Thursday July 6 - Vancouver to Pender Island
It was an early departure from Vancouver for us - we were off to Pender Island. To get there we had to drive to the ferry departure point at Tswassan about 45 minutes south of the city - in spite of heavy traffic we reached the ferry dock with 1h30m to spare. So we waited and waited and finally drove on board for the almost 2 hour trip - not that the distance is all the great but Pender Island is the third stop on a bit of milk-run. Marilyn met us at the ferry in her car and we drove to her house - about a 20 minutes away. We eventually arrived around 1pm. So after settling in etc Dieter and I did a bit of a driving tour of the island stopping at Port Browning Harbour marina cafe for a look around and an afternoon refreshment. Back at Marilyn’s we all lazed about - Marilyn and Bob made dinner for us all - toasted bagels and smoked salmon with salad - dinner was delayed by an hour when their next door neighbour dropped in for a drink and a chat.
Friday July 7 - Pender Island
It was another sunny and mild day on PI - Dieter and I did the hike up Mt Norman in the morning then later went to Poet’s Cove Resort for lunch. We all went out for dinner that night.
Saturday July 8 - Pender Island to Victoria
We all had a lazy morning then Dieter and I left at 11:45 to catch the 12:45 ferry over to Victoria. It was a much shorter trip as it was a direct service. We drove to our hotel, the Oak Bay Beach hotel in Oak Bay (40 minutes - an ocean front suburb of Victoria. After dropping our luggage (as our room was not ready) we headed out to do some grocery shopping. We went to the Walmart super-center - about 25 minutes drive away. We were back at the hotel around 4:15pm and our room was all set. We stayed in for dinner of sambos as our hotel room is a 1-bedroom apartment overlooking the ocean - it’s only 5 years old so in very good condition and quite up-market.