On our way to Vancouver Island

When we were at Lake Louise, we contacted Ric and Jenny Gates, who we caught up with in Washington State.  They are on exchange to Vancouver Island, so we thought we might pop over there to see them, particularly as we were so close.  As luck had it, they were one day ahead of us on the Parkway and would be home for a few days, so we headed that way.. spending the night in Revelstoke, (stopping along the way).....

 and stayed at a hotel where we had the rudest front desk attendant and a dodgy toaster!! (another story!) It was really hot and all we wanted to do was check in to our hotel and air conditioning, but we had also crossed a time zone, so got our times all wrong, and they made us wait and wait.  We eventually checked in only to find the internet was down, which can be very frustrating when you are travelling.  I had a great need to contact the boys and to not have that service resulted in a 10 second meltdown for me, which I soon got over. We ended up at a Macca's, which had internet, where we were able to book a nights accommodation...in Vancouver.

The next morning we headed south to Vancouver......stopping at a lake so Stu could have a quick swim.  Even though the outside temperature is warm, the water is always bloody freezing, so it's usually jump in, and then straight out!

We had to stop to buy some bread for lunch (have I mentioned bread in North America is terrible?) and this is usually from a supermarket.   Walmart was our choice of bakery this time.  We have a ritual where we park the car away from everyone else and leave Joshuah at the car, where he plays basketball by himself.....when we get back from the shop Stu has a quick game of one on one before we head off. This time it was a shopping trolley that was his opponent!

We're not that bad parents though, as we also try and find a school or park with a basketball hoop for him to use.
 We headed down the mountains towards Kamloops.  We have driven through here before and I really like the scenery....

and down through Lake Shuswap.  We had stayed in a cabin on an island in Lake Shuswap 5 years ago, so again it was great to revisit the area.  It's a huge lake and there were plenty of people out and about on it and there are houses and cabins literally everywhere.....

  I would love to have taken a house boat out for a night, but it is way too expensive.  Here's one that would have done the trick....

Salmon Arms was particularly beautiful on this day and we took a walk up the jetty, and this is where Stuart mentioned to someone that they had a "flash camera".  They replied with "why would I need a flash, it's daylight!" Language!

The drive down the mountain was incredible....steep roads, lakes, huge mountains either side of you,

finally arriving in Vancouver around 6pm.  We had booked a hotel not too far from the ferry to Nanaimo (which is where Jen and Ric are on Vancouver Island) and once we were settled and had internet again, made a booking to catch a ferry across for the following day. Unfortunately everything was booked out to Nanaimo, so we had a change of plan and booked a ferry crossing leaving Tsawwassen (Vancouver) and arriving on the south of the island at Swartz Bay (Victoria).  This changed our plans a little as we had wanted to get across to the west coast of VI, so we also booked a couple of nights accommodation in a tiny town called Jordan River, before we were to head to Nanaimo. So our accommodation in Vancouver ended up being nowhere near the Nanaimo ferry and the next morning we had a 50 minute drive to the ferry terminal....which was fine...Vancouver was still sleeping at 9am on a Saturday.