Port Angeles

We decided a few weeks ago to change the last stop on this leg of our journey from Seattle to Port Angeles. The whole reason for this stop was to visit Victoria, BC. Since there wasn’t a need to stay in Seattle, we changed to Port Angeles, which is closer to Victoria.

We divided our four hour drive from Portland in half with stop for lunch at a Walmart that we thought had a McDonald’s. Unfortunately, they were removing the restaurant and it was closed. Luckily, there was a Burger King and a Goodwill just across the street. That works!

We arrived at our campground to some beautiful weather. As soon as we parked, we threw on our swimsuits and headed to the pool (the first one that’s been open since LA). Mini-man was thrilled.

We spent the next day getting ready for Victoria, and, of course, taking advantage of the pool.

Mother’s Day morning we left early and explored a local Goodwill before lunch. We did find some awesome stuff but it turned out to be a bad decision as most of us were hangry and needed food.

After grabbing some food, we headed to The Blackball Ferry line, an autoferry to Victoria, BC. I’ve never been on one of these and it was an interesting experience. After we checked in, we lined up and waited to board. Then, with great precision, the workers loaded about 100 cars onto the boat in just a few minutes.

The 90 minute trip went by quickly and, before we knew it, we were in Canada. My only complaint is it was a little rocky, which wasn’t fun for my stomach.

We chose to stay in an Airbnb condo near downtown Victoria. The kids were excited to check out the place. Me? I couldn’t wait to take a bath – my first bath in almost a year (which is tough for a girl who loves baths).

An interesting thing about this area – because we are further up North during the summer, the sun is out much later in the evening. We took advantage of this and explored the downtown area. At this point, it been a long day for mini-man and he collapsed in the wagon.

Unfortunately, we woke up just as we finished dinner, which translated into a late night for us.

After a relaxing mornings, we headed to the Buchart Gardens. We visited this place six years ago on a cruise to Alaska. Unfortunately, we only had one hour to walk through. The place was so beautiful that I always wanted to go back.

I was worried that the boys wouldn’t like walking through these gardens, but I was very wrong. So wrong, that mini-man was upset that we wanted to eat lunch instead of exploring.

We spent about two hours walking around this amazing place. If you ever get the chance, you have to visit.

The next day we took the boys to a local beach side playground and they had a ball. It was a perfect place for the boys to explore and play.

Usually this would mean an easy night since the boys got so much exercise. Mini-man was asleep by 7p! However, he woke up at 1a and was not happy about it. Lots of screaming and crying, it looks hours to calm him down and go back to be at 6a. Damon and I tried to get some sleep but little-dude woke up about an hour later.

Damon took little-dude to a local park so I could get some sleep before we left. We then spent the rest of the morning cleaning and packing.

I later learned that our Airbnb host wasn’t pleased with the “mess’ we left behind. Of course he didn’t tell us that, he left it our review! What an ass! He told we were great renters in our communications. Why do people do that? Say one thing to your face then say something else behind your back? Like, dude, Airbnb sends us your review – we read it.

To top it off, he claimed that he had the place professionally cleaned before we got there, yet I found lots of dust and dirt all over the place. I cleaned it and it was in better shape than when we arrived. Apparently he expects renters to arrive and not touch anything. I wish him luck keeping a house looking nice when he has two small kids.

After hurrying to get out, we still had some time to kill before our ferry, we took the kids to a nearby park to play and then grabbed some lunch.

Next to the lunch place was a pet store that specialized in fish! Mini-man was thrilled and walked around for a long while.

We then headed to the ferry terminal. I was nervous for the check-in process. Since they asked us to be there 90 minutes before sailing I assumed that it was be a long process. But after waiting 30 minutes, they finally checked us, asked a few questions and we were done. Interesting that this went faster than when we entered Canada.

Quick side note – I was nervous as hell during this. I didn’t realize until we left for the first ferry that my pass was expired! Oops, should’ve looked at that. Thankfully, no one cared or asked about it. The agents seemed more curious at the fact that we just came to see flowers and didn’t buy anything.

The boat ride was quick but tough. Little-dude wanted to explore, but Damon and mini-man were tired. And whenever I tried to just take little-dude somewhere, mini-man got upset (he’s in a ‘we have to stay together all the time’ phase).

After a day of resting, we’d planned to take a drive to a nearby mountain. However, mini-man woke up very cranky and out of sorts. I was worried that a long car ride would be bad for him. Instead, we decided to enjoy the amenities at our campground.

Since it was cold outside, we tried to be sneaky and take him to the playground while avoiding the pool. It worked, for a few minutes.

I think he saw the pool from the top of the play structure because he promptly came down, grabbed us and started to look for the entrance.

As soon as we put his swim stuff on, he was in the pool and stayed there for a while. The great side effect to this is it gave Damon and me time to plan our next stops. Win-win.

And now it’s time to start that next leg. Check out our next post to see where we’re going.