Moving on up the highway.

We started our day with a tour of the Empress. Such a beautiful, iconic hotel.

They have their own beehives on the front lawn

View of the harbour from the hotel

A hot spot for tourists all year long

We packed up the car and headed up island, stopping at a viewpoint along the way to soak in the sights.

 We stopped in Duncan, Stacy and Heather saw Petes  bench.

View down to the river

We drove on to Chemainus, got out and walked through the whole town. It is well known for its historical murals,some great antique stores and more ice cream shops than we cared to count. We discovered the general store - wow - a guy came out the door carrying a kitchen sink. We went in but didn't buy anything as we couldn't find best before dates on most of the stuff!
We went to the hotel to check in and discovered to our surprise that we did not have a reservation at that hotel - humm - Heather went in and they checked the computer, low and behold we had reserved a room in Nanimo!!
So, we took the river road up to Ladysmith - beautiful scenery! Stopped at an antique store then carried on to Nanimo.
After we checked in we drove over to Janis's house for dinner. I had not seen her in 20 years but we have been in touch of course. We reminisced about our university days and got all caught up. Hopefully it will not be another 20 years until we see each other again.

Janis made her famous Pavlova for us all to enjoy!