Finding America

We had a nice breakfast at the Queen Mary Café at the entrance to our RV Park. Pretty good meal and we met a nice young couple from the UK traveling by RV around the Island. They were traveling with their toddler and it was good to see that a baby isn’t necessarily the end of traveling and adventure.

We Packed up Kodi and pulled out headed west towards Sooke and China Beach for a little exploring before heading to the ferry. Like a Florida summer afternoon the clouds cam rolling in and the weather turned quickly foul. With the ominous clouds blocking our path to the west we decided to head north in stead and perhaps catch an earlier ferry to Vancouver ahead of the weather.

On the way we saw sign for Butchart Gardens and pulled off the freeway with the hope of taking a quick spin through the gardens before the storm broker or our ferry departure. It seemed the cards were stacked against us because 100 yards from the gates of Butchart it began to hail. LOL it began to hail. Ahhh not good weather for a garden tour.

Fortunately we had a plan “C” and spent some time in the amazing butterfly garden nearby. Thankfully the garden is indoors and the indoor temp was more like that of an equatorial rain forest. Check out the video.

After our butterfly experience we continued on up the east coast through Syndey to the Schwartz bay ferry terminal. We purchased our ticket and pulled Kodi into the line of semis and other RV’s. We had a quick bite to eat at the ferry terminal’s café and then hopped back in the trailer to wait for the departure. Kam took a nap on the bed while we waited and I did some reading and just enjoyed having no internet with which to accomplish any work and just a comfy couch and a good book to occupy my time.

The ship we boarded for the crossing was much larger than our ferry yesterday and actually had two levels for vehicles. It was quite a bit cleaner as well inside and offered a few more amenities. We grabbed some hot drinks and strolled to the aft of the ship . The weather had miraculously cleared and we figured there the picnic benches on the deck were a good spot to enjoy the cool, sunny weather and to take in the scenery of the passing Gulf Islands.

The Gulf Islands were so beautiful and we promised to come back to the area some time and rent a home on one of them for the Summer. I must say the thought of reading a good book in the summer sun upon our own isolated beach has a certain appeal. You have to unplug sometime … right?

We arrived in Vancouver and plugged in our RV Park’s address into the GPS and realized we had to go right through the middle of the city with Kodi in tow. It was not a very fun drive, there was quite a lot of traffic and pretty tight quarters sandwiched between city busses and anxious commuters. Our nerves cooled as we got out of the CBD and started seeing some green space again. We pulled into our RV Park in Burnaby and were pleased to have found a quiet and lush park to call home for the next three nights.

After Kodi was parked we cleaned up and went in search of some sushi. We had a little trouble finding the one suggested by the RV Park attendants but Maggie (our Magellan GPS) came to the rescue and pointed us to Kirin Sushi in New Westminster. A 10 minute drive brought us to this little nondescript sushi bar. The look of the place might have been a bit discouraging had the sushi not been so fresh and so exceptional. Truly, other than our Sushi Station experience in Solana Beach, this was the best sushi we had ever eaten and the price was so ridiculously cheap we thought they had misprinted the menus.

Our $35 dinner for two included: Miso Soup, Noodle and cucumber salad, big tray with 2: 6 piece rolls – California and cucumber – 4: 4 piece sashimi – 2 sushi x 4 – vegetable tempura – 2 massive oysters – Shrimp tempura and fried pork bites – oh and ice cream.

LOL suffice it to say we went to bed fat and happy. We were so pleased with our find that we were hardly phased by the drug deal we disturbed when we returned to our car. Well at least the US isn’t the only one struggling with a drug problem.