Galiano

Last weekend there was a break in the rain so we booked a spontaneous trip to one of the gulf islands that we hadn’t visited before – Galiano. The inhabited areas are smaller than Gabirola and Salt Spring, and there are no cideries/breweries or wineries (boooo). It has just as many great beaches to explore though.

It is just a short ferry ride from Vancouver, as Galiano is the first stop on the Southern Gulf Islands route – just 1 hour rather than the 3 hours it takes to get to Salt Spring.

We dragged our friends Tom and Maria along and booked a cabin with a wood stove. After staying up too late on Friday night, we had a relaxed Saturday wandering along beaches and looking at some local art galleries/shops. We went to bed slightly earlier on Saturday night, but had an equally relaxed day on Sunday with more beaches and galleries. Unfortunately our ferry back wasn’t until 8pm, so we had to sit in the only pub on the island for a few hours once it got dark. Well, this was only unfortunate for Ollie as he was the designated driver.

As usual, we saw lots of wildlife. Here is a selection of floating birds for identification, if you are that way inclined:

Ollie has given up skating in favour of skiing. Here are some photos from his first trip up Cypress mountain on Thursday this week (don’t get too jealous, it’s raining again now).

In other news, the barge is still there. There has been some activity with a floating crane, which is related to repairs that need to be made before it can be floated. In between our updates, you can check out what’s happening with this live stream.