I didn’t know the boy would be moving out the day after we got home, so now I’m even more stoked that we got our trip in with him! He’s like his father, not very opinionated, easy going, good with whatever. So when we talked about where to go on his trip, he had no thoughts. We had a credit with West Jet for a delayed flight last summer so thought we’d use it for this trip. That meant somewhere in Canada. Some good friends had gone to Vancouver this summer and when I googled top cities in Canada, Vancouver came up. So we settled on a visit there. The credit ended up not being such a good deal so we used miles instead. As soon as we landed, we hopped right in our rental car and against the advise of the guy at the rental car counter, went straight to the ferry port. We had a reservation for 12:45pm but knew that we could have two and a half more hours on Vancouver Island if we made the 10:15am ferry. BC Ferries was the option we chose for it’s port locations and cost. And it was cheaper to rent and return the car from the same spot. So we took the rental car on the ferry. The reservation says that you need to be there 30-60 min early, we arrived at 10:08am, and were ushered right onto the ferry, we were the last car on! It’s such a great way to start off a trip, having extra time!
We took the ferry to Nanaimo, because it was closer to McLean Mill. An old historic lumber mill we wanted to check out. We discovered a forest on our way and so our first stop was Cathedral Grove, in MacMillan Provincial Park. Wow. It was a little chilly, and rainy, but SUCH a beautiful stop. When we planned our trip, I had no idea we’d hit fall color. I’d have to say the fall color on this trip was spectacular, the best I’ve ever seen.
From here we went to McLean Mill. I wasn’t really sure what to expect because it was closed for the season, but you could still walk through and do a self guided tour. It far exceeded our expectations. Some people complain that it’s run down, but it’s an old historic lumber mill, what do you expect? We loved it!
We were a little cold after our rainy rainforest exploration, we put on dry sweatshirts and the umbrellas helped keep the rain off.
There’s really quite a bit to see here. You can walk around the old mill, check out the system they used to gather the logs, see old equipment around and also the train engine they used to transport the men.
From here, we drove over to Port Alberni to see the views before we drove down to Victoria. We grabbed some sweets and set out for the two and half hour drive.
We arrived in Victoria after the sun set. The parliament building is beautiful all lit up at night.
The view from the little float house we rented made us excited to see it in the daylight.
The hubby woke up early and set out for a walk. I awoke a little while later and joined him so the boy could sleep in. That was his only request for the trip, that he get to sleep in and we not have early mornings. 🙂
Fisherman’s Wharf was really peaceful in the morning, before all the tourists arrived.
Our B&B, Fisherman’s Wharf Floating B&B, gave us free breakfast at Imagine Cafe. We all had the breakfast sandwich which was delicious.
Not on purpose, our B&B was walking distance to our whale watching tour. We dressed in layers knowing it’d be cold on the boat. We were really hoping to see orcas but it wasn’t meant to be. We did however see quite a few humpback whales. We booked a discount price through Viator, sailing with Orca Spirit, in a covered vessel because of the rain.
We also saw seals and sea lions at the Race Rocks Lighthouse on our way in. As well as a few bald eagles!
We decided on Red Fish Blue Fish for lunch. And wow. Everything we had was amazing, the fish chowder was fantastic, as was the cod fish n chips.
With our bellies full, we drove the 40min to Swartz Bay for the ferry back to Vancouver.