Articles from June 2025

Washington Coast Part 1: Forks to Ocean Shores

Washington coast and the Olympian Peninsula, Route 101; Olympian National Park and Crescent Lake; Pacific Inn at Forks of Twilight fame; bones of the rain forest at La Push and Ruby Beach; clam chowder at Pacific Beach; Japanese whisky at serendipitous Seabrook; bleak beach at Ocean Shores; Canterbury Inn and the Oyehut Bay Grill

Recap, and the Olympic National Park

As you may remember from my last post (if not, click here), we comfortably coached it from Vancouver, Canada to spend our first night on US soil at Seattle.

From Seattle, Roy pointed the rental car in the direction of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. After a coffee-stop detour to picturesque Port Townsend (again, click here), we continued along the 101 to the relatively featureless Forks, apparently named for the forking of three rivers. (Forks is where the Twilight series was set, though only a few scenes were actually filmed there.)

Route 101 to Forks, through Olympic National Park

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Seattle & Port Townsend, Washington State

By Cantrail coach to Seattle WA; one night good, two nights better; Pike Place Market; not anti-Starbucks per se; Mayflower Park Hotel and vesper martinis at Oliver’s Bar; seafood dinner at The Athenian; Travel Mode and padkos; heading to the Olympian Peninsula; delightfully historic Port Townsend; onwards to Twilight country: Forks and La Push

It’s not just trains and planes, boats bikes and cars that feature on Travels with Verne and Roy. Now it’s coaches, too!

Having kindly hosted us in Vancouver for ten days, cousin Brad and Ingrid dropped us off at Vancouver train station to catch the 11.30am Cantrail coach to Seattle. (Click here, here and here to see what a great time we had with them in Victoria B.C., Gabriola Island and Vancouver City respectively.)

The Cantrail coach leaves from outside Vancouver train station

There’d been various options for travelling from Vancouver, Canada south to the USA, and the coach turned out to have been a great decision. Around $55 each (half-price for those moderately advanced in years, thank you very much!), the four-hour journey was not only comfortable but excellent value, too.

What’s more, compared to the individual cars waiting in line to clear immigration at the US border, our coach – the only one at the time – completed formalities in double-quick time.

We were first off the bus for immigration (or rather, Roy was, me trailing in his febrile wake) and so first through a smooth and friendly immigration clearance from two nice young men.

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A Night in Seattle WA

In retrospect, two nights would have been better, in part because main attractions like Pike Place Market open only at 10am and start winding down mid-afternoon.

Seattle harbour view

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 3: Vancouver City

Vancouver False Creek townhouse and marina; snot quotient obstacle; famously fit Vancouverites; downtown and the skytrain; no dogs allowed, but bring on the coyotes; inukshuk welcome; marathon supporters; A-maze-ing Laughter by Yue Minjin; uber-glam quintet in Morton Park; the club of clubs; the Sandbar never disappoints; Whistler day trip; most scenically situated Lululemon in the world; not just family, but new-found friends – thank you, Brad and Ingrid, for your amazing hospitality!

Sandbar, Granville Island, Vancouver City

My cousin Bradley and his lovely wife, Ingrid (scroll down for a great picture of them), have a beautiful townhouse that’s ideally located in Yaletown, right on the False Creek marina where he keeps his boat. They are the same my-cousin-and-his-wife who met us off the HAL Westerdam a few days ago and took us to their home on Gabriola Island. (Click here for that post, Part Two of three on Vancouver.)

Marinaside, Yaletown, Vancouver

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 2: Gabriola Island

Where is Gabriola Island?; coffee, hiccups and kindness; Route of the Totems; dream home; Elder Cedar forest where Hobbits tread; Folklife Village, island artists and chi chi shops

Not everyone has heard of Gabriola Island, and I suspect that many of the locals would like to keep it that way. It’s about 14.5km long and 4.5km wide, located in the Strait of Georgia, between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. We will be spending three nights here with my cousin Brad and his wife, Ingrid, who have their main home on the island … and what a home it is.

Bradley and Roy, Gabriola Island

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Vancouver, May 2025 – Part 1: Victoria B.C.

Fresh off the boat in Victoria B.C.; an excess of polite wondering; extreme salubriousness at The Empress Fairmont; tiptoeing through tulips, around flower baskets and past the homeless and abject; marijuana debate; dinner at Il Terrazzo

After five days at sea, Roy and I were ready to disembark from HAL Westerdam and face the immigration process in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We’d been extensively coddled during our 28-day cruise from Sydney; now we were going to be looked after by my cousin, Bradley, and his wife Ingrid, South Africans who emigrated to Canada over 30 years ago.

(Click here for the first of my five posts on that Westerdam cruise… but please remember to come back.)

There’s nothing better than having family or friends living abroad, and it’s clear we’re going to have a fabulous time being shown their neck of the woods, as Brad put it.

Brad and Ingrid had to wait outside – in glorious sunshine, fortunately – while we gnashed our teeth in the long immigration queue. A single official was on duty. This is Canada, famous for niceness and courtesy, so there was a lot of polite wondering going on ahead of and behind us. After about half an hour of little movement, a second and more energetic young man clocked in, and things started to happen.

One night in Victoria B.C.

To my delight, my cousins had booked rooms for the night at the Fairmont Empress – their favourite – to give us a chance to see a bit of Victoria.

Horse-drawn carriage in Victoria, B.C.

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