our apartment key at the local 7/11 store lock-box and made for horseshoe bay and the ferry to Victoria. ($22 to make a reservation plus about $80 for our car and load) so we opted for the cheap-arse option and easily squeezed on saving $22, enough to buy local Victorian B.C. ‘Wine Time’ or ‘Screw Me’ Pinot Grigio for the following few days.
The ferry trip is very professional, abundantly comfortable and panoramic views of land, sea and sky all round. Over an hour’s drive down to Victoria so we pulled into Bridgemans restaurant on Mill Bay; a classic Canadian restaurant over classic Canadian fir-tree lined lake. It was so good we plan to return again on Wednesday after visiting Unsworth winery in the same area.
And there you have it! For today we were at Butchart Gardens from 9am ‘til 1pm and then travelled around the Victorian city centre.
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