BC - Part 1

As promised, here's part 1. I won't be able to post about the conference part of the trip tonight, but I thought I'd give you the scenic part. :)

NOTE: This post is long, and may take a long time to load. Proceed with caution. :)

In short, BC has everything. No joke. Mountains, ocean, farmland, forests - the whole shebang. My mom was actually talking to some random guy at some place we went to and asked him if he had ever been to Ontario. He said no, but wanted to visit. He asked us what it was like, and in reality, for the southern area, anyways, it's a lot of nice flat farmland, and some occasional trees. She actually told him, "Well honestly, we dont really have anything you dont have up here." Lol. Way to boost our tourism pull, Mom. It was funny. We were talking about it later and thought of Niagara Falls and the CN tower. And yes, I know Ontario is great and all, but seriously, there is a reason people in BC dont come see Ontario. They can see most of it (and a whole lot more) where they are.

Anyways, we arrived in the Vancouver Airport (which, sadly, I didn't get a picture of) on Friday night at about midnight our time. It was only 9 there, so it was a little weird. We packed up our stuff, got lost trying to find the hotel, finally found the hotel, and went to sleep at about what would have been 3 in the morning here in Ontario.

The next morning we got up bright and early to catch the ferry...which was nothing overly exciting. Lots of water. So I didn't take any pictures. Once on the island though, we decided to drive the 3 hour drive across, and see the Western edge of the Island. I'll show you some of my favourites from along the way:



The drive across the island was plain scary. Curvy and not wide at all. Half the time you couldn't see what was coming around the bend, or over the hill. I must admit, my mother's driving usually scares me, but she handled the roads pretty well. Occasionally I would get nervous though, and get really quiet. I actually gripped the edge of the car and the seat a few times too. Not due to the driving, but simply because the roads are so insane. You'll have a huge transport truck or tour bus driving coming towards you on this steep, sharp little curve. Very nerve wracking, but worth the view when we got to the Western edge. :)

My mom and I also wanted to say we had been in the Pacific ocean, but it was way too cold (and late in the day) to actually go swimming. SO...we paid this stupid park fee, and walked on Long Beach. We stuck our feet in the water, drew our names in the sand, and just had fun.

We visited Victoria as well, and I got some nice pictures, but really, other than the harbour, which was cool ( and shown below) it looked a lot like any other city. I know, I know, I'm a tourist...I shouldn't say that. But really, aside from the attractions, it wasn't overly amazing. I still took pictures...so I'll show you a couple of my favourites. The first, was one of the gardens at the Empress Hotel. Sort of like the Royal York (in Toronto) of Victoria, the second, of course, is the harbour.

On the ferry ride back to the mainland, it was like God gave us this little gift. See, while in Tofino (on the west tip of the island) my mom and I considered doing some whale watching. But it costs (no joke) like, $80 a person, and you aren't even guarunteed to see whales. So we decided against it. BUT - on the ferry ride back, we went by a bunch of pods of killer whales all in this little cove! It was SO amazing. The captain tried to get close to them, and we actually saw a few jumping out of the water. There were babies with their mothers - tons of them. I couldn't get any pictures though, because you never knew when they were going to come up - and they were everywhere! It was also really funny when the guy came on the loud speaker to announce that we had seen them. It was like the fire alarm had gone off. People were grabbing their kids, running up the stairs..it was like a mad dash. It was also funny to see all the whale-watching boats beside ours getting a slightly better view. We waved and smiled... but were thinking..."We're getting this for free!!!" Anyways, that's just a little aside, but it was so amazingly cool.

Then came the week-long conference. SO much learning and SO much beneficial stuff. It really gave me a good view on where our world is at, and how the Christian worldview compares. But like I said, more on that to come.

After the conference my mom and I did some more sightseeing. We went to Stanley Park in Vancouver and drove to Shannon falls further north in BC. I must admit, Stanley park was a highlight. We drove around it about 3 times...haha...long story... and didn't get bored of it. Here are a couple favourites...the bridge is the Lion's Gate Bridge from the west side of Stanley park.

It was a trip that I won't forget. If you ever have a chance, go to BC. My pictures don't do it justice. It is absolutely beautiful, and there is so much to see. We got a small snapshot and that alone convinced me. :) It was amazing to look up at the mountains reaching into the clouds and think that God made all of it. There is no way that it all could have come into being by chance. No possible way.

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."