About This Blog

This blog will be the story of Joanne and her friend Ann, going out to the west coast as a celebration of Ann's retirement. Stay tuned as the trip begins June 1, 2017.

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Nanaimo

We made a special effort this morning to get up and about in a more timely manner LOL! The ferry we wanted to take was leaving at 10:40 am. and it was recommended that if you didn't want to pay the $17 reservation fee, you should arrive an hour early. Well, best laid plans don't always work out the way you want ..... by the time we were gassed up ($1.34 per litre!!!!) and on the road, the GPS arrival time was 9:58 am, close enough I figured.  Sooooo we were on the highway, same one that goes to Whistler, and Suzie (the GPS) said stay left to go to Horseshoe Bay and next thing we knew, we were "past" the sign on the road, sigh.  Well, happily for us, there was a uturn exit a few miles up the road and we finally pulled into the ferry terminal at 10:15 am. In the end, we were one of the last ones loaded on the ferry for 10:40 sailing! Phew!! We found our B&B really easily when we got to Nanaimo. It is really cute, built at the back of the owners home. It has its own ...
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We are off!

 Today was our first travel day.  Ann and I made the trek from Kitchener to Ottawa to visit her daughter Nicole and her boyfriend Fadi. And also to drop off the dogs with them. They are not actually in Ottawa, but across the river in Quebec. Their apartment is beautiful open concept with lots of windows and light. The area looks a bit like the French Quarter in New Orleans.  Fadi and Nicole cooked a fantastic fish dinner with, gluten free and dairy free cheese cake for dessert!!  Just as an aside Fadi is a chef in an Ottawa restaurant, we definitely need to check that one out! A game of scrabble after supper was a great way to finish off the day. Especially since I won (for once) LOL! We'll stay the night with them and they were sweet enough to give us the bedroom. Well day one is over, tomorrow we fly, good night all!
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Butchart Gardens

We started our last full day of vacation sitting around  Ruthie's kitchen table. We enjoyed yet another country breakfast and discussed ideas for things to do in Victoria. It seemed Butchart Gardens was the way to go. After hugs and promises to send pictures, we loaded up our little rental car and headed off to Victoria.  We arrived at Butchart Gardens by 10:30 am thinking we would look around for 2 hours then head off to the waterfront. The sun was out and the weather pleasant, not hot. What a beautiful day and what a beautiful garden! From the roses to the sunken garden (it was once a gravel pit, but now a veritable fairy land of blooms), the Japenese gardens etc, there just aren't words..... It is incredible!!  Soooo our 2 hour planned tour turned into almost 4 hours, but worth it! We have noticed that we have met a lot of people from Ontario who come to visit and then move back to live or just .. never leave. We stopped for tea and ended up talking to a really interes...
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