Canada Trip

For spring break, we headed north to visit Canada. Part of the trip was to explore our northern neighbor, and part was to explore the neighborhoods for a potential future move. At the border, David was flagged due to having a suspicious name, and the family had to be detained briefly while border patrol searched our car. After proving our innocence, we drove to Vancouver and explored Stanley Park.

The next day, we took an early ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. We explored the town, did a driving tour of the neighborhoods, and checked out the real estate. We headed south to explore more neighborhoods in the Duncan area. Along the way, we stopped at Averill Creek Vineyard for some wine tasting. It wasn't the best wine, but it was impressive that an estate winery could exist in this region.

The next day, we visited the town of Sooke at the south end of the island. The town had the nicest neighborhood of the cities we toured, but it had the least amount of amenities. We visited the Colwood Waterfront, where Lily was excited to see many types of birds, including a new find. We also stopped at Ella Beach, where we could view the Olympic Peninsula in the distance. We finished the day with a tapas dinner at Victoria.

On our final day, we had afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. The tea and food were excellent as usual, but the kids' picky eating (they no longer could use the children's menu) made it a waste. Afterwards, we walked through the nearby Beacon Hill Park before boarding a ferry to Port Angeles and back home.