September 1st - Comox and Coastal Black Winery
We
decided to take a short drive into Comox yesterday as the weather was
spectacular. A little fog hovering over the water but otherwise a beautiful
sunny and warm day.
 |
| The boat to the left sells fresh fish. |
There is a long walkway past the marina.
 |
| Lovely yacht with the Comox Glacier providing a background. |
 |
Lookout
over Goose Spit, a great dog beach. At the end of this is a military
installation.
|
Next it was off to the Blackfin Pub overlooking the harbour, although
this picture of Ray does not show the view. Great ambiance and they had a
beautiful wooden boat hanging from the rafters but unfortunately Ray's picture
was too dark.
After lunch we traveled back towards our campsite and stopped off at the
Coastal Black Winery. They make wine from blackberries and raspberries.
Their vines have been brought in from New Zealand and are thornless
varieties. Coastal Black belongs to the Harvest Host Association of which we
are a member so you can camp there for one to two nights free. They are
extremely welcoming and friendly. Their facilities include a small bistro
open in the summer with oven fired pizzas, A nice tasting room and large open
air (but has a roof) reception area for functions. There was a wedding
being held there yesterday when we stopped by. Where the ceremony was set
up was where they said we could camp. If that area happened to be full there
were lots of other areas in the vineyard. A wonderful place.
 |
| This bar in the tasting room is about 30 feet long and is one solid
piece of wood that was cut on the property. |
All of the wood supports for the buildings were all manufactured on the
property.
 |
| A wood fired pizza being made. |
 |
| Wedding venue where we could camp. |
Apparently
this winery has the largest amount of blackberry vines anywhere in Canada. It
was a wonderful couple of hours spent on a sunny day. The afternoon sky was so
clear we could actually see across to |Powell River and see the lights from the
community! We had a lovely campfire last night saw a cruise ship go by all lit
up.
Here is our sunset.
September 9th - Nanaimo River Estuary - Living Forest Campsite
Back at Living Forest in Nanaimo. A couple shots of our campsite:
September 13th -Family Lunch at the new Fibber Magees Station Pub in Nanaimo
We had a lovely lunch at
the Fibber Magees Station with Ray's family. Ray's mom came over from Burnaby
for the afternoon to meet up us and Ryan and Paul.
This pub
used to be the old Nanaimo train station which had been set on fire but these
industrious owners saw the potential and brought it back to life.
 |
| Just a few beer selections! |
 |
| Upstairs bar and lounge for private parties and weddings. |
The owners also own the small English pub the "Fox and Hound" ,which is now going under renovations and will come back with a new name in a
month. The Fox's menu has been incorporated into this new venture of Fibber
Magees Station. They also own another English style pub in Parksville called
the Black Goose Inn. Plans are in the wind for a new pub in Ladysmith next year
as well. Amazing that we met the owners about 10 years ago when they
opened their first small pub, The Fox and Hound. In Fibber Magees, they
have a small room decorated as the "Harry Potter room". There is even
a signed picture of "Harry".September 15th - The Old Dinner Club together again after three years!
We decided to resurrect our old dinner club for a wonderful evening at
the Living Forest Ocean Campsite as everyone is in town for once. We were
supposed to have hamburgers, but Ray asked me to try different meats so a
"slider" meal. We created 4 types of burgers, which turned
out pretty good with all the different condiments.
 |
| The Chef's Special dinner menu |
We've not all been together for 3 years, how the time flew by.
Unfortunately, we are missing two members who have flown up to the angels,
George and Ted, you are missed. Here are a couple of pictures of them at an
old dinner club event.
 |
| George Pichor at the end of the table. |
 |
Ted Kimoto
|
Now here are last nights pictures ... yes we have all aged somewhat over
the years! As you can see it was a bit chilly as the fog never burned off as it
was supposed to, but with a nice cozy fire and lap blankets a good time was had
by all.
With the
weather turning to rain tomorrow, today will be spent "battening down the
hatches!" in preparation for leaving on Thursday for Weir's Beach in
Metchosin, Victoria. We'll wait there until Ray's final spinal
fusion surgery.
September 18th - Last few days in Nanaimo
Our last few days in
Nanaimo before we head to Victoria waiting for Ray's surgery have been spent
with doctor appointments etc. We have taken a few walks however and here are
some of the pictures.
Mordon Colliery Provincial Site - old elevator structure from a coal mine that raised the cars up and dumped them.
Further along the trail we viewed the Nanaimo River.
 |
| The drive through Cedar to the above locations we noticed this beautiful Dahlia garden. |
 |
| The Norwegian Sun, the first ever cruise ship to visit Nanaimo |
The
Nanaimo Boat Harbour
 |
| The Citadel |
 |
| The Beacon Apartments |
So
"that's all she wrote" for our 2 week stay in Nanaimo!
September 20th - Weir's Beach
Back in Victoria area
staying at Weir's Beach. Looking at Mount Baker across "the pond".
Lovely campfire on the beach at Weir's, great moonrise and a lovely good
morning sunrise. This is our waterfront "condo" view for the next six
months! Not too shabby.
 |
| Mount Baker behind downtown Victoria |
Good Morning Victoria!
September 22nd - Rumrunner Pub Sidney
For the last day of summer, we took a drive to Sidney to Pedden RV to get Ray a new zero-gravity chair, as
our other ones we have pretty much worn out! The sun is out and it was a
beautiful day at about 16 degrees. Of course, since we went out, we needed to
find a good pub for lunch. The Rumrunner Pub is right on the waterfront
on the seawalk overlooking Forrest Island and the route that the Anacortes
Ferry takes. I would highly recommend this place ... the food and choices
were amazing. Lots of fresh seafood and reasonable prices.
 |
Tempura prawns and scallops served on jasmine rice and green salad
(wrapped up with a cucumber)
|
 |
Ray's ahi tuna burger with curried lentil soup.
|
 |
Yup we happy happy happy.
|
 |
| View from our table |
 |
| The place is a little small and old, but great little spot. |
This was a picture still on my camera from Campbell
River...Ray drooling over a Hotwheels edition Camero. It sure reminded me
of the small one that our son Garrett used to play with!
So
another delightful day ends.
September 23rd - Macaulay Point Park - Dog Park
Had our friends Wayne and
Karen over for dinner in the coach last night. A great visit.
 |
| Seafood paella, yummmm |
 |
| Looking towards Langford and Colwood |
 |
| Looking towards Fisgard Lighthouse |
 |
| Ogden Point Cruise Ship Port |
Other than that, not much happening today except Kristi has
landed on the island and we will catch up with her tomorrow.
September 26th - The Kinsol Trestle
As the sun came out today we decided to take the
short trip to the Kinsol Trestle in Cowichan. A lovely short walk for the dog,
Ray and I. First a picture from the viewpoint on top of the Malahat. It was a
nippy 10 degrees C.
 |
Looking at the Saanich Peninsula and the cliffs
of Saltspring Island.
|
In 1911, the Canadian National Pacific Railway dedicated a line on
Vancouver Island to connect Victoria to Nootka Sound. By 1918, only 6 km of track had been laid.
The Federal government took over the line as part of the CNR and work
continued. The steel was finally laid in April 1920. The completed trestle, at
187.6 m long and 38 m high, is the largest Howe truss, bent pile wooden trestle
left in the world. The old CN line passes through some of the smaller
communities on Vancouver Island and, for many years, provided a transportation
link for the local logging industry. The line never reached Nootka Sound.
The last train crossed the trestle on June 20, 1979.
The rails were removed in 1983. In the early 1980’s, advocates of the trestle
tried to have it restored and/or designated as a heritage structure.
Fires, vandalism and neglect took its toll on the
structure. Eventually, the north and south accesses were removed for safety
reasons.
The CN line and the trestle are part of the
Trans-Canada Trail. Finally, after years of campaigns to save the trestle,
rehabilitation work began in 2010. The official reopening of the trestle was
July 28, 2011.
After
our nice walk we stopped at the Pioneer House Restaurant for a bite. They have fantastic food and reasonable
prices. This
lovely old truck was in the parking lot.
 |
| Awesome old truck in the parking lot. |
We have
had so much seaweed wash up on the beach this past week that when the tide is
high, the seagulls go for a ride as the piles start to float off. We even saw a
farmer drive down the public access and scoop up a bunch for his fields.
September 26 to 29th Road Trip Around Puget Sound
Thursday,September
26th, 2013
Took our
daughter on a short road trip to the states as she had a couple days of
holidays to use. Freya was taken to Nanaimo the day before to stay with
her boyfriend "Wyatt" at friends of ours. I did all of the driving so
Ray could relax and we even brought the zero gravity chair so he would have a
good place to sit! It all worked out.
 |
Here we go!
|
Victoria
to Port Townsend
The
three of us left from Victoria Harbour via the Coho Ferry to Port Angeles.
A wonderful sunny morning, we were very fortunate. The Coho docked at
noon and after going through Customs we were on our way to Port Townsend.
The old architecture is fantastic. Emile (Ray) is in picture heaven! After a
late lunch we trotted up and down the main street looking at the quaint
shops. We checked into Manresa Castle and stayed in the turret suite! Very old
with lots of antiques but the hot running water is after a ten minute wait!
Dinner at the in house restaurant was great.
 |
| Anne Starrett Mansion |
 |
Jefferson Courthouse
|
 |
| Walking on the waterfront |
Downtown Port Townsend.
This is Manresa Castle where we stayed and the picture below is our
turret room.
 |
| Our room |
Old houses on top of the hill.
 |
| Reminds me of "Mary Poppins" house. |
 |
| Swan Hotel in Port Townsend |
Friday,
September 27th, 2013
Port
Townsend to Poulsbo, ferry to Edmonds and then Seattle Outlet Mall and
Medallion Hotel in Arlington.
We left
after breakfast and drove the short distance to Poulsbo. A friend of ours
grew up there, so we were interested to see this old Norwegian town with its
famous bakery. It was raining slightly when we got there but for the most
part was dry as we walked the short main street. Very pretty in spite of
the sprinkles. Lucky for us we arrived before a bunch of visitors from a
cruise ship that had stopped by!
 |
Famous Norwegian Bakery
|
Next it
was a short drive up to Kingston and on the ferry over the Puget Sound to
Edmonds. Their ferry's are quite old but certainly do the job.
After
landing we headed back up the I-5 to Tulalip where the outlet mall is
located. We ate lunch at the Ram brew pub and then we hit the
pavement. We took Ray back to the hotel and my daughter and I spent several
more hours investigating! We had dinner together at the hotel and into bed by
10pm.
 |
Ram Brew Pub
|
Saturday,
September 28th, 2013
We left
again after breakfast (7:30 am) and headed over the Deception Pass Bridge to
get a look at the narrows. A short drive through the state park brought
us to the bottom to get a good look at it. Wow what a current.
There were people fishing and someone was unloading their dive gear ... no
thanks too much current for us even though we used to dive!
 |
Deception Pass Bridge
|
Next a
short back track and onto La Conner with the Rainbow Bridge. We
remember visiting this place 25 years ago on my dad's sailboat. A
lot of shops have changed in the last 3 to 4 years we were told due to the
economy. Again we were lucky to only encounter a few sprinkles as the
weather report was for rain, rain, rain for the entire time we were
away.
 |
| Only antique store left. 25 years ago their were six stores. |
 |
| Rainbow Bridge |
After
lunch at the La Conner Brewing Company it is off to Anacortes. We
checked into the hotel and then the heavens opened up! We took a short
drive around town but could not even see anything so we just went back to the
hotel and ordered in Chinese Food! Again, in bed by 10 and up for breakfast at
7am.
 |
Picture taken from google as it was too wet to take any!
|
Sunday,
September 29th, 2013
After
stuffing our faces quickly we hurried to the Anacortes Ferry line-up for 7:30
am. The day was cloudy and we did not experience any showers until after
we had a short stop at Friday Harbour on San Juan Island. After a 2 1/2
hour ferry trip we landed in Sidney, drove to downtown Victoria and dropped off
our daughter after lunch at the White Spot. It was sure nice to arrive
back home at the coach after our whirlwind tour, but would not have missed it
for the world having our "little girl" to ourselves for a few days.
