Thursday – Up and eating breakfast at 8 – another rather sorry breakfast. Also had freezing shower this morning as lady who ran B&B decided to do a load of laundry at 7:30 a.m. – right when everyone is trying to take a shower. Hello?? Damn near sucked the breath right out of me. Off to catch the ferry by 8:45 – made it as the last car they could fit in – barely got the rear of the car on the ferry and that was only with the nose of the car wedged underneath a huge concrete truck. If that truck had backed up about 2”, I’d be buying a new hood. Fortunately, didn’t happen.

About a 40 minute ferry ride to Alert Bay – no whale sightings. Unfortunately. Nice ride over though.




Took tour of cultural museum on island – very nice museum with incredible collection of potlatch items, including many, many excellent masks.




The Indians were outlawed back in the early 20’s from having potlatches and didn’t get that law repealed until 1951. The white man really did a number (once again) on them. Many of their artifacts were sold off to museums for practically nothing. If you’re not familiar with a potlatch, that will be your Google test of the day. Also “coppers” as unique types of “cash” – large pieces of copper that had drawings on them and were considered great signs of wealth amongst the Indians, although the white man didn’t seem to grasp this concept either. Good ol’ missionaries – they do know how to fix up the “heathens”.

After the museum, grabbed a burger on the wharf at a real dive, but it was a good burger and that’s all that counts. Headed for the “Big House” next where they were giving an afternoon dance performance. Janet and I (as well as the rest of the audience) even got to dance in the final dance – brought back old memories of childhood – just needed my Davy Crockett coonskin hat , but then maybe the Indians wouldn’t have thought that was such a great idea. Janet and I did win the dance contest though and our likenesses are now being enshrined on a totem that will be at the entrance to the “Big House”. (you do believe this, don’t you?). Actually, we were banned from the Big House for life for breaking into a lively “breakdance”. LOL



Time to hit the ferry again and head back south towards Campbell River. A couple of nice stops along the way – one for a delicious wild Sockeye Salmon burger on delicious bread and a hearty bowl of some very good clam chowder in Sayward. Best meal we’ve had so far. Taking a side row to catch a view of a river, we were standing on a bridge when a bald eagle came right down river and passed right over our heads – magnificent! Of course, by the time the ol’ digital warmed up and focused, I think the bird was nesting somewhere in the Artic. I did catch a blip of it’s tail feathers though, I believe.

Just before entering Campbell River, caught a beautiful sunset view of Sayward Narrows which is shown here.

Wed – left Campbell River this morning and decided to skip the hike in the woods and proceed directly to Telegraph Cove to go out on a whale watching trip. Did some laundry and accessed the Internet at an Internet café. No email worth retrieving, of course, except did get a post from Sarah on our blog.

Beautiful drive up towards Telegraph Cove – about a 2 ½ hour trip to the extreme N.E. corner of the Island. Best scenery we’ve seen so far. I’d post some pics but just don’t have the energy to look at them, fix them up, upload them and then post the links to them. Maybe when I get a free moment. Ha!

Typing this about 11 pm. Took me about 30 minutes to set up the correct dialing rules on laptop to use calling card, plus Earthlink number - enough to drive one crazy. – just got back from our whale watching venture. We did manage to get within about 75 yards of 3 Orcas, which was pretty neat, but they were just doing gentle ups and downs in the water – no big awesome breeches or anything, which would have been nice. Before we went on the trip, we stopped at the B&B we are staying at tonight and there were 2 guys from Switzerland who had just come off a trip who ran into about 45 Orcas, many of which came up right next to their boat. I knew we were doomed then, as they mentioned they had moved on. The 3 we did see were in the Robson Bight ecological preserve, which is a protected cove – we saw these 3 inside the cove at first, but we’re not allowed to enter. They were probably a ¼ mile away at the time. Fortunately, they came out of the cove later and came fairly close as I mentioned above. They were inside “rubbing” themselves against the bottom , which apparently is one of their favorite past times. Many theories on why they might do that – one is that it is a sort of “mating” activity, yet others think they do it simply because it feels good. The captain put a sonar mike in the water and we could hear them vocalizing – now that was cool. Lot of research labs – mostly small tent platforms throughout this area – where researchers from around the world come to spend the summer monitoring the whales as they pass through. On the way back, we passed through a pretty sound called Blackfish Sound – the First Nations people’s name for whales was “Blackfish”. That’s my trivia point of the day. Did take some pics of the whales, but with a 35-100 zoom, it just doesn’t cut it, unless they’re on top of you.




Staying at a real nice house tonight, with a bay window that overlooks the bay. The lady who runs the B&B said she watched this group of some 40 Orcas pass through about an hour before we arrived. Grrrrrrrr……

Tomorrow morning – up bright and early to take a 40 minute ferry ride over to Alert Bay to see the First Nations cultural center. Supposed to really nice – totem carvings, native dances,etc.
Gotta run now - every minute in Canada takes up 5 minutes on my calling card , so no time to upload pics at the moment. That will have to wait till I get back to an area where I can use local access number for Earthlink. See ya!

Monday - Up this morning to be greeted with another iffy breakfast. My stomach/colon are beginning to rebel. We're off for Nainamo though, and have booked a room at another B&B.
Just one of the nice views overlooking Cowichan Bay.


Hopefully, will have better breakfasts anyway. Stopped at a little town with about 30+ murals painted on the walls. Pretty well done too.
. This is one of the murals that depicts various members of the founders of this town.



Also had a chance to listen to a one man Peruvian band. We love this kind of music - pan flutes,charango,etc. Ended up buying 2 CD's off of this guy.



Had a nice long conversation with a guy who had moved here from Alberta and was now running a small little noodle shop - made damn good noodles too. Eh? was his favorite word, as it is with most Canadians.

Made it to our destination around 6 p.m. Downstairs suite of a lady's house. Nice big den which is ours for the using. Bit musty, but only in the mid 40's range, so we won't bitch much. Of course, by morning, I may be on oxygen, but....

Took a real long walk along a beautiful harbor this evening. Not sure what the plan is tomorrow - debating - will probably be debating in the morning.

Note - all pics above are clickable, leading to full sized image.

Sunday
Museum day – after a rather god awful breakfast at the B&B we’re staying at (nice B&B – Chinese couple’s home – the breakfast made me realize how good our breakfasts generally are. LOL ). Downtown to the Royal British Columbia Museum to see a large dinosaur exhibit called “Dragon Bones” from China and then continuing on to see a First Nation exhibit – the story of the native Indians of British Columbia. Some great totems here and a very interesting exhibit – unfortunately, no photos in the Indian part of the museum.

Left this museum and headed downtown to the water to grab some food. Janet had Fish and Chips and I had a Neptune Wrap (seafood and lettuce inside a soft red tortilla). Not bad – overpriced as much of the food is. Seems like it is hard to eat for under $20.

Back on the museum beat – off to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria which was having an exhibition of painting by the “Group of Seven”, who happen to be a group of painters from the 20’s and 30’s who sketched and painted much of the Rockies. They were an influence on Emily Carr’s work. Quite well known in Canada – art illiterate that I am, I had figured maybe they were some gang of hoodlums, whose wanted posters just happened to be in the Art Museum. Good exhibit though. Now that we’ve done the museum thing, we decided enough is enough and headed down to a pretty park in the area where we watched them playing cricket for awhile (we had absolutely no idea what the hell they were doing – Gary, you’ll have to give us lessons on this!). Snoozed off in the car for awhile, then strolled the gardens – beautiful gardens in the middle of the city . Off for a Starbucks latte, then a stroll around China town (Canada’s oldest Chinatown).
Haven’t seen a cop all day – maybe I can move to Canada and become a cop – they must sleep in all day, or maybe they’re like firefighters and hang around playing cards till someone gets murdered, which apparently never happens. Never heard a siren or saw a flashing light – astonishing. Weather is perfect again – sunny – mid 80’s , but always a cool breeze - no humidity. It seems that we’re blessed during the summers going to the different coasts of Canada. (Eat your heart out Becky and Gary! LOL - and you too Sarah – sweltering away down there in good ol’ Arkieland!).

Seabiscuit, the movie is out – want to see that after both of us listened to the audible.com book. Ya gotta read this book – it’s fabulous. Will be interesting to see how the movie is – gets generally pretty favorable reviews – we shall see – would be hard to live up to Lauren Hillenbrand’s writing.

Would post this, but have been switched to a different room at the B&B and no phone in this room. Thus, will have to wait. Still trying to find some time to post some pics

Well, falling behind a bit now. Messing with getting the pictures to show and the links to work, held me up for a day. That, and full days of sightseeing are doing me in.

Friday – headed down to Granville Island ( a part of Vancouver) to check out the shops. It’s sort of an area tucked underneath a bridge. Lot of art studios surrounded by industrial type shops – rather strange assortment. Apparently someone got the idea this area would make for a neat place to have shops and from the looks of the place, the public sure bought into it. Had a chance to see some of Susan Point's work , an absolutely incredible artist. Check out her website.

Then a short drive to Stanley Park, a gorgeous park with beautiful gigantic cedar trees, an outstanding collection of totem poles, and a fabulous place to walk (a seawall takes you around the entire park) and a less than memorable lunch at an overhyped restaurant in the park. Then headed over to Vancouver’s aquarium which is also in Stanley Park. Saw a show with Beluga whales and also dolphins, although we thought the river otters and sea otters were the best part of the aquarium. The sea otters were a hoot – 2 of them just floating around on their backs , holding each other’s little paw in their hand. Also saw an octopus become quite active at the moment we passed his tank – had never seen one actually moving before .

We then headed out to Lighthouse Park just before it got dark – caught some very nice views of the Vancouver skyline from there. Then back downtown to Denham St, which was one hopping place. Did the tourist stroll number and had an outstanding slice of NY pizza. A lot of gelato shops here too – Vancouverians seem to be in love with the stuff. One thing I have noticed about Vancouver – I never see a cop! I think we’ve seen maybe one. In the states they’d be everywhere – of course, in the States we like to kill each other frequently – that doesn’t happen in Canada. One other thing I’ve noticed – the crossing lights for pedestrians have these weird noises they make every time you’re supposed to wait and every time you’re supposed to walk. Is beginning to drive us batty – sounds like some crazed bird. Interestingly, everyone seems to wait for the “Go” signal. Getting way late now – time to head back home and call it a night.

Saturday - Up early, down to a Dutch place for a strange sort of crepe breakfast – not worth much more mention. Just down the road, went to visit a Chinese Buddhist Temple – fascinating place – beautiful architecture and the hugest Buddha’s I’ve ever seen. Lot of folks there with the smoking incense and making offerings. Passed by a class (or so it looked) with people chanting and reading from some big book - not sure if many people spoke English here – definitely was different from our rather staid religions.

A buzz to the ferry for a 1 ½ hour trip to Vancouver Island and our next place to spend the night – Victoria – capital of British Columbia. Stopped in Sydney first , which was a sort of old folk’s beach town with typical tourist junk. Didn’t stay long – enough time to grab a Gyros and head on down the road. After some hair pulling finally located our B&B. Headed downtown for some dinner - ate in a very popular restaurant - place was humming - good seafood.Had a Bonto Box (an assortment of steamed seafood items – some quite spicy). Janet had to have her favorite – fried calamari. And then I threw diabetic caution to the wind and we succumbed to a chocolate banana brulee (to die for). More window shopping and prowling around the waterfront (they light up the Parliament building at night – very touristy effect, thus I am sparing you a photo of that!). Strolled the streets till about 10 pm and then were pooped. Noticed that I had gotten fried to a crisp on the ferry coming across. Better buy some sunscreen , duh..... Will try to post some pics later. Hard to find the time.