Vancouver Island, BC

On Monday we left our new friends place in Snohomish Washington and headed north for the border. Enroute we each successfully found a pharmacy with the new bivalent COVID booster and also got our flu shots for the season as we were not sure when or if either would be available to us in Canada. 

We crossed the border about noon and headed straight for the ferry to Vancouver Island. The only glitch was that both of us were randomly selected for an observed COVID test within 24h of entry. While not without complications of trying to do this via video call over a hotspot from camp, done!

We found camp at Gold Stream camp outside of Victoria and celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a hike and then a taco salad dinner generously made by our traveling friends the Carey's. 

The celebratory toast!

The Carey's at the falls.

On Tuesday we ventured into Victoria to wander around town and see some sights. Enroute we hit a piece of road debris and destroyed a tire on the van. We had to move through traffic and pulled off to a side street...and right into a Dodge dealership who advertised "Tires". Despite our vehicle being a 33 year old VW, and in typical Canadian fashion, they were happy to help.  A technician came and swapped on our spare while the parts guy got a tire on order, to be delivered in about an hour! We went on our way and dropped Juno at doggie daycare only about 30m later than planned and headed into town. 

We found a great pub for lunch and then visited Chinatown, city center, BC Parliament, and Beacon Hill Park. 

BC Parliament building

(Maybe more pics from Rebecca later)

We headed back in the late afternoon and picked up Juno, and our brand new tire was swapped for onto Byron so he's all matching again. 

Today we head north on the island to explore more of this beautiful place and meet more amazing people.