I’ll start today with a quick history of the area that Whistler now stands on. It was was occupied by the Coast Salish First Nations people for around 8,000 years prior to the late 1800s when the British started open up the area for hunting and trapping. The area was called Whistler because of the…

With our ferry leaving Schwartz Bay at 9 o’clock we had to get up a bit earlier. I ordered an ‘in-room’ breakfast of sausages and eggs, which is my normal breakfast. I got sausages, eggs, grilled potato, thick toast, jam and grilled tomato. I’m sure the hotel means well, but with the exception of the…

Today is our last full day in Victoria as we are heading back to the mainland on the ferry tomorrow. Whenever I talked to anyone about coming to Victoria, Butchart Gardens is always on the list. It takes about 30 minutes to get there by car or around an hour by the public bus, but…

Our plan for today was to explore two of Canada’s more extraordinary ‘homes’. Canada doesn’t traditionally have a whole lot of castles but there are two here in Victoria and both have historical connection to the Dunsmuir family. Our plan was to walk to Craigdarroch Castle, which should have been a shortish walk, however a…

A good night’s sleep is always a good way to shake off the jet lag and I slept pretty solidly through to about 7 am, which was pretty good in the circumstances. We had to be up early so we could pack up and taxi to Twassen, which is where the ferries to Vancouver Island…

Welcome to everyone following along for another holiday. This one has been in the planning for quite a long time. We generally have a forward plan of the next 2 or 3 trips and having not done a big overseas trip through the ‘COVID years’ we decided that we’d get back to a longer trip…