We took our time this morning getting ready to pull out of the town of Issaquah. We had a great time connecting with Rob and Kelly's family. It was a hectic day, but we are so happy that they let us share it.
We finally pulled out at around 9:30 am to head up to Vancouver, BC. It was a fairly short leg for us - about 170 miles, but we weren't sure how long it would take to get across the border. We hoped it would be nothing like treks into Mexico from California, where it was not uncommon to have to wait in traffic for hours. As we got nearer the border, we saw electronic sign boards indicate that the wait time was only 15 minutes. When we got to Ferndale, WA, we decided it would be good idea to stop and fill up on fuel before we went across the border. After we filled up, we stopped for a quick lunch. Elisa was worried that they might confiscate a lot of her produce, so she had a salad.
Just before we got to the border, the electronic signs were now indicating that the wait times were running 25 minutes. As we roll up to the border, we see signs identifying 3 lanes - Passenger Cars, Trucks (Commercial) and Buses. Elisa and I looked at each other and wondered where our big old motorhome was supposed to go. We didn't see any other motorhomes or RV's up ahead of us that might give us a clue. I said, that we should be in the lane for passenger cars. Elisa said we should use the lane for buses. As we got to the point of "no return" where we had to pick one lane - it became clear that we shouldn't be in the "truck" lane since the trucks were being pulled over and their contents inspected and we didn't see any other RV's there. So I got in the lane for buses. As we made our way forward, we could now see that RV's were in the "passenger car" lanes. Those lanes were backed up quite a bit. At this point we were now too far down the "Bus" lane which had 2 lanes - one with a passenger bus and the other lane wide open. It quickly became clear to us, that the Bus lane was for passenger buses, because passengers from the other bus that was there were going through immigration lines like you see at the airport. As we walked into the immigration building, the last of the passengers from the bus that had been there had cleared immigration. So we were now the only people in line and I sheepishly told the immigration officer that we clearly picked the wrong lane. "No problem", he replied. He looked at our passports, and he and one other immigration officer did a quick walk around of the motorhome and he didn't even ask us any questions about our produce. He only wanted to know if we had any firearms. Since we left our "peace makers" at home, we were quickly waved out and invited to proceed. So our mistake paid off, we bypassed the line altogether.
As soon as we got into Canada, things looked a little different. We went from 4 lane divided freeway on the US side to surface streets on the Canada side.
Nevertheless, we were excited to visit our neighbor to the north. We were now about 60 miles from our campground. We would be staying in the town of Burnaby, which is just outside of Vancouver, BC. After about 20 miles of undivided traffic with lots of stoplights, we hit Canada 1 - their transcontinental highway. We then made quick time to Burnaby and we found our campground.
This very quaint park is situated in a large park that has been positioned into this pretty bustling metropolitan area. In spite of the fact that there are near by freeways and railroads, the campground is ringed with woods and trees that make you feel like you are in the great outdoors. However, you can quickly tell that space here is at a premium as the sites are placed pretty close together. Fortunately, there are tall hedges that separate each site, so it doesn't feel as snug as it seemed when I had to back our rig into the narrow space. After I got things situated and Elisa took a quick nap, we went out for a walk. There is a very nice walking/biking trail adjacent to the campground and winds its way through this very large park.
We walked at a very brisk pace and got a quick 6000+ steps in. When we got back, we made arrangements to take a tour of Vancouver and some of its major sites. for Tuesday. Our Monday has already been booked. We will be driving to the Tswassen ferry terminal in the morning and heading over to Vancouver Island and driving to see Butchart Gardens. We'll take our little tow car right onto the ferry and make the 1:45 minute ferry ride over to the other Island. We'll then have another 45 minute drive to get to the Gardens. We'll head back on the ferry later that evening. This will make for a pretty busy day.
So that's all for now. We'll check-in with you all out there after our trip to Butchart Gardens.