Wet and wild west coast

After 15 hours on a greyhound bus through the Canadian Rockies and the Okanagan region we arrived to a cloud covered, wet and rainy Vancouver. It was the start of our 2 week holiday to Alaska and a pretty restless, uncomfortable overnight trip. The last thing we wanted to see was shit weather but you can't have it all I guess. We were mostly just glad to be off the bus and headed for unknown territory really for the first time since moving to Airdrie. We jumped in a cab and to the car rental agency in downtown Vancouver before making our way through a rush hour traffic to the ferry and across to Vancouver Island.

The landscape on this side of the country was very different to the prairies and rocky mountains in Alberta. It was much more green with rolling hills and reminded me a lot more of the Australian coastal landscape. It had been over 7 months since we had seen the ocean and it was nice to feel close to the coast before, it's very weird to be landlocked!

Our hotel was in a central location in Victoria and despite the rain we ventured out and walked the pretty streets surrounded by blooming gardens and English style buildings. The Fairmont Empress was a gorgeous structure with vines growing up the exterior and the government buildings were also in keeping with the old English feel of the city. We had dinner at a dockside restaurant and followed up with a few beers at a local pub where we found out one of D's favourite bands, Fear Factory, was playing that night. After a huge shit fight about whether he would go or not he finally left and I spent the rest of the night in the apartment watching TV.

Victoria had a very distinct English feel - even a red double decker bus

The beautiful Fairmont Empress, and Dale making it look even more classy

Flowers everywhere!

Victoria Government Buildings

We had to leave relatively early the next morning as we were picking up mum from Vancouver and had to catch the ferry back in time to be there to meet her. It was still miserable outside but that was the only thing on the cards for the day so it didn't matter too much. After about an hour of waiting at the airport mum emerged and we made our way through Stanley Park and over the Lions Gate Bridge to North Vancouver where our hotel was located. After a quick dinner at Denny's we were all ready for an early night.

The weather had cleared a little the next morning as we headed out of North Vancouver on the Sea to Sky Highway headed for Whistler, a resort town made famous recently by the Winter Olympics in 2010. The road was really scenic and we stopped at Brandywine Falls in Squamish to stretch our legs for a bit before arriving in Whistler village mid morning. I found Whistler to be a lovely little town but didn't think it was as nice as other places we had been. Everything was fairly expensive and probably the fact it poured rain the whole time we were there added to the frustration. We walked around looking through the many gift shops, got some pizza and an ice cream and by mid afternoon we were ready to leave. On our way back to Vancouver we spotted a black bear right beside the highway and pulled over to take some very close up photographs - we stayed in the car though so we could make a quick getaway if he got angry! This was the most exciting thing to happen so far and we were glad we left when we did to spot this amazing animal!

Trail to Brandywine Falls, Squamish

I've always wanted to do one of these railway shots, the trail led straight over

The black bear - we were literally that close

Scenic overlook heading out of Whistler

After checking out and driving back into Vancouver to return the car we made our way on foot to Tim Horton's for breakfast and to waste some time before we could board our cruise ship. As luck would have it Tim Horton's was located at the bottom of the Vancouver Tower so we went up to have a peek at the skyline before walking to the cruise ship terminal ready for our Alaskan adventure.

Birdseye view of Vancouver streets from the tower