Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 9

 Today started off with a whale watching trip. Port Renfrew is the first community along the west coast of the island that isn't right across from the Washington state peninsula. This means that one has a combination of the protected currents of the Salish Sea as well as the North Pacific currents. There is also the benefit of only ONE whale watching company, which means any hotspot is not going to be crowded with boats. The company owners use the whale watching revenue to help fund their data collection as they work to catalogue and monitor the whale population in the area. We lucked out that the other group booked on our tour was unable to join, so we had a private 3 hour tour! First step was to get suited up in specialized flotation jumpsuits and get on board. 

As we left the inlet and got oriented, our captain told us that we would normally have 4 ft swells where we currently were floating. That day, it was less than a foot of swell. The ocean was practically flat. This meant we made record time in finding and arriving at "Everest". Everest was described as a non-fixed location based on ocean currents and temperatures where there is a large area with rich growth of plankton. This area is enriched with animal life. We saw dozens of humpback whales. Mother and child, adolescents, ones the captain recognized for sure, others that were being too shy to identify themselves. The pattern of black and white on the underside of the fluke (tail fin) is unique to each whale, like a fingerprint. As part of his work, our captain snapped some shots to identify some of our companions, but they were not being overly cooperative in showing off their flukes with their dives.

On the way to Everest

The ocean rocked some of us to sleep

Found one!

And some more

Yup, we found Everest

After a good hour of being in the middle of a dozen or so humpbacks, we took advantage of the relatively calm water to see if we could spot some orcas or other animals along the shore of the West Coast Trail. Spoiler alert: we saw much Pacific Rim National Park scenery, but no more wildlife.

After a 3 hour tour (♫ a 3 hour tour ♫) we bid Port Renfrew adieu. Before leaving the island, we wanted to do a little sight-seeing in Victoria. We drove down the coastal road as the murder mystery story unfolded. My plan had been to drive down to the legislative building and Beacon Hill park area to explore. Unfortunately, once we crossed from Esquimalt to Victoria we encountered massive crowds and street closures. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the "Northwest Deuce Days" main show was shutting down exactly the same area we had planned to explore. More than 1000 pre-1952 cars were on display and the traffic was blocked. As we still needed to get to Vancouver that afternoon, we decided that driving through Victoria was sufficient and we changed course for the Swartz Bay ferry terminal. We were less lucky this time and were told it would be a 3-4 hour wait. In the end we were the second to last vehicle allowed on to the ferry after just under a 2 hour wait. During that time we finished our audiobook and had a book club discussion about the characters and plot while we waited!

Back to the mainland for the journey back East!

Michael had been looking forward to Vancouver for the whole trip! The first stop was on the way in to Vancouver. We went to the "night market" just as it opened. Unfortunately, the line to get in to the carnival was super long! The event looked similar to the CNE. Michael was vetoed and we got back in the car to arrive at our North Vancouver AirBnB.

Rocky Mountain Road Trip Day 7

We packed up our room got on the road made it down to the Vancouver Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. As soon as we entered Vancouver, we had the first drops of rain of our trip! We were unsure as to how long it would be to wait for a ferry as there were no reservations available when I checked online before our trip. We lucked out an managed to get on the ferry that was sailing in 10 minutes after our arrival!

We drove across the island in some pretty twisty roads and single lane bridges. Our main entertainment during this travel day, aside from the nerves going around blind corners and across the single lane bridges with oncoming traffic seeming to come far too quickly, was the audiobook. Everyone is still pretty undecided as to "whodunnit". We stopped at Fairy Lake Campground to check out a cute little "island" with a bonsai-like tree on it. Unfortunately, there was no good way to see it from the campground, the best view was actually from the road. I include a google image, but our real life experience was somewhat lacking. On the other hand, the old growth trees all around us more than made up for it.

Bonsai tree if you have a kayak or paddleboard

Old growth tree

My little tree-hugger

We continued on through to where there was no longer any cell service, Port Renfrew. We checked in to our second 2 queen, 5 Taylor bodies room and found the only open restaurant in town. After dinner we walked along the harbor and saw some sea lions. The orange refitted Coast guard boat is the one we will take to go whale watching on Day 9, but you will have to wait for that story.