We are continuing a trip report of our recent three-week trip to the Northwest section of the country. We have already posted two articles about the first week of the trip, which was an Alaskan cruise: “Timeshares Rock, Cruises Rock (The Boat)” and “ Cruising Vs. Timesharing—Can You Really Compare?” In this article we will get into our second week, where we stayed in a timeshare in the little town of Birch Bay, Washington called Raintree’s Sandcastle at Birch Bay. We will also include a couple of side trips that we took in the area.
Let’s take a look at the resort itself. It is one of some 17 timeshares that are in the Raintree system. Most are out West in ski areas and in British Columbia, Canada. They are point-based, and trade in the RCI system. We booked the resort using RCI points in a two-bedroom for a week. They have one, two or three bedroom condos at this resort, and it is fairly small in size with only 48 units. All units have a balcony with an ocean view or a golf course view.
The units themselves are large, spacious and nicely decorated. The living room has a gas fireplace and a balcony overlooking the pool and the ocean. The master bedroom has a king bed with it own bath, but no Jacuzzi. The rest of the unit is pretty standard with another bath, bedroom, nice kitchen, and a washer and dryer.
The resort has a restaurant attached. We heard good reports from other folks, but we did not eat there. They have a nice heated outdoor pool with a hot tub. The activities were fairly limited, to include a nice wine and cheese gathering the first night, a couple of movies in the evening, and some yoga classes that you had to pay for. They have a nice club house and terrace on the top floor with a beautiful view of the ocean– great for sunset photos over the water. There are also gas grills for guests to use on the terrace.
The resort sits on the Pacific Ocean in a quiet bay. It is great for walking along the beach and watching the birds come in when the tides go out. You can go on a sailing expedition or fishing trip. We took one day and went into Canada—the border is only 12 miles. We continued across the border and up to Vancouver, British Columbia which was a short 30-mile drive.
Vancouver is blessed with numerous parks, and we visited a few. The biggest and the best in our opinion was Stanley Park. It is very large (over a 1000 acres) and has beautiful gardens, a Totem Pole Collection, outstanding views of trees, forests, the city and, of course, water. You can take horse drawn tours, harbor tours, or just spend time relaxing in the beautiful settings. There is a twelve-mile drive around the island as well as a walking boardwalk. We found numerous statues, picnic tables and benches for folks to enjoy. They also had an aquarium located on the grounds.
We drove around the city and found Chinatown, the business district, Robson Street ( which is home to numerous ethnic shops and restaurants), and the quaint older section of town called Gastown. It was where the city got its start, courtesy of a gentleman called Gassy Jack and his saloon in Gastown. Of course, we had to take a picture of his statue. There are numerous shops, restaurants, and bars/nightclubs that we enjoyed walking around and visiting.
We also visited the Granville Island Market, which is a large complex of art studios, shops and open air markets that sell everything you can think of. We enjoyed walking among all the booths crammed with meats, fish, fresh vegetable, fruits and flowers.
We also stopped at Metrotown Mall, the largest in western Canada. It contains over 450 stores and businesses on some four floors. They have a lot of the usual mall stores, but also have two super markets, dentist offices, lawyers, insurance companies, etc., which made for an interesting complex. I think we still like our state side malls better.
We finished our day with a nice meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory and headed back to Birch Bay and our condo. Look for Part II to read about our second week, as we explore many little towns in Washington State and take a day to visit Seattle.
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