More of the Tour

Here's some more of the touring we did during my friend Pam's visit.

Nanaimo Inner Harbour

Baby's first game of Ticket To Ride. Notice her excellent card holding technique.

Fisherman's Wharf in Victoria

Sign at the end of the pier at Fisherman's Wharf

Lighthouse at Trial Island

View from Clover Point Park

My alma mater, Royal Roads University

Walking along the Coburg Peninsula in front of RRU

View of the dockyards in Esquimalt (still on the Coberg Peninsula in front of RRU)

The very sweet face we grew to know and love

As you can imagine, our house has been very quiet since these two left. We've missed them a ton. 

Cathedral Grove

I mentioned that my very dear friend Pam came to visit for a week with her sweet baby A and  having her here was unimaginably wonderful. During her visit, we toured around to show her some of our favourite spots on this island. One of those places is Cathedral Grove.

Jeff recalls there being 400+ rings on that tree (which puts it on this island before Captain Cook arrived!)

The Van Island Canoodle

Our local news guy made the international news yesterday and found 15 minutes of fame he probably would prefer to forget.

Tofino Part 2

The second morning we were in Tofino, we hiked down to Combers Beach and walked 2+ kilometers along the foggy beach at lowest tide up to Green Point. On the beach at Green Point, there is a rock formation that is accessible only during lowest tide- because these rocks are underwater most of the time, they are a great place to find all sorts of sea creatures. Jeff's parents discovered this while camping at Green Point a few years back and made sure we got there during the narrow window of low tide when it is accessible. I think for all of us, it was one of the best parts of the trip.

Foggy morning at Green Point

Mussels and starfish exposed at low tide 

  

Tide line at low tide is still right up to the rock cropping

Green anemones, starfish and assorted arthropods and clams

Caves underneath the rocks

Walking back toward Combers Beach, still in the fog

Tofino Part 1

As I mentioned earlier, we had a wonderful family vacation last week in Tofino. Here's some of what we saw: 

Ucluelet

Wickininish Beach 

Forest hike to Schooner Cove

View of Claquot Sound from our breakfast table

Forest hike to Florencia Bay

And two sunsets (and beach campfires) at MacKenzie Beach. 

Surfing

While surfing isn't on my agenda this week, Tofino is one of the best places on earth to hit the waves. Check out Rick Mercer's attempt at winter surfing- it's worth a giggle.

My view Wednesday

We're away this week with family to one of our favourite places:

Our view today is, therefore, pretty fantastic.  I'll share photos next week when we're back. 

Daytrip

Jeff and I spent the day in Victoria yesterday. We planned to walk around Clover Point Park and I figured my camera would be filled with beautiful shots of the of the view across the Straight of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic Peninsula (like the ship in the centre of my blog header above) to post today... but this was the view we got.

Victoria was completely fogged in and covered in rain for most of the afternoon. Despite the not-so-nice weather, we did have two great visits with friends, a fantastic lunch at our favourite Victoria restaurant, a lovely walk around Beacon Hill Park, great burgers, and a stroll around Craigdarroch Castle before coming home. Not bad, considering the yucky weather. We'll just have to go again when the sun is out. 

Jeff, tree climbing in Beacon Hill Park

Craigdarroch Castle, home of the Robert Dunsmiur family (a pretty famous family in the history of BC.). Their son later built Hatley Castle (now the campus of Royal Roads University) as his home... and now I get WHY he thought building a castle for a home was a good idea. 

Butchart Gardens Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a wonderful day at the Butchart Gardens after my graduation. We took our time and enjoyed the entire garden- each section was uniquely beautiful that it makes it hard to pinpoint my favourite spots. I really loved the peace,  and tranquility of the Japanese Garden. It was very green and very quiet- two things that make me happy.

It was a little early for the roses (although quite a number were in bloom) but we did catch the peak of the peonies.

Triple bloom peonies- each flower had a burst of pink petals in the centre

I should have taken more pictures of the irises- they were in every colour imagineable and were really striking.

As were the Whirligig Daisies.

I think, however, my favourite were the blue poppies. I posted about them here last week... they were so delicate and the most beautiful shade of blue.

Since our visit, I've read up on these Himalayan Blue Poppies and it appears that they are quite difficult to grow.  I suspect that since our garden is fairly shaded, they would do very well here... and I think they may be worth the experiment.

The gardens, as a whole, are perfectly maintained, and impressively striking. I think I prefer the more informal areas , but the whole place is certainly worth a visit.  I was just amazed that it was the brainchild of one woman- a woman who set out to make an ugly quarry pit beautiful. She certainly succeeded and her family, who still run the place (very successfully), are making her legacy a lasting one.