Vancouver Island Excursion

I always enjoy going to Vancouver Island.  It's a mini-continent!  Packed into 12 thousand square miles are rainforests; sunny beaches; mountains; lakes; glaciers; fine cities; and wilderness.  The northern part of the island is mostly a big tree farm; the southern part has many wineries.  You can ski, surf, sail, and golf...perhaps all in the same weekend!  My friends Dick and Wilma and I took the venerable MV Coho over to Victoria from Port Angeles last week; here's a totem pole in Victoria.

Victoria is a centre for tourism, recreation, and government.   This is the British Columbia parliament building, right across the street from the harbour.

An hour north of Victoria (in good traffic), the town of Chemainus has become a tourist attraction for its murals.  There are about forty of them, painted on building walls, depicting the history and culture of the area.  Here a local woman watches the first British ship arrive at Chemainus.

The west coast of Vancouver Island is wild and remote.  It was not connected to the rest of the island by a paved road until 1972.  This shoreline shot is along the fine Wild Pacific Trail at Uclulet.  We stayed at a fine lodge, in very pleasant rooms, with decks in the forest and peeks at the sea below.  A resident bald eagle chattered above us.

Pacific Rim National Park, on the west coast, has two loop trails of just over a kilometer each.  They wind through the rainforest, mostly on boardwalks.  We climbed-and descended-about 300 stairs by walking both trails.

The moss kingdom in the rainforest.

Massive cedars grow on Vancouver Island.  This was the big kahuna on the nature trail!

We drove back to Victoria and departed on the MV Coho, leaving the city behind.

There are numerous housing options on the Victoria waterfront.  If you don't want a swish condo, maybe a houseboat?

The harbour bustles with traffic ranging from seaplanes to kayaks to yachts, as well as ferries and cruise ships.  Here a pilot boat passes a coast guard patrol craft.   Blow the pic up for better resolution.

Once back in Port Angeles, we checked into a motel on a bluff overlooking the downtown area and the strait of Juan de Fuca.  A sunbeam lit up the spit protecting the harbor.

At dusk, the trusty MV Coho lands at Port Angeles, while the Norwegian Star heads for the open sea.  The cruise ship had been in Victoria.  From our motel, we descended a 108 step staircase to downtown and had a great dinner at Bella Italia...highly recommended!  The next days brekky at FIrst Street Haven was also fine.

Back in Puyallup last Saturday, the sun set with a fine display of crepuscular rays.

Dick and I went to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, and encountered this congenial puffin.