And now—to quote Paul Harvey – “for the rest of the story…”
DAY 7: arriving into Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
This morning as we woke up we were pulling into our final port, Vancouver.
Love this city! The sun was just coming up!
I have to say- I have personally been to Vancouver before and I loved the city. And I loved it all over again. The only part I didn’t enjoy was the crowd of people as they had a lot of extra activities going on that weekend!. After we departed the ship around 9:45-10:00 we were taken by bus to our hotel, the Westin Bayshore! {Insert plug}: I LOVE Starwood properties!! Seriously!
Our view while at the Westin Bayshore!
They smell so wonderful when you walk in and they truly DO have “the” Heavenly beds! AND Fred even let me sleep with the curtains open so I could fall asleep staring out at the lights of the city- (I love doing that! AM I weird or does anyone else like that?). Our room had a great view of the bay and the pool. After getting settled we decided to go next door to Carderos for lunch. (Great choice! As recommended by hotel staff!). We had squid for an appetizer- SO glad we did. And a specialty mushroom pizza for the main meal and it was good too! From there we rented bikes. Stanley park was right behind our hotel so we were able to ride around the whole park which took about an hour and a half…. I for one really enjoyed it, would have enjoyed it more had it not been SO crowded! I wonder if we were there at a “normal” timeframe if it would’ve been more relaxing and enjoyable! For dinner that night we split a FABULOUS fish and chips at the hotel restaurant. (Again, since there were so many “extra” people in town getting a dinner reservation prior to 8:30 pm or even getting delivery wasn’t really an option).
DAY 8: Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada
This morning we woke up and walked 1 block to the White Spot! It’s a burger place that Vancouver has around that is very well known—and NO we didn’t get burgers! They serve breakfast too! And it was a good breakfast! Then we briskly walked back to the hotel and headed to the Lobby to meet our tour guide that would take us to Victoria for the day! What a trip this was. I will be completely honest- even travel agents have times where their expectations aren’t met! I was expecting some different things out of the day then actually happened but it was ok and we made the best of it. There was a lot of drive/travel time involved with this trip that wasn’t communicated at the beginning to us when we “signed on the line!”. But now I know!! So after a 45 minute bus ride we arrived at the ferry terminal. Here we waited a few minutes before boarding the ferry. Have any of you done this? It’s a neat experience to drive the bus onto the ferry and then everyone unloads and goes up on deck for the duration of the ride. Then we had a 90-minute scenic ferry tour to get over to Vancouver island. Once there we re-boarded the bus and then disembarked the vessel. Once on land we headed towards Vancouver Islands notorious Butchart Gardens! It was beautiful! So hard to grasp and imagine the hours that goes into it and also the mastermind(s) behind the design of the gardens! After a quick 2 hours here at the gardens we continued on driving until we came to Victoria, British Columbia’s Capital City! Again – unbeknownst to us – it was BC Day the following Monday (which is like our 4th of July AND we were in their CAPITAL hometown—you do the math?!) which meant LOTS OF PEOPLE and closed off roads. We got dropped off and had about an hour and a half to walk around and explore the downtown area. {INSERT: Ice cream stop for the Rokey’s!} Then we loaded the bus and headed back across town, to the ferry, across the sea, off the ferry, back on the bus, and back into Vancouver around 9:30 pm. It really was pretty to see the city all lit up at night even if it was a long day of traveling!
DAY 9: A happy homecoming!
Finally- our last morning waking up without a morning snuggle from my little guy…. This morning we had a little more energy as we anxiously got up and headed off once more- this time to the airport! It was a long go- through three checkpoints before we made it to our gate and were able to finally sit down and grab a bit of breakfast. From there we had a nonstop flight from Vancouver to Chicago. Once on the ground we obtained our vehicle and away we went! Only stopping long enough to get lunch/supper before continuing on to pick up our son! We picked Clayton up around 6:30 pm. He was 6 months 3 weeks when we left him but coming home he was just a few short days away from 7 months! It was so exciting to see him and the smiling and his kicking feet quickly gave him away! We snuggled and cuddled and loved on him the rest of the evening before it was time for bath, bottle, and bed!
So in closing: how do you know it was a successful vacation? Because you were ready to be back home!
So here I am- having been home already for 1 week! I hit the ground running- returning calls, emails, and trying to continue sending people to their dream locations! So thank you for being patient to “wait” for the “rest of the story!”……
Safe Journeys
Megan
All My Passions 