Kastle's Journey: August 2021

Saturday morning, another lovely day. Ray was out early with his camera for the sunrise over the oyster leases.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Ray and I decided to drive up to Forbidden Plateau and have a look around. There was supposed to be RV camping up there. Out the door at 10:30 and off we went.

As we wound our way up the mountain, most of the views were all covered in trees and baby alders. At the top of the road there is a huge parking lot where a ton of trails take off from. We found the campsite and it was very, very rustic mostly for tents. Worse than a forest service site! No views, oh well, back down the road we went and stopped at the only openings for these pictures. Don't know if the haze is from the forest fires in the interior, smoke from the Ladysmith Fire or just general pollution haze.

Once down the mountain we stopped at the "Fish Store" again and picked up a dozen baby oysters for the BBQ and 2 lbs of mussels for dinner. The Fanny Bay Inn was on our way home so we decided to have lunch there again. Fabulous food there. So far the 5 things we have tried have been excellent.

The rest of the afternoon we spent outside chilling until it was time to cook dinner. It turned real chilly around 5 pm so we actually ate inside.

Lots of cream wine sauce for my "sauce man". lol

Delicious

Ray was just heading to bed when our neighbour knocked on our door and told Ray to get his camera for the fabulous looking "Blue Moon" with the fluffy clouds. There won't be another blue moon for 4 years. Glad he told Ray so he could take some pictures. lol

The campsite at night.

Another fabulous day in paradise on our island.

Sunday morning, after dishes and showers we headed out at 10 am for our next adventure. Today we are going to Filberg Heritage Park and Lodge in Comox.

After fueling up in Buckley Bay we made our way to Comox to the Heritage Park.

"Once the home of Robert "Bob" Filberg - business man, philanthropist and President of the Comox Logging & Railway Company, the largest logging operation in coastal British Columbia."

"He came to the Comox Valley in 1909 and found work with the Comox Logging & Railway Company. While working, Bob became acquainted with Sir J.D. McCormack, the company's president and his daughter, Florence. Bob successfully courted Florence and by 1916 they were married. Bob's fortunes grew as he quickly rose to the rank of Company Superintendent and later, President. (Fun fact, my maiden name was McCormack!)

With his new found wealth, Bob had a new house built. The project started in 1929, and stretched out for 6 years. Finally, in 1935 Bob and Florence and their two children, Mary and Robert, moved in.

Mr. Filberg passed away in 1977. Having been predeceased by his family, he bequeathed his estate to the Vancouver Foundation who in turn approved a request from the Comox Council to allow the property to become a public facility.

It was certainly a beautiful home and property. This whole place is run by donations, volunteers and I suspect a very large grant from the City. The also host weddings etc. One of the volunteers handed out a pamphlet for I Spy, of nine sculptures, items scattered around the property. Ray and I found 8 of the 9, but were too tired to go around again to find the last one.

The have a petting zoo but it is closed to the public due to Covid, I suspect.

Dairy Building. Look at the way the logs are dovetailed together and the size of the door hinges.

Chicken House

Root Cellar

In the process of replacing all the supports for the vines.

This was one of the I Spy features.

Path down to the Summer Kitchen and Lodge.

Exit from the gift shop.

Inside the Lodge, most antiques and dishes etc. are all for sale to help with the running of the place. Very reasonable prices too.

The smells coming from the Summer Kitchen were delicious. They have a limited menu and substantial prices, but I'm sure that is also contributing to the running of the park.

Summer Kitchen

View in front of the lodge.

The Filbergs did quite a bit of travel and brought back many different clippings of trees from around the world.

Weeping European Ash

Campertown Elm

This is a Persian Silk Tree.

Front of the lodge.

I Spy sculpture

I Spy sculpture.

Last rose of the season.

After walking around for more than an hour, we had enough and headed back to Comox, hoping to have lunch at the Black Fin Pub but it was closed, again due to staff shortages, I believe. We continued back towards Fanny Bay and decided to eat at the Fanny Bay Inn again! Their beer is great as is their food. Another great meal.

Freya was happy to see us back home, and as it had clouded over again and was a bit brisk outside, we stayed in and viewed our view from inside. lol

Our neighbours invited us over for dinner with their fresh pollock fish and homemade beans. Ray contributed his margarita's lol Delicious. Their family are commercial fisherman, so the fish is very fresh.

Apparently we had a wind event at the lake this afternoon. Peoples chairs on their docks went flying and a bunch of them went "overboard". Pat and Darryl fished them back out. Fortunately, ours just moved a bit and our ladder prevented Ray's zero gravity lounger from going into the drink. lol Pat secured them all for us. Thanks a bunch. :)

Otherwise we enjoyed another fabulous day.

Monday is a stay at home day. Quite cool to start the day and there is a cool breeze off the water so we spent a lot of time inside. I decided to make a prawn and corn chowder to use up some stuff in the fridge so prepped it all to cook later outside. Later in the afternoon, Ray went over to the neighbours and showed 2 of the kids how to play double solitaire while I cooked up the chowder.

The chowder was hit, no leftovers. lol They also cooked up some fresh Spring Salmon which we also sampled. There are 3 families camping together and are, or were, commercial fishermen. George Sr. drove to Port Alberni for some fresh spring salmon caught this morning. He gave us three big salmon steaks, which I will cook up tomorrow with the pan fried oysters.

Tuesday morning was cool but absolutely gorgeous. Ray was out early with his camera snapping pictures with Freya.

I told Ray this is a pretty "trippy picture! The reflection really gets you confused with the moon and trailers upside down. (Ray here: A regular pic would've ended with the moon looking very tiny, this makes it more dramatic)

Today we went to visit Cumberland. After showers and dishes we were out the door about 9:15. We were told there is a wonderful bakery in Cumberland serving up delicious donuts. The neighbours did not lie. lol Definitely a "hole in the wall" kinda place, where there is only room for one person at a time allowed in to purchase their baked goods. There were 3 people ahead of us in line and when we came out there were 15! Best go early as we were told.

We bought a coffee from another vender a short ways down the road. Boy eating those donuts is a messy job. lol

No we didn't eat them all. :)

After "breakfast", we strolled through the town with Ray taking a bunch of pictures of the old buildings.

1895 Queen Anne style.

Cool looking benches of ore cars.

Unfortunately the museum is closed today when we were there.

With all the mountain bike trails in the area, not surprised to see a hostel.

Here is a pictograph of Cumberland's logging history.

We decided to take a spin up to Comox Lake, 4 km out of town. Boy is that campsite tight. Lots of people in tents though. Very misleading name of this campground, Cumberland Lake Campground and it's on the shore of Comox Lake?

On the way back, we stopped at the old Japanese, and old China town sites. Nothing left, just posts with signs of what once was. I guess they bulldozed the whole thing and in the Japanese Townsite replanted 31 cherry trees. The area now is predominantly for mountain biking as there are miles and miles of trails.