When I peeked out the window at 6:00 am there was no cloud in the sky – just clear sunny skies. As the day wore on, clouds moved in but the weather stayed nice and reached a high of 70 degrees. We had our hotel breakfast and were on our way about 8:45 am. We headed west on the Trans-Canadian highway 1 along the full Thompson River which flows into the Kamloops Lake. Views from high were great and the countryside became more populated with housing developments, ranches and gold mines. Yes, this route was also listed as the Gold Rush Trail. I hadn’t realized how much gold had been taken out of these hills around Kamloops.
At the town of Cache Creek the highway turned directly south along the scenic Thompson River. In Lytton the Fraser River flows into the Thompson and from there on it is called the Fraser River – the best salmon river in the world. Near the town of Boston Bar we pulled over to view the Fraser Canyon from a bird’s eye view. We also stopped a short distance down the road to view Hells Gate where the river narrows down to a 100 foot wide gap with a roaring noise. In most places the Thompson River and/or Fraser River is several hundred feet wide.
Between the towns of Yale and Hope we stopped at the Hope River General Store which is located in the general vicinity of the old town of Emory. Nothing remains of Emory today but it was once a large gold mining town. York isn’t much of a town today either but around 1858-59 it was the largest town west of Chicago and north of San Francisco. We had a nice lunch at the general store, bought some honey for me and were on the road again. Today we also drove through the risqué sounding towns of Spuzzum and Chilliwack – let your imagination roam!
We neared the border of the USA but continued on into Vancouver. Rita did a tremendous job of navigating us through the city center to our nice hotel. We checked into the Sunset Inn in the West End and just a street over from Davie Street with hundreds of restaurants. This inn has suites and we were given a beautiful suite on the 6th floor with a balcony, kitchen, living room, bedroom and bath. It is very nice. We are situated in downtown and close to most everything.
After we unpacked and settled into our room, we walked to Sunset Beach and the Aquatic Center where we caught a ferry taxi to Granville Island. The weather was mild, in the 70s, and Vancouverites were out in hoards. Granville Island consists of warehouses converted into markets, galleries, restaurants, etc. – very much like Baltimore Harbor or Sydney Harbor. We walked through the markets, which reminded us of many similar markets around the world, and drooled over the fresh produce. We ended up buying fresh cherries, raspberries, yogurt, and pain de chocolat for additions to our complimentary hotel continental breakfast. We took the ferry taxi back to our side of False Creek and put the items in our refrigerator.
I walked to a local wine store and bought a half bottle of Merlot which we downed as we sat on our balcony overlooking English Bay. After a while we walked down Davie Street to The Boathouse Restaurant, recommended by the hotel, and overlooking English Bay Beach. We had an excellent meal. Rita had grilled salmon with a cucumber vinaigrette. I had a trio of northwest fish – salmon, ling cod, and halibut. A local pinot gris wine accompanied the meal nicely. We waddled back up the hill to our hotel impressed by the lushness of the area and the many blooming flowers.
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