Entry 13 - 2 September 2000
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	Vancouver Island to Kamloops
Chris	It was an early start again today as we wanted to do some quick sightseeing before catching the ferry back to the mainland. I hoped we could get the 12pm ferry, or with luck, the 11am. To save time, our breakfast was at the hotel. I had some fried eggs, bacon, pancakes and rockmelon. It was good to have real maple syrup on the pancakes. Back home, I've found it difficult to get authentic maple syrup when I've had pancakes at restaurants. Vanessa tried for the first time pancakes and maple syrup.
Vanessa	The pancakes were huge - they covered the entire plate and they were over a centimetre thick! They were quite nice and fluffy, but I had to drench them in maple syrup as Chris suggested. The maple syrup was not as sweet nor as smooth tasting as I had expected it would be and it had an unusual smoky burr to it that was not unpleasant. I definitely want to try it again sometime.
Chris	By 8:30am, we were in downtown Victoria. It certainly wasn't difficult to get parking at this time of day. We took a quick look inside the Empress Hotel. The fittings exuded history and opulence. I think the cost of staying at this hotel might have been just outside our budget. It was then a short walk across to the Parliament building, which was not open to visitors at this early hour.
	Because the weather reports had mentioned snow on the mountains, we had to do some fast warm clothes shopping. We dropped in at the Mayfair Mall to allow Vanessa to buy an outfit. I was surprised at how cold the weather was turning out to be, as I had travelled through this area at a similar time of year in 1992 and 1994 and had no real problems. I wonder if it was unseasonably cold now, or I was just incredibly lucky the last time?
Vanessa	It was unusually cold. One weather report I had seen on the TV had a special mention on what a cool Summer it had been in that area. So far there had been only about four days where the temperature had gone above 24 degrees and it had been overcast nearly every day.
Chris	We checked out at 10:30am and drove off to the ferry terminal. On our way we drove through Sidney, sister city to Cairns, Queensland, Australia. From what we saw, it was a town much like other towns. We just made the 11am ferry by five minutes. Luck was on our side. Or was it? It was also the start of the rain for the day and very bleak conditions.
Vanessa	I was so glad that we visited Butchart Gardens yesterday.
Chris	The ferry offloaded us at the Tsawwassen terminal. We set off for Kamloops in the drizzle. Lunch was at "The Odyssy" restaurant in Abbortsford. It was a Greek/Italian style place - so I had pizza, while Vanessa had veal schnitzel and veges. Both meals were nothing really special.
	We followed Route 1, the Trans Canada Highway. With the weather being so miserable, it was difficult to get any good photos of the scenery. I had to keep telling Vanessa about how big the mountains really are as we drove between the cloud shrouded peaks.
Vanessa	I was a little disappointed by the view. I could guess that there was some interesting scenery behind the clouds. From what I remembered from my high school Geology classes, we were travelling through some classic glacial valleys.
	Another disappointment was the packet of Cheezies we had bought for a travelling snack. They were horrible. The outside was an overpowered cheese-flavoured coating while the inside was ultra bland, much like unflavoured popcorn. I suppose what made it worse for us was that we had been expecting them to taste something like our Twisties, which they looked remarkably like. They tasted nothing like them, so it was an unpleasant surprise. Fortunately, we had some other snacks to eat that were a lot more palatable.
Chris	It certainly was possible to tell that this was a holiday weekend (Labor Day) with the steady stream of traffic along the road. When I drove this way last time, it had been miles before I saw another car. The road wound its way up into the mountains. At times we stopped to take photos when the clouds cleared enough for a view. We began to see our first tiny patches of snow on some of the peaks.
Vanessa	Chris was a bit amused about my excitement over seeing snow. I had to remind him that the only other time I had ever seen snow before was when I was quite little, when my family had taken a trip to Mount Kosciusko one Summer holiday. The mountain top still had patches of snow on it, albeit rather old and soggy snow. Having lived in a sub-tropical environment all my life, you have to understand that snow is truly a novelty to me.
Chris	In the middle of seemingly absolutely nowhere, we had to stop at a toll booth to pay $10 to use the road. It was weird to actually be paying something on the credit card this far into the wilderness. The drizzle turned into solid rain, with the mountains totally obscured at times. The landscape was basically just shades of grey now. Sometimes the road itself was in the clouds or fog.
	We arrived in Kamloops at about 6pm and checked in at the Kamloops Travelodge motel. As usual, we drove around town for a while, trying to find a place to eat and to have a bit of a look around. Eventually, we went back to the motel and went to the Sleepy Hollow Inn that was part of the motel. Vanessa had minted lamb chops, while I had a "Denver Closed": a toasted sandwich with egg, mushroom, ham, capsicum, cheese and fries. We deliberately ordered smaller size meals so we could have enough room for dessert, something that we hadn't yet managed so far. I forced myself to have a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, while Vanessa sacrificed herself to the triple chocolate and macadamia cheesecake. Ahhhh... the tortures we put ourselves through... (Yum!)
	There was not much more we could manage to do this evening (we had eaten way too much!) other than writing up the journal and watch TV. The motel had lots of cable channels, but none of the ones we were interested in. It seems to be difficult to find enlightened places that watch science fiction and fantasy shows.

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