Kastle's Journey: Roadtrip to Sooke, BC Sept 16

Ray's ready for another Photo Tour. We chose Sooke, on the coast south of us. I've checked the weather patterns for 3 weeks to pick the best days with sunshine. Tuesday morning at the lake turned out gorgeous. Ray captured this as the sun rose.

For Ray's photo tour, I made reservations to stay at the Sooke Harbour House, a fabulous boutique hotel. I go on the photo tour for the food. lol This hotel has reopened after ownership change, that even went through the courts. We've seen it on the news every once in awhile. Everything's finally settled, so they could renovate, as the place remained empty for some time. With their soft opening in May out of the way, everything ramped up the end of July. Their rooms are pretty much half price, so we could afford them at $313 per night. Now that they've opened, and the European tourists will have a chance to book for next summer, I'm sure the rooms will be $600 per night. The hotel perches above the ocean next to Whiffin Spit. A fabulous location. We booked a deluxe second floor spa room with a cathedral ceiling and a wood burning fireplace if you should desire. ($25 for a fire that they start and provide the wood.) That would be cozy on a rainy day.

FYI - REMEMBER .... I SAID PHOTO TOUR, lots of pictures. lol

Tuesday morning, September 16th, we headed out at 9:30am. First stop Honeymoon Bay for a previously booked haircut. :) By 10:45 we're on our way on the Pacific Coast Highway to Port Renfrew. Wow that road is sure windy and single lane in some places. The only wildlife we came upon is this bear on the side of the road. He didn't run away until I creeped up right beside him.

We continued on to the Renfrew Pub for lunch. We were 10 minutes early before opening, so took a stroll down the government dock. The Port Renfrew Hotel have the "Wild Renfrew Cottages" on the water. For a two bedroom, ocean facing it is about $350 per night right now.

Below are the smaller cabins for 2

The bigger two bedroom cabins face this view.

Beautiful landscaping around the cabins.

Across from the Pub is this cool rock that is like a hanging garden.

Ray even took a short video to capture it as it didn't really show up in a photo.

Time for lunch. A beautiful warm day sitting on their patio.

After great burgers, we headed back down the highway. We stopped at Harris Creek Canyon Bridge for a quick picture. This is the only place we actually saw flowing water. All other creeks are dry. Ray drove for this part until my beer wore off. lol

Jordon Bay Regional Campsite.

Our final stop before the hotel is Sheringham Point Lighthouse. On the road down to the parking lot there's this cute roadside stand.

A bit of a hike down to get to the trail to the lighthouse. I opted to stay on top of the trail, (Ray here... lots of men with their spouse's waiting up top) while Ray walked down to the bottom for his pictures. :) Going down would be fine but coming back up, no thanks.

This lighthouse was constructed after the sinking of the SS Valencia passenger ferry. The stretch from Oregon to the entrance of the Johnson Straights had the scary title "Graveyard of the Pacific". Two thousand boats sank to earn this moniker. The Valencia was the last straw.

After his $5 donation, off he went.

There's Ray.

He was definitely a huffing and puffing by the time he reached my location, not to mention uphill back to the parking lot. My turn to drive again to the hotel. We arrived shortly before 3 pm which is check-in time. Perfect!

We lucked that there's an elevator near our room to take all our stuff up. Made it in one trip instead of 2.

What a room!

King Bed

Sitting area with wood fireplace

Coffee Station

Spa Bathroom

Huge clawfoot tub that would fit someone 6' or more!

View from room

The black arrow is where our room is located on the property.

After unpacking, we sat out on the deck with a beer, enjoying the warm afternoon.

View from sundeck towards Whiffin Spit.

After settling in and relaxing a bit, it's time for supper in their dining room. They have beautiful artwork everywhere. The meals we ordered are fabulous ... chef approved. :)

Great mocktails for Ray, though he never thought he'd be drinking a shrub!.

Cheers, what a view out our window.

Fabulous food. This is homemade potato chips with beef carpaccio.

Crab Cake for Ray

For my main, I ordered their charcuterie board as I knew I wasn't that hungry and could take the rest to the room. lol It was also delicious.

Ray had his favourite, Sable Fish.

We shared an apple tartan for dessert.

After dinner, Ray wandered around a bit taking pictures of the artwork in the hallways. This Edsil is parked outside near our car. Now we know why there were cones up so you couldn't park there.

In our lobby in front of the elevator.

We saw these cool flowers outside our wing of the hotel. They look like giant flowering artichokes. After checking with Google, that is exactly what it is. If you don't pick the fruit and it goes to seed, this is what it looks like.

Back to the room to relax for the rest of the night. Today's the warmest in the forecast. The room stayed too warm for me, even with the door open all night. They have no A/C yet .... upgrade to happen next year.

Wednesday morning, we relaxed for a time. Downstairs there's an onsite bakery that opens at 8 am. So of course, Ray's out the door at 8:01 to get some pastries and coffee. They have the best fresh, warm croissants. After that, Ray headed out for his adventure to the Sooke Potholes, in search of "that photo" he's had in his head for several years. Unfortunately the twin waterfalls alluded him again. He was way too sore after rock scrambling to get the shots below to go any further.

When he got back at 11:30 and after a rest, we headed out for lunch. We 'd planned to pick up some fresh cooked crab at the Crab Shack, but they're closed even though I'd messaged them and they said they were open .... so our next choice is the Sooke Brewing Company. There's a food truck (Burgers on Point) behind them. Their burgers are great and washed down by a great beer.

Back in the car to the Whiffin Spit parking lot. A beautiful walk along Sooke Harbour. It's breezy, but warm enough not to wear a jacket, you just have to worry about losing your hat. lol

Oh oh... caught checking on my phone instead of looking at the view.

This house below, have to put in 2 docks, one for his boat at the end of the ramp and one for the sea lions apparently.

After our stroll, it's back to the room and onto our sundeck until 4:30. We decided to go to Happy Hour from 3 - 5 and eat then, as it's far cheaper and we're not really that hungry after our delicious burgers in Sooke. We ordered a couple appetizers instead. I ordered some kind of gin cocktail and Ray another great mocktail.

We sat in their covered patio. After a half an hour or so they needed to put the outdoor curtains all the way down as the fog came in and it's a really cool breeze.

Back at the room by 6 to relax for the rest of the evening. Another fabulous day. Ray downloading all his pictures and I watched a bit of TV.

Thursday morning we got more pastries from the bakery and slowly packed up. I checked out at 9:30 as Ray packed our stuff to the car. Unfortunately I didn't go back to the room for a swing through, he left his backrest on the patio chair outside, as that is where he sat before we left .... they will be sending it back to us. :)

Our first stop today is at the Crab Shack, where they were supposed to open at 10. We were there and they were not! Again! No Crab for You!

We carried on to the HCP, Horticultural Centre of the Pacific. Wow this place is 10 times bigger than we thought. First up, checking out their plant sale. I bought some more beauties for my garden.

Yup, that is me in the striped shirt.

I could have bought tons of them but chose these six only. Here are the google picturestthat show what they will look like next summer.

Lobelia Tupa - Devil's tobacco - will grow 3 - 6' tall

Phlomis Russelianna - Jerusalem Sage - 2 - 4' tall

Knautia Macedonica - grows 18 to 24" tall

Lathyrus Vernus "Spring Vetch" or Sweet Pea. Grows 6 - 12"

The next plant (I bought 2 of) were tagged and sold as a ground cover geranium. Turned out to be the Stargazer Hydrangea ....

Stargazer Hydrangea

Fun fact .... my garden angel Penny, took her gardening course here last winter.

We put the plants in the car and off to explore the gardens. https://hcp.ca/visit/gardens They have 26 different areas of gardens. I am sure in the spring and earlier in the summer would've been spectacular. They were pretty good now snyways. Gave me a good idea what my fall garden could look like.

This picture shows the Sahara Rudbeckia, what I had been looking for until I found out it's an annual.

Heather Garden, we have alot of these varieties in our lakefront garden.

Ray gravitated towards the Japanese Garden with all the different shapes and water features.

After a couple hours of wandering around, we decided to support them and eat lunch at the cafe. The food looked spectacular, however, too healthy for us, not enough flavour. Lovely patio seating though, overlooking the garden.

Crustless Vegetable Quiche with sauteed mushrooms and bacon with mushroom soup.

Some kind of chicken on seedy bread ..... with the soup.

We are now pooped. No way we were going to Butchart and decided to get to the Brentwood Ferry and head home. We lucked out with only about a 50 minute wait for the 2:25 PM sailing. Ray popped out of the car and took a few shots.