August 7th Heading to Vancouver Island

 Since we had put enough miles on yesterday we knew we had a bit more time to spare getting down to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal.

We made it to Merritt by 10:30 for breakfast at Kryluk restaurant. Their specialty was bannock!

After a great breakfast we headed up the Nicola River valley about 6 kms. to Johnny’s On The Rez gas bar to let Jon & Meg fill up with Rez gas, then back out onto the Coquihalla #5 Highway.

The traffic was steady to heavy down to Hope where we pulled off for a stretch and walk around the town centre and coffee from the Blue Moose Cafe. We also checked out the many wood carvings around town.

We were on the road again and headed into the lower mainland for our 3:00 p.m. ferry appointments. At Chilliwack we hit the bumper to bumper traffic. So we began to worry about making our reservations even though we had an hour to spare we hadn’t counted on the Monday August long traffic starting 100 kms out of Delta! Lots of near stopping and slow downs as the convoy of vehicles accordianed its way to the city.

We made it to the terminal at 2:50 p.m 10 mins to spare!

Jon and Megs rig getting on the ferry.

Lots of excitement since this was a first time for the grandkids and Meg. It was a very nice crossing with lots of exploring done on the ferry.

We made it to Danica’s and Nicks by 5:30 and got ourselves set up for the night. They had supper waiting for us which was very nice. Then we headed to Coles Bay Park to explore the ocean and look for starfish and crabs and any other ocean life the kids could find.

This was James’s first time to explore the ocean. At first he was reluctant to catch crabs but then he got the hang of it with some prompting from his cousins.

Early to bed!