I was finally able to use the dial-up connection to connect to Internet early this morning. Sent out a file to my brother. Went to the nearby Internet cafe and had breakfast with Douglas.

My current plan is to spend the 9/9 and 9/10 on Vancouver Island (32,137 square kilometers, or 12,408 square miles). The start of my Vancouver Island adventure is Nanaimo. From Horseshoe bay, the ferry will take me to Nanaimo in 1 hour 30 minutes across Strait of Georgia.

From Nanaimo, I drove southeast to the biggest city on island - Victoria (pop. 73,500). Victoria gave me very good first impression with its European style architecture, superb gardening and cleanness. But the town is mostly a tourist town. There are quite some traveling artists around town.

Tomorrow I will be driving north to Tofino, another 5-hour drive. Then back to Vancouver. I have planned a somewhat relaxing vacation but ended up with such a busy schedule.

next day (9/10)