Whistler to Victoria

Wednesday is a travel day.  We take a taxi into the Village and meet IslandLink which will take us from Whistler to Vancouver Island.  I am not sure how big of a vehicle to expect, but IslandLink turns out to be a 12 passenger van.

Our driver Michael introduces himself, another couple joins us, and we are rolling promptly at 10 AM.  The mountains are still largely in the clouds as we start our journey, but I still try taking a few photos through the window along the way.  45 minutes later we arrive at the town of Squamish, stopping for a few minutes to stretch our legs and for the driver to see if there are any additional passengers.  It also gives me a chance for a couple of photos outside of the van.

The van continues along the Sea-to-Sky Highway, arriving at the Horseshoe Bay ferry port at 11:30 AM.  There's plenty of time for the van to queue for the 12:30 PM ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  In the mean time we go grab a coffee along with the other passengers.  The ferry crossing takes 1 hour 40 minutes and it lightly rains during the entire journey.  After Michael drives off the ferry he drives around to the front of the ferry building and drops us off with our luggage.  We catch a taxi to the Nanaimo airport where we pick up our rental car for the next week.

William re-orients himself to a right hand drive car, then we head down Canada 1 to the  city of Victoria.  We arrive at the Royal Scot Hotel at 5:30 PM.  After being spoiled by Nita Lake Lodge our hotel room feels small and a little dated but it is clean, comfortable, and less than half the cost.  Best of all, it is well located to sightsee and enjoy Victoria.

We rest a bit then go to Nautical Nellies for dinner.  It's just a 15-20 minute walk back to our hotel after dinner and is easy using the lighted British Columbia Legislature Building as a landmark.

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