Tsawwassen to Duke Point

We arrived at the Tsawwassen ferry dock with, what we thought was, plenty of time to catch the 10:15 am ferry to Duke Point, in Nanaimo; however, it was full, and we had to wait for the 12:45 pm ferry. We sat in the lineup of cars and read, wrote, sketched, or went for walks around the dock and through the terminal. This went by very quickly because of the handy terminal filled with souvenir stores, coffee shops, and snack bars. At one point, a ferry port official came by and measured the height of the Flex with it’s handy-dandy luggage bag on top. Apparently, we were just over the 7 feet height restriction for the car deck (by half an inch!), so we would have to board onto the

deck with the large trucks and trailers. This was fine with us – it put us right at the front of the line!

Once we got on the ferry, we got out of the car thinking we could go up on the passenger deck with Chip like we did on the Chi-Cheemaun; however, this was not the case. Unfortunately, dogs were not allowed to leave the vehicle decks. There was a kennel area that was provided, but it was so small and would be lonely for Chip, so we decided to stay in the car with him. This was fine because we had large open windows, where we could look out onto the water, near our car. This was the first time the girls saw the Pacific Ocean and the most exciting thing we saw in the water was a white plastic deck chair floating by!! I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t explore this ferry, but at least it was a pretty short ferry ride.

We arrived in Nanaimo around 2:45 pm and easily disembarked because we were right at the front of the ship. Here we were on the final leg of our westward trip driving to Duncan – we could hardly believe we were on the island!! I thought we were all going to explode with excitement. I kept wanting to pinch myself... Had we really done it? Did we just drive across the country on our own? I felt like I was in a dream. This trip seemed so huge when we were still in Ontario, but here we were on Vancouver Island twelve days later! Now for some reason, it felt like we had just left home. Granted, it was well planned-out (pat on the back for me), and there were a few hiccoughs along the way, but we did it! It was a wonderful feeling of elation and pride that I felt for not only myself but especially for Sadie, Brie and Lily who learned so much and truly grew up along the way.

Time for some well-deserved R ‘n R for all of us. We had twelve days in Duncan to hang out with Trish and Keani and visit the island at a nice leisurely pace. We couldn’t wait to sleep in beds and not have to get up in the morning and drive anywhere. We had arrived!