Vancouver Travelogue: Day 4, Vancouver Island and departure

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It was an early-morning wake-up for us as we took a taxi to Vancouver’s motor-coach depot adjacent to the GM Center ( go Canucks! ). We bought tickets on the [Pacific Coach Lines](http://www.pacificcoach.com/ “Pacific Coach Lines

  • Bus service between Vancouver and Victoria, and YVR & Whistler”) and boarded their 10:30 bus.

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We drove out of Vancouver,

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southward to Tsawassen ferry terminal.

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We boarded one of the gigantic BC Ferries and made the ~90 minute crossing over to Vancouver island.

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It was then a short drive south into the provincial capital, Victoria.

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All of this had one nasty overhang, Lauren seemed to have contracted a cold that, even as I type this today, is giving her grief. She bravely endured her symptoms on the crossing, but once we got to Victoria it was time for us to drop-off bags and find a drug-store, STAT.

Our hotel was the Queen Victoria Hotel ( not to be confused with the 5-star The Empress Hotel ). After dropping off our bags, we headed south to the village of James Bay where we were able to find her some medicinal relief.

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The side-trip was actually quite pleasant and gave us a chance to enjoy the sights of the larger Victoria community. We then headed towards the unmissable parliament building, wandered about the grounds, and then visited The Empress' rose garden.

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We were rather famished at that point and ready for a late lunch. We headed up the main route to “The Sticky Wicket”. Being a bit of a cricket fan I couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit a cricket-themed restaurant.

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We then headed back to our hotel and enjoyed their indoor pool and hot-tub. With our muscles relaxed, we dressed and headed over to Swan’s brewpub and danced to their weekly swing meet-up. We returned home, did preliminary pack-up and slept a few hours before our long flight home.

We departed from Victoria airport and flew a jump to San Francisco. We had a long layover there which was actually ideal as that gave us time to have a leisurely lunch at Perry’s, my favorite SFO bar and grill, before our next hop to Denver, thence back to Austin. The Denver connection was tight, but owing to our plane not arriving on time, we were able to make the connection with plenty of time to spare. We got back to Austin about 11:30, retrieved the car, and then headed