May 20 – June 1: Hope to Sooke
May 20-21: Spent the night at Wild Rose Park just south of Hope. Good park, dismal day, so we did little walking around. Barely got out to set up the power!
May 21-23: Burnaby Cariboo RV Park, site 165. Tiny sites. Best of only two parks within reasonable distance from Vancouver, where we had to be to attend a meeting downtown on the 21st. Took the SkyTrain in, easy and fast. Vancouver has changed SO much; we barely knew the downtown core. Finished our business in the morning, and walked to False Creek, then took the little ferry to Granville Island. Brought back many memories of living there, building our first boat there, and in fact getting married just down the creek aways. Had fabulous soup at the Stock Market! Ferried to Science World, then SkyTrain to Metrotown Mall before going home. One of the biggest we’ve ever been in, and was it ever busy! Finally back to our campground at the end of a very tiring day. 15,000 steps!!!
May 23: Left Burnaby to get to Tsawwassen for the ferry to Vancouver Island. We fortunately asked, and were told to NOT take the Patullo Bridge, unless we would be comfortable spanning two lanes going across. SO, we went via the Queensborough and Alex Frazer bridges – no hassle. Got to terminal 45 minutes before sailing, and got on no problem. $150 (CAD) later, we were in Sidney, on the Island.
May 23-24: Spent a lovely night at Island View Regional Park, RIGHT on the beach. Only 17 spots. Very windy, but beautiful. Site 11. No services.
May 24-26: Pedder Bay RV Resort – Site 21. Excellent park, full service. Had a wonderful visit with friends Natalie & Ron McCulloch, who live in Victoria. They brought food every night, including excellent quiche one night, super fresh spot prawns the next, then platefuls of scallops the third. To compensate, and for the pleasure, we walked to Matheson Lake Park one day, then hiked a small part of East Sooke Regional Park and the length of Whiffen Spit on a second day. Again, loads of steps!! It was a special visit with the two of them.
May 26-June 1: Sooke River RV Campground, Site 38. This was a return for us, and a welcome one. Great open space for the StarLink, only a few sites occupied, and the people and services here are great. Water & Electricity only. Sani-dump at exit. We’ve been spending time with Garry’s sister Daphne and her husband Lynn and working on some projects. Garry installed the strut kit for The Benz hood to replace the dinky OEM manual support, and did preliminary work for the thermostatic shower control installation which he plans to complete on Sunday. Ann experimented with the installation of Reflectix in a couple of the cupboards to see if that might reduce some of the heat transfer. And we did a huge laundry at the local laundromat. And, we walked…..up the long hill from the campground into town…twice. Great coming back though, and 8000 steps each time. All in all, a fun time in Sooke. AND, we had three sunny days in a row!