End of January already! Lots of kitchen time! Jan 24 - Feb 1st

Sunday, I met up with Kristi and Amelia at 1:30 pm, at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre. I bought tickets to Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella Musical.  This will be Amelia's first "show". Hopefully she can sit for the 2.5 hours. (She managed, just barely lol)

The rest of the week was quiet. Wednesday with the sun finally out, we took a trip to Nanaimo for some shopping. We went to Hartmann and Co. Furniture to pick out a new couch and chairs. Our LazyBoy couch is falling apart on the corners. It's 8 years old but the edges are all cracking. Who knew when you bought a leather couch, half of it is vinyl??? Same on our recliners. Also, LazyBoy internal frame is all 2 x 4's and other strips of wood, then stuffed with "fluff" before stapling the leather/vinyl. Ray wanted to get something this time that would stand the test of time and be 100% leather all over. 

After 2 hours we ordered our new furniture and it will arrive in 4 months! These pictures are not the colour we selected. We chose Graphite for both the chairs and couch. Brown with a hint of grey. They are all motorized for back and footrest separately. Lithium batteries you have to charge with a cord every now and again.

Very modern with a Norwegian style and moulded, no wood. They should take up less room too. The couch is a wall hugger so should not interfere with Ray's Christmas Village next year.

The couch will be 3 sections, not as shown. We also ordered head protectors made of washable fabric. This is just an example shown, our material is the same colour as the chairs and couch so hardly noticeable. That is the area where the leather will break down first.

Next up, a stop at McLaren's lighting where Ray finally managed to find new wall sconces. He's been looking for 6 years as the ones we have do not point straight up at the beams, which is what he wants. They will be installed in the next few weeks by our electrician. No ladders for Ray!

Our main reason for a trip to Nanaimo was that Jason had a scheduling conflict, taking Amelia to swimming lessons while Kristi needed to be picked up from the hospital after a test done under GA.

Back home for 4pm. A successful day.

Thursday another rainy day. The LazyBoy guy finally came with the part to fix Ray's recliner. As you can see, all wood inside.

Today was also a kitchen day! I made a batch of chili and fresh buns, so invited Mike and Debra over for dinner. We've been invited to their SuperBowl party, Feb 8th,  and I wanted to make sure the chili is acceptable to make. It is. :)

With everyone busy with travel and family, it'd been some time before we actually managed a visit to catch up. Other 3 sets of neighbours are all enjoying the sunshine in Cabo!

Friday, another wet miserable day. Today I made Ray a brunch hash and then Lamb Shanks for dinner. He did not complain :)

Saturday, still raining, so we drove to Duncan to do some shopping and get out of the house. My fridge is empty lol, so needed to stock up on veggies. We stopped for lunch at a new to us restaurant, for chinese food....Guangzhou Garden Restaurant, it was'nt great. Strike that one off. Back home by 1:30 and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Sunday, finally no rain. We moved the temporary recliner back downstairs (it was the one we bought for the Motorhome a couple of years ago) and brought another chair we have back upstairs.  I decided to make a seating area for Ray behind the TV so we could look outside on dark days. It's brighter sitting there. The previous owner of this house had a sitting area in the alcove.

I've ordered new plastic panels for the Gazebo on the deck, so we can sit out there in the winter. They should be here next week. In advance of that, I ordered a new couch for the deck. The other one is so low you felt like you were going to hit the floor when you sat down. Although I don't usually sit on that couch, our company does and most of us have trouble with knees and getting up is a bit difficult. (Dianne and Pat) I may use the old one in our sitting area patio in the front of the house as we have occasional visitors sitting out there with us. :)

Ray spent an hour today, Sunday, putting it together for me. 

More time in my kitchen today. I'd bought a box of fresh oranges on sale, on so decided to juice a bunch for breakfast today. I also used some to make buttermilk orange pancakes. Yum.

Next up prepping for dinner. Sweet and Sour pork riblets with peppers and onions. The Sweet and Sour we ate at that Chinese Restaurant was dreadful! 

Mine looked something like this. Definitely enough for 2 dinners. 

Just like that, another week went by! and it's still raining! Lake level rising back up again. 

Mini- Vacation to Ucluelet, BC - Jan 17 - 23

Saturday is fairly quiet just doing a little packing etc. for our trip to Ucluelet on Monday. Sunday, Penny, our gardener came to do some pruning that didn't happen last fall due to the November rains.

We gave away our dock gazebo to a fellow from Victoria. Derek and his brother, Craig, took it apart and will come with a truck to pick the pieces up next Friday. It was pretty frosty when they started, but they managed in about 2.5 hours. No fingers lost or cut lol

It's currently stacked other than the top frame in our driveway awaiting pick up.

Later in the afternoon, Ray hooked up the utility trailer as we're dropping it off at Jason's. On our way back we'll buy treated plywood for my new greenhouse. It's supposed to be frosty again in the morning and we didn't want any frozen locks on the trailer to worry about first thing in the morning.

Monday morning we were out of the house at 8:45am for Nanaimo. After dropping off the trailer we headed to Port Alberni where we had a lunch date with our old Port Alberni friends Deb Ralston and Brian Clozza. Deb served up a delicious butternut squash soup with two types of sandwiches and dessert. Wow we like this restaurant. Thanks a bunch guys! It was nice catching up with you both. Of course Port Alberni is in the fog as we came down the "hump" as per usual. lol It was sunny all the way there until then.

After a 2 hour visit, we're back on the road to Ucluelet. The fog carried on, sometimes really thick along Sproat Lake and up the hills was really frosty. It was 4C in Port Alberni and went as low as -2C at the worst. There is still some snow on the ground.

Once we got to the end of Kennedy lake and Hydro Hill, it warmed up to 8C and sunshine. In fact, it was sunny the whole 3 days until Thursday.

Kennedy Lake Viewpoint

 

We checked in about 3:30 pm. What a cute little place, The Blue Crow Suite. There were "greeters" outside. They actually walked across our patio a couple times in the following days.

They even have in-suite laundry.

Look at that view!

After unpacking we took a quick walk down to the beach.

There is also a connector trail to the Wild Pacific Trail.

Unfortunately for me, I'm feeling tough and realized I developed a bladder infection. Ray's on his own for dinner and brought back some tacos that were not very good, I had a granola bar. It's a funky place though. Ukee Dogs Taqueria.

I'm worse Tuesday morning, so I called our doctor's office in Nanaimo and they told me to see the pharmacist here and get some antibiotics, which is what I did. Breakfast is banana bread from a local bakery. Yumm. I really wasn't hungry, but have to take antibiotics with food.

Ray's on his own for the day touring around. Here are some sunrise pictures he took. He'd been talking about this lighthouse and the Wild Pacific  Trail for years .... it's sure smaller than he thought. lol

The lighthouse was important as this area is known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific".

Amphitrite Point Lighthouse

The first lighthouse at this site was a small wooden tower built in 1906. This lighthouse was destroyed in bad weather in 1914, and the current concrete lighthouse opened in March 1915. Amphitrite Point is exposed to frequent gale-force winds, tidal waves and is also in a tsunami inundation zone, so the current lighthouse (built in 1915) derives its peculiar shape and construction from being designed to withstand strong westerly storms coming off the Pacific Ocean. It was staffed by Canadian Coast Guard lighthouse keepers from 1915 until 1988, when it was automated.

The navigation beacon in Ucluelet that produces a sound, often described as a "mooing" or "whistling", is a wave-activated whistle buoy located off the coast of Amphitrite Point. We can hear it and see it from the patio.

If you have to lay about .... this was a great place to do it. I was able to lay on the couch with a view, lay on the bed with a view and sit outside with a view! lol I think I had 3 separate one hour naps today.

Ray went around checking out the places he wanted to take pictures.

Floathouse Restaurant closed at the moment.

Terrace Beach

The aquarium that is currently closed.

Emily Carr is a very famous Canadian artist, who's originals sell for mega dollars

Terrace Beach, still frozen in the shade. (I think he must have been there after the lighthouse lol)

Ray brought home dinner. This time it is a brisket sandwich for him and ramen noodles for me. Unfortunately the ramen tasted terrible, so I ate a granola bar and bread with jam instead.

Wednesday, as I was feeling much better, Ray took me around to the favourite spots. Breakfast was fresh croissants from the bakery. Then we went to the lighthouse for me to see it myself.

Next up is Big Beach, looking towards the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort.

Look at the tight rings on the cedar slab. The tree would have been about 1200 years old. The park had it marked by year to show people.

Time for lunch, I'm actually hungry. We chose Howler's Family Restaurant. A lot of places are closed for the winter and some closed Monday and Tuesday .... This one is always open and has great food.

This place would be really hopping for families in tourist season.

I had the wonton soup with prawns and Ray had prawn skewers and deep fried scallops. Of course I only ate half my soup so he finished that too.

Back in the car to the small boat harbour where we'd stayed on my Dad's boat, when our kids were really little

We found the seafood shop and purchased 2 live crabs for dinner tonight. I'd packed garlic and butter. Yumm. I was feeling much better so we enjoyed a couple of hours on the patio, where I actually had a glass of wine! (No antibiotic contra-indications for alchohol, I checked first lol)

PS. The crab was delicious!

Thursday morning we woke to clouds. I guess our sun is gone. The locals tell us it's never this nice in January with sunshine and no wind! 

We headed off for breakfast at the Black Rock Resort, Currents Restaurant, seven minutes down the road. What a beautiful setting. I ate light with toast and fruit, but Ray had a breakfrast bowl and loved it.

I waited inside while Ray went out to take some pictures and then he showed me the beautfiul artwork on the walls as we went back to our car. A gorgeous facility.

You can look at this from your room for $400 per night off-season!

This picture was painted by a grade 11 art student.

What you can make with driftwood. All yours for $5500

Who knew macrame was still a thing! Priced at $6500!

Ray dropped me off back at the suite and headed out to do more of the Wild Pacific Trail before the rain comes. The trail is wheelchair accessible, with many little trails off to benches with awesome views.

This is one tree

It definitely clouded up in the afternoon. So glad we had 3 days of sunshine.

For our last night we went back to Currents Restaurant. Ray had a fabulous Black Cod with a truffle cream sauce and I had a one piece lingcod and fries. Delicious.

Friday morning we had a glorious sunrise. It's gonna be a great day!

By 9:15 am we were on the road heading home. It's sunny until we hit Sutton Pass and then turned foggy until we came down the "hump" by Cameron Lake heading towards Qualicum. The roads are dry all the way home. We did briefly stop in Nanaimo for a bite to eat and pick up our utility trailer from Jason's. Arrived  home at 2 pm in the sunshine, but cold wind off the lake.