Today we passed more blueberry bushes than I’ve ever seen before. It was farm after farm after farm! We stopped at one farm stand and bought the minimum, which ended up being about two dollars for two pounds. They must have made a mistake?! They were absolutely delicious!! As we continued on the low traffic roads, we took note of a very specific pattern: each farm had a mansion next to it. We coined the term “blueberry barons” and continued on our way.

We arrived at the border a little before lunch and due to a lack of signage waited in line with the cars. Luckily, this only took about 20 minutes to get through the line. Of course, when we got to the border agent he said: “Did you know you could just go in the building over there?” Although I wanted to say some choice words about how we obviously didn’t, I kept it to a polite “No” since he was a border agent. Across the border in Blaine we found a crappy grocery store and an ok pizza place in the shopping center we targeted for lunch. We were excited to get back on the road and arrive at Birch Bay.

Upon our arrival we stopped at a convenience store for a well-deserved ice cream snack. The town of Birch Bay is small, but there are a few tourist spots and the bay is beautiful. At the state park we asked a couple of volunteers for help finding the hiker/biker sites. Unfortunately, the two sites were inadequate: one was occupied by what looked like a long term resident, and the other didn’t have a large enough flat spot for our tent. We went to the regular campground loop and found a spot. While the girls got set up I went to pay at the campground’s check-in ranger station. We ended up paying the regular hiker/biker rate instead of full price, because the manager/ranger there has that policy. A pleasant surprise! The girls splashed in the bay while I cooked dinner. We had a relatively uneventful last night of camping before returning to Bellingham tomorrow.

The Swartz Bay ferry terminal is a massive complex!! The biggest we’ve seen. Must be because it services the traffic from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. In any case, there was a small food truck that was open in the morning and the kids got donuts. H also got a hot dog. The rest of us had our lunch in the cafeteria on the ferry en route. We sailed past several islands and across the strait to Tsawwassen. The exit was easy, but the thin strip of land was long to get over to the mainland. At the end we saw tens or hundreds of blue herons making an absolute racket in the trees.

We made our way through a couple neighborhoods and ended up in the town of Delta to shop for groceries. Daisy went in to buy supplies while I stayed outside with the kids at a play area containing mini golf, ping pong, and a couple other games. It must keep kids happy while the adults shop! We also noticed that the parking lot was surrounding the small set of stores, which is the opposite of the typical strip-mall setup in the US.

On our way out of town we found the bike trail: a gravel path along the water. It was here that we also met a strong headwind! Daisy graciously took the lead to help block the wind. I am like a sail with how high I sit on the bike! We saw about ten bald eagles along the path — they liked sitting on top of telephone poles.

We were excited that the campground had laundry facilities, as they were sorely needed. The kids have been practicing setting up the tent, and this time they set it up by themselves with no help at all!

This morning A and H wanted to draw, so we set them up while Daisy and I broke down camp. The hill to get away from the beach and back to the bike trail was steep. Like stop a couple times to rest, steep. During one of those stops a family with two toddlers in an Urban Arrow Family cargo bike passed by and we cheered them on. We have one of these bikes too, and they are great. The only downside is that when you run out of electric assist the bike is so heavy it is nearly impossible to ride uphill. … And that is the condition we found the family in near the top of the hill! The battery was empty! (There was no power available in the campground last night.) We had a nice chat for a few minutes before heading down the other side. Luckily for them there was a restaurant/store just a half mile away.

We passed several neighborhoods as the bike path went from being separated to on low-traffic neighborhood streets. Eventually we made our way to Sidney, BC. I was looking forward to some yummy interesting lunch food but unfortunately hungry H won out and we quickly got grocery store sushi and a box of blueberries again. After lunch the kids and I visited the Shaw Center for the Salish Sea while Daisy had a coffee and stayed with the bikes. This aquarium was pretty cool, and we got to explore another touch tank. We were a little overwhelmed to be overrun by summer camp kids, though!

Not much farther along and we arrived at Smonecten National Reserve Park campground. It was entirely in the forest, and the walk/bike-in sites were separated from the drive-in sites. After dinner we enjoyed our walk around the campground. There were signs telling about native plants. Also, there were a bunch of berries! I learned about “trailing blackberries” which are different than the typical “Himalayan blackberries” that we normally see. They are native to the area, and are much sweeter and more delicious than the more common variety we usually encounter. They were a little harder to eat since they ‘trail’ on the ground more like a vine than like a bush. There were also thimbleberries, which tasted like jam to me. We had a good dessert!

We quickly packed up from our restful indoor sleep, and headed down the hill to catch the 8:20 AM ferry to CANADA! It was quite full, and we were excited to see a few other tandems on the bike racks on the bow deck.

In the middle of the trip the boat suddenly rocked sharply to one side. Let’s just say that when a large boat does a sharp maneuver like that your heart is likely to skip a beat. But, we quickly recovered and suspected that the captain was altered the course to avoid whales. A couple humpback whales had surfaced right in front of the boat! The girls were delighted to have their first ever whale sighting.

In Victoria we went first to the floating house boats. I thought the kids would be excited about them, but in reality they didn’t care. They were a little interested in the wildlife growing off of the floaters under the houses though, haha. Victoria is absolutely amazing for cyclists. There are tons of separated bike lanes in the downtown area and the bike trails are also great. We stopped at a Whole Foods to grab some lunch items (sushi and blueberries!) and then headed north out of town on the Lochside trail. The trail felt like a bike super-highway that would make it easy to commute downtown.

The bike trail was quite flat and pleasant. We stopped for ice cream at a lovely little shopping center with stores circling a center courtyard. It was perfect for us. We stocked up on fresh veg and supplies for future meals.

At one point we got cooled off by an industrial “sprinkler” watering some crop in a farmer’s field. After turning towards the regional park we passed over a couple hundred foot climb before coming down towards the beach. It was quite windy so we felt thankful for the trees in camp.