Kastle's Journey: Remembrance Day Weekend at Lake Cowichan 2018

Saturday, Ray and I went to the Duncan Farmer's Market to pick up a few things and for me to get my regular neck/back massage. Sure was a beautiful day. Once back home my job was to get the new hot tub filled, chemicals poured in and heating up. I also emptied out my china boxes that have been in storage for 7 years. Once the shelves get put in my new built-in buffet I will display them.

Sunday morning we woke up to very thick fog. I checked the hot tub and it was at 104F, just where we like it. After checking the balance of the water we were good to go. I decided we had better wait for daylight as we don't know where all "the gizmos" are and it would be hard seeing it in the dark. At 8 am, Ray and I enjoyed our first soak. Absolutely fabulous. We still need to figure out what switch turns on what water ... but overall it worked pretty good. No instructions regarding placement of switches/jets etc.

I will take a picture of the tub once the new cover is here and all the stuff that has exploded out of the basement temporarily for spray foam on Tuesday, is put back away from the hot tub. Hard to even get into it will all the stuff around it. lol The cover they sent is a 2-piece, but with the height of the hot tub and the bottom of the deck, it won't fold up out of the way so they will send us a 3 piece that folds back on hydraulics. For now a bit awkward to take the cover on and off and will require both of us.

At 10:30 am, Ray and I left to attend the community Remembrance Day Celebration at the cenotaph downtown, a 7 minute drive away. There must have been close to 1000 people there by 11 am. Considering the town only has just over 3000 people, that was a lot! We took our strongback chairs as Ray cannot stand for an hour for the service. What a beautiful day. Most services we have attended over the years has always been wet and cold. Today beautiful sunshine although only 3C. They had an honour parade including a bagpipe band, 3 tenors singing, and a few speeches in between the prayers and service. Not too long, not too short. It was nice to part of the community.

The Three Tenors, apparently their fourth tenor was on holiday somewhere far away from here. lol

Once we were back home we saw 7 small single engine planes fly overhead in formation and a few minutes later back over the house. Of course Ray did not have his camera ready. lol

Today we spent catching up on laundry and moving our clothes into our new hall closet ... they will be putting in the transom window in the bedroom and framing out the new closet this week so we have evacuated the room. As Ray says,"the circus has reached our bedroom". Now will we sleep up in Garrett's room as there is a working bathroom complete with a working sink until they finish the work in our room.

Monday, another sunny day. We decided to enjoy some scenery and fresh air. A drive around our little town was in order as there are many areas and subdivisions we have never seen. You tend to just drive the main road to where you need to go and back home.

We managed to find two small lakes that are bird and wildlife sanctuaries so you can't actually access the lake but we got close enough walking a trail for a few pictures.

You guys coming?

Kwassin Lake

There was also another small lake a little further on the trail called Grant Lake

Back in the car we went to the next little subdivision and found a foot bridge over the Cowichan River that we never knew was there. A bonus was seeing some spawning salmon in the river.

The white "sticks" in the water are the backs of the spawning salmon.

Here is Ray's picture of the salmon ... can you see it? It's in the bottom left corner.

This is obviously an old rail bridge decommissioned and now a walkway to town.

What a beautiful day.

The river is flowing much more quickly now with all the past week's rain.

On the way back home we stopped at the other foot bridge across the river that is close to our favourite pub. Not as nice a view but still interesting with some beautiful fall foliage. Freya certainly enjoyed all the new smells on our adventure.

Lovely fall colours still.

Swim up docks for tubers in the summer, looking up the river towards downtown.

Looking up towards the river mouth.

We decided to go to our favourite "watering hole" Jakes for lunch. On Monday's it's 25% off for seniors on everything except booze. Great deal.

After lunch we walked in the park across the parking lot with Freya, watching people fish for salmon in the river just before the weir. You could see a few jump.