We survived the drive to the Island! We decided to leave at 3am to maximize the time the kids would probably sleep. My son was game and fell back to sleep within 15 minutes; my daughter took close to an hour. I had intentions of sleep, but it was foggy and I decided to be the helpful backseat driver. My husband was less than thrilled haha. Did you know the sun comes up around 4:30am? Now you know without having to experience it yourself.

The roads were pretty empty, so we made super time. Then we heard “I have to peeeee” in the literal middle of nowhere. My daughter is potty trained, but this was a real test of potty training. She actually did manage to hold it until we found a little side road to pull of on. Quite proud of her. 

We stopped for coffee and breakfast in 100 mile, and my son was visiting all the people. It is pretty cute when old men, and work crew guys grabbing pre-work food smile and wave at the little toddler. 

I took over driving at 100 miles, and drove the rest of the way. The canyon was in better shape than I expected, though we did have one area where a pilot car had to lead us through the destroyed road and bridge. All was sunny until we were near Fort Langley….then the rain started. By that I mean torrential downpour.

I blame the reason I missed the sign to the Ferries on the rain, not misreading the sign…..I waffled on the exit too long and wound up in Vancouver. If we didn’t have GPS I have no idea how I would have navigated back (old fashioned map? Poor gas station person?). Then I started stressing that we were going to miss our Ferry reservation. Thankfully GPS also tells you an estimated time of arrival!

We got there right when we wanted to, and had time to stretch our legs with the kids. My son is a tiny knee high obstacle that almost took out more than one unsuspecting shopper. However, again, people are quite game to wave and forgive the toddler.

The ocean was pretty choppy, and my husband and I were both feeling sea sick. Know what is fun? When you are a parent and sea sick you still have to entertain your children. Thankfully there were two play areas that we bounced between, and after the ocean settled the indoor walkways make a nice running space. A few older kids also took a liking to our kids, and helped play with them as well.

Once we got off the Ferry I confidently told my husband I knew exactly where I was going. He was very skeptical since I had also confidently told him I knew how to get to the Ferries – like the back of my hand! We did make it to our destination, but he used GPS and triple checked me when I questionably asked myself “I think this turn, yes yes this turn”.