Day 8: We’re Back in the USA (Victoria to Washington Park)

05 Jul Day 8: We’re Back in the USA (Victoria to Washington Park)

Sang Hyun at the Victoria Chinatown Gate

It was bittersweet when we woke up this morning to get ready to leave the hostel in Victoria.  We enjoyed 2 great days in a beautiful city resting our bodies and enjoying plentiful Asian food in the process.  Hostel living is probably not our cup of tea when it comes to sharing an entire dorm room with a bunch of strangers and making sure that you have your stuff locked up when you’re out.  I think that model works well when you’re a young traveler looking to meet other travelers in your early 20s, but in our late 30s, we’re a bit jaded from sharing a common space with strangers.  Oh, don’t get us started about the various odors of a male dormitory!

Rejuvenated

I was really feeling good on the bike this morning as we pedaled back up to Sidney to catch our ferry.  Even though there was a slight uphill, we both made good time and felt really good with the exception of my left knee starting to hurt.  I’m attributing that to my seat adjustment.  I’ve already raised the seat to account for this, so hopefully this will eliminate any knee pains for tomorrow.  We retraced the Lochside Bike Path all the way to the ferry terminal and made it there before 11AM.  The ferry was scheduled to leave twice a day: 12PM and 5:55PM.  We were told to come an hour early, but the guard told us to come back at 11:15AM to check in.  He assured us we would have plenty of time then.

All Aboard

Back to the USA

We rode back to Sidney’s little pier and dined at a restaurant overlooking the bay.  It was such a beautiful day! We quickly ate our bagels and made our way back to the ferry terminal to purchase one-way tickets and be questioned by immigration about where we’ve been and where we’re going.  We satisfied the guard who let us through.  In the process, we got to chatting with 2 separate groups of touring cyclists.  One group was a young couple who was on their Day 1 ride from Victoria to San Diego.  We gave them tips about Los Angeles as best as we could.  The other couple was an older couple from the Washington area who was touring around the Canada for a few days.

It was 12PM, and we were ushered on board with the rest of the foot passengers.  We quickly took to the front of the ship, like we’ve done several times the previous week and secured our bikes against some rails.  We both went upstairs, plopped down, and started to write and charge our equipment on the 2 hour boat ride over to Anacortes.

Good Bye Canada, Hello USA

Welcome to Washington

One More Ferry