Sunshine, e-bike adventures, Amelia comes to visit and lots of food! - February 12 - 21

First E-Bike Tour

A brilliant sunny morning to go for an adventure on our new e-bikes. Bikes folded and packed into the car with all of our "stuff" and on the road by 9:30 am. Today's adventure is to start at the Kinsol Trestle near Shawnigan Lake.  This is part of the Cowichan Valley Trail system. The Cowichan Valley Trail is a spectacular multi-use trail that is an integral part of the Trans Canada Trail route on Southern Vancouver Island and has a length of 62 miles or 101 km. There are lots of entrances to the trail so we can drop on and off and manage to see the whole thing over time. Right now from the November storms there are several washouts that have to be repaired.

The Kinsol Trestle, near Shawnigan Lake, BC, is one of the largest and most spectacular rail trestles in the world (and the very largest in all of the Commonwealth Nations, in case that is still something people pay attention to). Trestles are frames used to guide railway tracks over valleys and rivers and were usually made of timber.

This particular trestle is 187 metres long and stands 44 metres high, passing over the Koksilah River. It is one of 8 trestles on the Cowichan Valley Trail route but is by far the biggest and most impressive.

Its 7-degree curve is unusual and represents an amazing feat of engineering, with the beams initially numbered and put together like a jigsaw puzzle.

It was 7C on the highway but once at the trestle a balmy 0C with frost on the decking. We stopped for Ray to get some pictures.

The Koksilah River way down there.

We continued on the Cowichan Trail for several kilometers before turning back. Don't want to "kill ourselves" with our first trail riding excursion. lol

A little bucking bronco for the kids

Back at the car after reloading the bikes ... we drove to the McGee Trestle for some pictures. Good thing we drove instead of biking as it turned out to be another 6.5 km away.

Next up a quick stop at West Shawnigan Lake Provincial Park. Gorgeous day, and people enjoying the sunshine. This is certainly a much smaller lake than Lake Cowichan.

Sisters from different Meesters, Cedar L and Douglas Fir R

Our final destination was the Cobblestone Pub for lunch. They had a fire inside a year or so ago so the whole place inside was redone. 

We decided on their "Global Bowls". Chinese food that was delicious, Chow Mein and prawns for Ray and Chow Mein and Almond Chicken for me.

Big portions, no need for dinner.

Back home by 3 pm. A lovely day enjoying the sunshine. It was heavy loading the bikes into the car even though they folded down and we took the batteries out first. Mostly because when folded they don't slide on the rubber mat in the back of the car. A lot of mud tracked into the back of the car, as well. We are contemplating a bike rack instead of collapsing them, which will go to make it easier on our backs. :) First though we have seen others put bikes into large Rubbermaid tubs to stop the dirt and make it easier to lift and move in the back of the car so I think we will try that first. My bike fits easily in the car but Ray's is quite a bit bigger and takes up more space so the seats have to go down to fit with the hatchback window.

As a first attempt at a road trip with the bikes, we thought it was pretty successful. No one fell off their bike. :) especially me! I am a little more unsteady than Ray, as I have probably only road a bike half a dozen times in the past 15 or so years and did not ride one as a teenager, I owned a horse. :) It will take me a little longer to feel more comfortable to take steeper hills etc. Ray as a teenager road everywhere on his bike and road trails with his mountain bike for years after that. A lot more accomplished rider than me.

Sunday, a beautiful day. Super Bowl Sunday. I spent the morning in the kitchen preparing the appetizers for Ray's "Game Day". Ray got our new bike seats installed so we are good to go again.

As it's Valentines on Monday, today's appetizers are Ray's gift from me. Everyone we usually invite are down south or far away from Lake Cowichan. Our other friends are not interested in the game, but sent food over next door anyways to Darryl and Pat.

Debbie’s Super Bowl Party Appetizers for Ray’s Valentines Gift. All made from scratch. (Pictures are from the recipes.)

Sausage Rolls, 

Baked Parmesan and Garlic Chicken Wings, 

Air fryer Egg Rolls, 

Bobby Flay's Garlic-Mustard Grilled Beef Skewers, 

Apricot and Ginger Glazed Chicken Skewers, 

Coconut Shrimp Wonton Cups, 

and Veggie Wonton Quiches as we need our veggies. Lol 

Even though I reduced the quantity of the recipes, we definitely have enough left-overs for dinner tomorrow. Some of the recipes, like the sausage rolls and egg rolls, I'm able to freeze some of them before cooking so I can cook them from frozen another time.

Ray's a happy camper.

Monday morning, Happy Valentines Day!

The forecast is for rain, but we missed most of it. A quiet "cooking day" for me today as there's enough leftovers so no cooking today. :) Ray ran into Duncan to pick up the part he ordered so he can go back using his table saw. A rather quiet day, especially compared to yesterday's cooking extravaganza. lol

Tuesday morning foggy start. Baby day today as we have to babysit Amelia for Jason for an appointment and Kristi is on call at the hospital. We love to spend a few hours with her.

First up Jason made us all lunch and then headed out.

We played with Amelia and she took me down the hall to her room to show me all her dirty laundry. lol She sits down and yards the basket out from under her bed and hands me piece by piece.  As she started down the hall I asked her "where are you going?" and she crawled faster. lol

Story time with Grandpa.

Kristi managed to come home just after lunch to see us for a bit while waiting to be called back to the hospital. She was there to put Amelia down for her nap. Kristi and I heard a "bang" and we checked on the monitor and she was dragging books back into her crib from the table close by. 

Once Jason arrived back, we headed home. As a thank you he brought me flowers. Such a sweet guy.

The kids messaged me last night. Amelia stood up by herself for the first time. She will be off and running in no time. 

Wednesday morning started out nice but then the fog rolled in again. Spent the morning watching some of the Oylmpics.

By 10 am it turned into glorious sunny day. We decided to start a campfire and roast hotdogs for lunch. We are actually getting sunshine on our lawn now after 2 months. :)

The lake is so flat and calm this floatplane came and practiced it's takeoffs and landings.

We took a walk in the park next door to, just enjoying the lovely weather.

Thursda,y cloudy all day until 4 pm when the sun came out. Quite cool and breezy though. Ray worked on changing the lights in our bedroom, while I did laundry.

There are four of them to change out. The old ones are chrome and all of our other fixtures in the house are black. The old ones only threw light downwards. These should be better.

Old lights, Nice but not for us.

Friday morning cloudy. Kristi and Amelia were supposed to come today but Amelia had a rough night, hence Kristi and Jason did. Reaction from her shots on Thursday. Hopefully they can come tomorrow morning instead.

This morning, Saturday, Kristi, Amelia and Zeus arrived for the day and night. Received lots of hugs and kisses. She sure is able to do more things every time we see her.

Cookies with Grandpa

Look I can stand!

Good spareribs Grandma.

Bath time at Grandmas. Love the new toys!

It was a fabulous visit. Kristi headed back home on Sunday at 9am, just in time for Amelia's first nap of the day. 

It's a glorious sunny day so we decided to get out on our bikes. We put the new bike rack on the car and loaded up the bikes. We headed to the new Trails Edge subdivision and headed out on the Cowichan Valley Trail, the old logging railroad, to the 70.2 Mile Trestle. We rode for approximately 8km there and back. 

Fairservice Trestle over Fairservice Creek.

Continuing down the trail we came to the 70.2 mile Trestle. This trestle crosses the Cowichan River where the Fairservice Creek flows into it. 70.2 Mile Trestle 0.11 kilometres long. Called the 70.2 mile Trestle as that is how far it is from the start of the rail line in Victoria.

Once at the trestle, we locked up the bikes and headed down the stairs to river level.

The Cowichan River, sure is clear and green.

We saw these guys fly fishing floating down the river.

Ray heading to the other side for pictures, doing a little bushwacking. lol

Here come the guys. They actually came to shore and changed out fishing rods. Up river is flyfishing only and now they can use casting rods. They caught lots of fish including a steelhead.

Looking up river where Fairservice Creek enters the Cowichan.

Heading across the trestle and continue on the trail back to the car.

A lovely outing. Our butts and shoulders are a little sore as we're not used to this activity, but it will get easier. We both love riding the e-bikes and are so looking forward to many trails in our travels. With everything loaded back on the bike rack, Ray took me out for lunch at the Riverside Cafe for their fabulous Clubhouse sandwiches, made with homemade turkey and roast beef with bacon. Yummm. 

Leftover Ribs, beans and cornbread for dinner. A quiet evening and to bed early. I hopped into the hot tub to help. 

Monday morning, imagine our surprise to wake up to this! I guess the Groundhog is right! The 2" high daffodils are saying WTF!