Day with cousin Janice/ Victoria,BC

Janice picked us up this morning at 7AM to make the 9AM ferry to Vancouver Island. We got there early and had a cup of coffee while we waited to be loaded on the ferry. The ferry ride over was delightful and what a beautiful day we had for the trip. It was nice and sunny and the temperature was perfect.
Lee and Janice enjoying the lovely day.

The following are some of the sights along the way.

The narrows you see ahead in this picture is the path we take on the ferry.
After arriving on the island, we stopped for lunch at a Tim Horton's. We then drove to Victoria.

The picture below is the entrance to the new annex of The Empress, the convention center complex.

The picture below is the original building.

The Parliament is pictured below

I just thought this was cute, it sits in the front yard of The Empress.

This is the view across from The Empress Hotel.

The following pictures were taken in the town of Victoria,BC.

Janice and I acting our age!!!!

Janice drove us around the island where we saw some beautiful sights, some gorgeous homes, a cemetery and a park.

We stopped in Sidney for dinner. Cute little restaurant sitting right on the water.

After another good meal we boarded the ferry for our ride back to Surrey, the town our campground is located in. We had a simply wonderful day with Janice. I hope the day will come when we can show Janice around Pennsylvania or Florida. Janice dropped us off at the campground and we headed over to Bob and Wendy's. They had very graciously offered to keep Nicky for the day since it would be such a long day. I will miss our Canadian cousins very much and am so glad I've had the chance to meet them.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The prime of life is that fleeting time between green and over-ripe.

Satchel Paige

Visit with Bob and Wendy Riley / Vancouver,BC

We left Tom and Becky's 7/26 after an absolutely wonderful visit. The four of us enjoy one another a lot, it's unfortunate we live so far apart. We could not have asked for better hosts and as you can tell from the blog we had a beautiful setting. The last few days were spent getting ready for the road again. Packing things up and going over the RV.

First day on the road we traveled to Thunderbird campground in Monroe, WA. It was a very nice campground and we met up with friends of ours, Will and Ella, at the campground. We drove that evening with them to meet up with our mutual friends ,Vern and Arlo. We all had a lovely pizza dinner together. It was so good to have the opportunity to catch up with one another. The last time we had seen them was when we were in Palm Springs in the spring.

Above is a picture of Will and Ella and Vern and Arlo and family.

This is a picture taken from the front of the camper at Thunderbird. I forgot to mention earlier that before we Left Tom and Becky's we took a trip over to Fort Clatsop part of the Lewis and Clark park. It was a very interesting afternoon.


We left Thunderbird and traveled to Tynehead campground in Surrey, BC. Our cousins Bob and Wendy Riley live just 15 minutes away. We had a fairly long drive so we spent the first day here getting set up and resting. Bright and early Tuesday morning Bob met us at the campground and took us out touring for the day. There is no way we could have seen what we did in one day by ourselves.


First Bob took us to Grandville Island. We sat by the water and had coffee there and then we took a ferry ride.

One of the many views from the ferry ride.

How's that for a waterfront house!!!!!

I'm sure you can all tell by now I have a real fetish for bridges.

After the ferry boat ride we walked around the shoppes a bit and I've never seen such beautiful produce in my life. What a nice farmers market. Above are Lee and Bob placating the blogger.

Above is another view from the ferry ride.

Everywhere you looked there was another beautiful picture. It was hard to pick out my favorites.

Bob's next stop for us was Kits beach in Vancouver City park. It was in the 90's the day we were here which is very unusual for them. As you can see they were trying to cool off.

Must to something to sit on a beach with this panoramic view!!

After Kits beach we took off to Stanley Park. It is huge. It is to Vancouver what Central Park is to New York City.

At Prospect Point in Standley Park we stopped and had a lovely lunch.
Bob then took us back to the campground where we picked up Nicky and then headed over to Bob and Wendy's house for dinner. This is the first I've met Wendy and I could not believe how many things we have in common. Their dog Tibet and Nicky got along just fine and also had a nice visit. Sure wish we did't live so far away. We had a very nice dinner on the deck with great food and wonderful conversation. Bob and Wendy have no air conditioning and with the temperatures in the 100's breaking all kinds of records I think they are considering getting central air.

Bob and Wendy Riley

Here we go another bridge!!!! You've got to admit it is beautiful. It took Bob about 10-15 min. to get to our campground and before the bridge he said it would have taken about 40min. so Bob really loves this bridge it has changed their lives.

Bob and Wendy's back yard is just lovely. It looks like an English garden and why shouldn't it since Wendy is English and did not move to Canada till she was 10 years old.

what a nice spot for good conversation.

The following day Bob picked us up once again at the campground about 9 AM. He told us he was taking us to Whistler the #1 ski resort in the world. The shot above was taken on the way there.

The drive there was beautiful.

From this overlook you can really get an overview of Vancouver but unfortunately the hot weather just held the smog over the city.
Bob said that Vancouver is one of the three most expensive cities in the world to live in .

Taken from the car on the way there.

Isn't this just gorgeous??

We are now in Whistler Village. We walked around the village looked in a few shoppes and had a very nice lunch. There are two mountains here--Black Comb and Whistler and the two mountains are now connected by gondolas. The skiing trails are used by mountain bikers in the summer so the place was very active with a lot going on no matter where you looked.

Of course, all of the lodging facilities are totally booked already for the 2010 Olympics. There is activity everywhere in preparation for the Olympics. They are working fast and furious on the road that goes to Whistler. Bob was telling us they have I believe 3 cruise ships that will come in just to house security personnel.

I didn't realize till we got home and listened to the news just how hot it had gotten. Would you believe 103 degrees. My brother-in-law Tom is having a good laugh now because when we were is Long Beach I was always complaining about being cold. Well, Tom, I'm not cold now!!!