We spent 7 days relaxing on Galiano Island while visiting Tony’s parents. Rather than detail each day we’ve included a few of our favorite photos from this week below. Activities included walking, cycling and reading. Enjoy, we most certainly did.
‘Campsite’RexRetreat cove at low tideTony & BarbRetreat cove at high tide (opposite view from above)Rex, againFoxgloveView from ‘Lovers leap’Guess where we were on the island.
The island is as peaceful and laid back as the photos portray. There are only a few options for accommodations or you could try tent camping (Montague Harbour provincial park). There are no camping facilities for RVs anywhere on the island, as such unless you are staying with a resident options are few.
Dining options are also limited and no ‘fast food’ chains have outlets anywhere on the island, this has resulted in fewer tourists and visitors in general making the island a destination meaning that it is an ideal place to come for peace and quiet. Let’s hope that places like this stay just as they are.
7:00am and we’re awake. The ferry isn’t until 10:25am but we want to be in line early to ensure we don’t get bumped. BC Ferries in the Summer are almost always full and reservations, even mid-week are a must. We arrive at the terminal by before 8:30am and are at the front of a line of cars. Phew. Now to wait. Time for breakfast.
A short wait passes quickly and before we know it we’re being loaded onto the ferry “Salish Eagle”. As our stop is the first of several for this route, we get loaded so that we’re near the front on the top car deck. The photo below shows us about to enter the ‘belly of the whale’.
Above you can see us all tucked away for the voyage, and below a shot from the passenger deck above the car decks.
The sun came out for our crossing but as you can tell from Barbs attire above, it was not warm. We went to the other end of the ferry deck out of the wind and it was much more enjoyable.
After about 45 minutes we arrived at Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island and drove off of the ferry and back onto land. I was very happy to have purchased and installed the hitch mounted skid wheel because (as expected) the skid wheel did hit the deck of the ferry as we drove onto the ramp at the dock.
The 30 minute drive ‘up’ the island took us through some wonderfully lush West coast forests as the Summer heat has yet to arrive in Southern BC. We arrived at my parents home and parked up in their laneway. This will be our ‘campsite’ for the next week.
We spent the remainder of the day catching up and sharing the story of our trip so far. The next week has been planned to be completely downtime for us, time to recharge and enjoy our visit. Stay tuned for another blog update when we leave the island.
We slept until 9:00am, that was a treat and a testament to how quiet our location is. As a treat, we headed to Tim Horton’s for breakfast and a coffee where we made plans for the day.
Today has been set aside for reprovisioning before we head to Galiano Island for a week of downtime and complete relaxation.
We decided to drive to White Rock as we’d not been before. The seaside of the town is very busy (Sunday morning) with folks going to their favorite cafes for breakfast. Parking was too tight even for a campervan and so we pressed on to Crescent Beach. What a nice little community tucked away on the shore just North of White Rock.
We found a parking area at Blackie Spit park and went for a walk. It was cool and breezy and threatening to rain, but it felt good to walk about and breath that sea air.
From Crescent Beach we headed to Tsawwassen where we visited the Tsawwassen Mills shopping center for the afternoon before enjoying an early dinner followed by a nap in the van.
In the early evening we relocated to the Walmart parking lot where we joined several other campers who had chosen this as there overnight spot ahead of catching a BC Ferry this next morning. We stocked up on groceries for the week and settled down for the night. Hopefully a quiet one.
Knowing we only have about 20km to drive for our stay tonight, we got to sleep-in and take our time getting ready today. The campground here is very picturesque; however, the neighbors didn’t seem to have volume control of their voices and so that spoiled the site a little. We spent last evening at in the van (it was raining) watching Netflix and therefore didn’t have to listen to their entire conversation.
We left at about 11:30 and went into town to get our last fill-up of fuel in the US before heading to the border crossing. A quick stop at the duty-free shop and onto Canada customs. 3 minutes later and we were wished well on the remainder of our trip. This was by far the quietest and easiest border crossing we’ve ever experienced.
We drive into Abbotsford looking for a place to have lunch and settled on the Field House Brewing Co. on West Railway St. We each enjoyed one of their beers as well as a plate of bruschetta and an order of chicken tacos. Yummy, we highly recommend.
Acre upon acre of raspberry bushes growing adjacent to the Abbotsford airport.
That night we were staying at Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm and Meadery just outside of Aldergrove. They have a wonderful shop where they sell their wares and also locally made crafts. A quiet and secure location where we slept exceedingly well.
Today we awoke early as we were heading around Puget Sound to our last overnight stop in the USA, Lynden, WA which is just South of Abbotsford, BC our destination for the next day.
These is a way from Port Angeles to Bellingham using ferries; however, we found that these were already fully booked and so we would have to drive to Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle and then onto Bellingham before turning toward Lynden. This would take about 2 hours longer but as we had the time we enjoyed the scenery and didn’t dwell on it as an inconvenience.
Approaching Olympia we’re down at sea levelHowever, our borrowed GPS thinks we’re a little lower than that! (BTW, notice the name of the road we’re approaching) 😜Arriving in Seattle. The Space Needle can be seen near the left side of the skylineThe I-5 takes you right under the downtown core of the city
Arriving at the KOA in Lynden, we quickly setup camp and set about relaxing after a day of traffic jams and busy roads. Tomorrow we go home to Canada!
