After an early morning flight to Seattle, we boarded a bus to Vancouver. The ride was to be 4-5 hours long and no food is served on buses!!! While Stan kept our place in line for the bus, Tessa and I took off to find food to eat on board. Asian! All Asian! There is nothing wrong with Asian food but its fragrance can be a little strange on bus! We bought cute little bowls of pork and rice and chicken and rice. It was yummy and thank goodness, no one complained. They all had something similar.

We originally planned to fly to Seattle and take the Cascades train to Vancouver. We thought a classy train ride would be a great experience for us to share with Tessa. As the time for our departure arrived, we finally learned that the train times in no way coincided with our plans. We had no choice but to opt for a bus.

I will go on record. Bus service like BOLT should not be overlooked. It's on-time and the ride is comfortable. The views are wonderful. They said they have WIFI but our bus did not. Still I highly recommend it.

The scenery was beautiful but it was mostly trees, trees and more trees, not the kind we see in Georgia or Arkansas but real spruce, fir and cedar. The green, hilly landscape was very pretty.

We were delivered, right on time in Vancouver. We grabbed a taxi and headed to our Airbnb apartment.

Smart people, the landlords! In the rear of their lovely home are two apartments on which look upon beautiful rose, fruit tree and flower gardens. It was quiet and very comfy. The landlords, a handsome Japanese couple, live upstairs but we never saw them until day of checkout. As we admired their lovely gardens, they told us about their flowers and invited to taste their red goumi berries and fruits.

With the help of Google Maps we learned our way around our charming neighborhood and walked to find food, wine and the SkyTrain station. We are in an area of town near the Nanaimo SkyTrain station. It's a densely populated neighborhood of well-kept cottages that are surprisingly much larger than they seem at first glance. Its residents are diverse but there is a strong Asian presence. Many of the yards we passed were filled with not only beautiful flowers but small vegetable gardens as well growing Bok Choi, onions and garlic, lettuces, long beans, and squash of all varieties. We entertained ourselves on our walks by naming the plants and admiring the pristine, well-manicured gardens