Planning the Holiday - A belated sixtieth celebration

The start of the idea was a long time ago

As I mentioned in the previous post, the original idea for this holiday first arose in 2009. In that year Drew, my sister, brother-in-law and I travelled up the West Coast of the USA through California, Oregon and on into Washington State. In the North of Washington State in a town called Port Angeles we realised we were an easy journey, by ferry, to Canada. Not having been there before we decided to make the trip.

The Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria only takes 90 minutes, so we arranged to spend a day in Victoria and had a wonderful time there. It came to us as quite a shock that Canada could have such a different feel to it than the US, when they share a common border for such a long distance. The culture and the ambience was so different. We enjoyed the experience and thought to explore further in the future.

So after the experience of the day-trip to Canada I wondered if we might do a longer trip in the future. As I had travelled by car from the East to the West of the USA three times already I wondered if I could do a similar trip in Canada. It quickly became clear this was not possible. Indeed it wasn't even possible to hire a car to travel that distance from any of the major car hire companies.  

Taking the idea further - our next Canada visit

Bank of Canada - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

The Canada experience of 2009 informed our planning for our 2011 holiday which took us through New England and on to the Maritime Provinces of Canada and Newfoundland. I blogged about it then, and if you want to see more about that visit you could start on this post. The photo above is from that time when we visited Prince Edward Island.

The 2011 holiday, apart from the excitement of getting stuck in New York due to a hurricane, was a brilliant time and we committed to going back to Canada as soon as we could. In fact, though I'd not remembered this until I began the planning for this holiday and searched my PC for all Canada references, I'd mapped out a possible route back then. The image below is dated 13th August 2011, while we were actually in Newfoundland.

Pan-Canada Trip - Possible Route 13/08/11

The observant among you will notice that this route is in the opposite direction from the one we are actually doing. Perhaps travelling from West to East from New Brunswick to Newfoundland got me thinking in that direction. It strikes me as interesting to note that eight of the thirteen places outlined in the map above are destinations in this year's holiday. Though some might say it is just that there aren't that many places you can stop in the wilds of central Canada.

A brief visit in 2015

Our next two holidays to North America, in 2013 and 2015, were focused on visiting the 48 contiguous states. We did this first for me in 2013 when I got to North Dakota, and then for Drew in 2015 as he made it 48 by arriving in Colorado. However the 2015 trip took us to Niagara Falls and being that close to Canada it made sense to visit Toronto (Canada's Most Populous City) on that occasion. I'm really grateful I did, not only because of the fabulous day we spent there, but also because we would have had to add three days to this year's holiday if we had wanted to visit Toronto as part of this visit as it is a long way south of the other major Canadian centres.

Planning 2018

When in 2016 I asked Drew where he wanted to go for his fortieth birthday he said: "Mickey's House" so we spent last summer in Florida. When we were there Drew asked where I wanted to spend my sixtieth, it was easy to answer, to go to the parts of Canada we've not visited. However as my birthday is in February, we decided that we'd not take a winter holiday, neither of us are snow lovers, but take our trip in August. 

Since 2009 we have alternated North American holidays with European ones (NB Europe includes the UK whatever anyone else might argue!!) So the reason we are in North American in a even year is that this holiday is a slightly belated sixtieth birthday treat for me. 

With earlier plans in mind it was not hard to decide to make our way from Quebec to Vancouver, visiting six provinces, four of which (Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) we have not visited before, along with Ontario, which we were in briefly when visiting Toronto, and British Columbia, the province where this dream started on our visit to Victoria. 

Along with the three maritime provinces and Newfoundland, by the end of this holiday we will have visited all ten of Canada's provinces. Sounds like a good aim for our three weeks of enjoyment and pleasure together.