Western Canadian Rockies (WCR) – Day 1 – To Vancouver

Western Canadian Rockies (WCR) – Day 1 – To Vancouver

Neither Carmen nor I wanted to wake up at 3:00AM in the morning to leave the house by 4:30 AM for the drive to Orlando.  Instead, we decided to go to Orlando on Sunday and get a (cheap) hotel for the night.  This will allow us to sleep in a little Monday morning before we board our jet to Seattle, Oregon. 

Yes, I said Seattle, even though we are going to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  Carmen and I had free tickets from Delta, only problem you can only use it to fly in the lower 48.  So, our final destination is Vancouver and to get there we first fly to Seattle then we will rent a car and drive into Canada. 

This will finish our Pacific Coast Highway drive we took a number of years ago when we drove from (Tijuana, Mexico to ) San Diego, CA to San Francisco one year, then from San Francisco to Seattle, WA the second year.  Now we will finish driving the rest of the West Coastal route in the USA while driving up to Vancouver, BC, CA.  Anyway, we arrived in Seattle and got our car then finished our trip to Vancouver.  We were able to drive along Puget Sound following I-5. 

Well let me say that our flights went without any problems.  Then we got to Seattle.  It took about a half hour to get our bags.  Then, it took another half hour to get our rental car.  Hey, guess what, remember that I-5 bridge that collapsed in Washington?  Well we had to detour around it on our way north.  The bridge being out added just a small delay of about 40 minutes to go 1.5 miles.  Anyway, what should have taken us 3 to 3 1/2 hours ended up taking 4 1/2 hours.

After passing through the border, Carmen was surprised that the area leading up to Vancouver had vast acreage of agriculture with huge greenhouses that were acres in size.  The snow capped mountains which surround Vancouver was also a treat. 

Tonight we met the tour director along with everyone else on the trip.  Of course, we were 45 minutes late but we got all of our information I plan on asking.  Even on which side of the bus we’ll start sitting.  This way I’ll be on the side I want when we travel along the trip.

Tomorrow we set out for Victoria.  To get there we must take a ferry across the sound.  I’m crossing my fingers that we get to see whales during the ferry crossing and start our trip with viewing animals right away.

No pictures today, but hopefully tomorrow will be different. 

Until tomorrow, Bob and Carmen.