From Squamish I returned to Tracey's place in North Van. Had a good sleep that night, followed by a morning walk down at a local park. All around here are amazing gorges, canyon and parks - super lush and pretty. Tracey takes her dogs out hiking 3 times every day!! What a nice life :)
Also - I forgot to mention in my last post. When I was with Tracey the week before, I went on another morning walk with her to capilano forest. It was stunning, but no photos!
Here's some from the most recent morning stroll ith the dogs.
After resting late morning, we this time headed to a seaside park, south of Vancouver. It was a full moon, so at low tide, we could walk really far out from the shore.noh and we collected Tracey's brothers dog on the way and took him aswell!
Trace has quite a bit of dog training experience!
That evening I took myself in to Vancouver to see some shows that were on as part of the fringe festival. Two live theatre shows and an amazing Cajun paella for dinner - nice night! On the way home, I passed some amazing street musicians and then a whole orchestra practising in a tucked away public square. They were so so good, I stopped to listen until they finished. They were the 'Carnival band' and hosted people from 8 years to 90 years playing all sorta of funky instruments!
Street muso's:
Carnival band:
The next morning we took the dogs off to a big park, by the coast, further north of where we lived.
The dogs knew this place like the back of their paws!
All tuckered out!
From there it was my time to depart! I took the ferry, bound for Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, and from there a bus to Victoria. In Victoria I stayed with a friend, Sarah, from University. She moved there earlier this year to work as an Osteo, and lived in a pretty funky area called the cook village. The first night I got there, I just vegged on the couch. The next morning though I went out for breakfast then walked into the main city to check out all the tourist spots along the harbour. Decided against an expensive whale boat tour and went to visit the clinic Sarah worked at and had lunch with her. The rest of the day was sight seeing, and kicking back in a bookstore.
The next morning I went for a long walk - all the way along the coast into downtown victoria again. The water was pleasant and you could see the mountains in Northern Washington across the bay!
From there I had a yummy lunch of fish tacos that were so good I lined up for an hour to get them! And saw some of the sights on the harbour.... Including this amazing place: Fishermans Wharf. A mini town of float homes. Not motor homes, float homes! They just sit there with their little piers attached.
And an afternoon stroll through the local park, where I stumbled apon some peacocks!
That evening Sarah and I had dinner together and a big catch up. Not too many more photos of the island I'm afraid!
The next day Sarah had visitors coming to stay, so I made my way to a backpackers in town to spend the night there. After checking in, I caught a bus then ferry to Salt Spring Island - one of the dozens of islands in the Georgia Strait, notorious for its weekend markets.
Turner out to be quite a hippy little island. I went on a long inquisitive walk around the streets near the ferry dock - this was really special, but there was clearly a lot of money behind the hippy facade! Every little beach that I saw was privately owned, and huge driveways everywhere hiding mini mansions.
From there I caught the local bus to the main town of Ganges for lunch and a poke around. It really wasn't that special at all! Although the island itself was pretty to see, seems almost like a little commune... Got the ferry back to the mainland, the bus back to Victoria and some sushi before bed for my last night in Canada!
