Monday was a day of epic driving, from the far north western part of the island all the way down to Victoria. We did stop at a random roadside spot, the Goodspeed Fossil Bed. The fossil bed was located at the end of a decommissioned logging road that was still in great condition and posed no challenge the jeep. The fossils we found were mostly bi-valves and they were super fragile.

The the rest of the drive down was uneventful but the scenery is still amazing! We stayed the night in downtown Victoria at the Ocean Island Inn which was the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in, even given that our room was a the size of closet. They include dinner and a free drink plus offered six different local beers on tap. We did laundry, burped the car, and packed to head over to Washington state on Tuesday July 4th.

We got an early start since our last ferry trip was a closer call than we would have liked. Fortunately this time everything went as planned which meant we sat in the ferry terminal for about two hours. The ferry goes to Part Angeles Washington twice a day and takes about 90 minutes for the trip. We did see a couple of whale spouts and a tail on the way over. Port Angelels is a neat little town, lots of coffee shops and local restaurants. We had dinner at Thai Tapas and it was some of the most flavorful Thai food I’ve had! Dessert was a maple nut espresso milkshake and then down to watch the parade. I don’t know the population of the town but I’d say everyone was there, either in the parade or watching. The best entry in my opinion was the lady in the denim flag jacket yelling “America” whilst being pulled by a llama harnessed to a two wheel cart. No pictures of this but trust me, it was magical!