Our last full day was filled with beautiful landscapes, so I'll keep the commentary to a minimum and just show you the photos...
First stop: French Beach. We visited here last time, but didn't stay long. It was on our list to go back and enjoy more. This place has a really cool campground, and there were quite a few families having picnics. There was even a Bocce game going on!
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| Most of the beaches are pebbly and covered in logs, although at low tide there is sand. |
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| The water is so clear! |
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| You know you are relaxed when you can fall asleep on a bed of pebbles with a log as a pillow... |
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| The logs make good tripods for self portraits... |
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| The air was a little chilly (especially in the shade), but the sun was so nice and warm. |
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| The eastern end of the beach. There was a fog rolling in and rain east of here, but we managed to stay out of it. |
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| This was a hiking trail that went along the beach. |
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| The same hiking trail also took us through the woods and the most awesome looking moss-covered trees. |
After the beach, we drove to Sooke to pick up some lunch (bakery #5). Then we headed to Sooke Potholes; another park that we luckily read about just a week or so before leaving. This place was so cool.
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| This is the Sooke River. At this part, these crazy rock formations create these deep pockets that are great for swimming and cliff jumping. It is pretty popular (although there are so many nooks that you feel you have the place to yourself) |
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| This was a shallower pool that had a little beach and was easier to wade into. We are standing on a cliff above the beach. |
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| The hardest part was finding a way to climb down to the water. We had a nice picnic on top of the cliffs and watched some young boys jumping (you can barely make out one of them standing on the rock in the center). |
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| We finally made it down to our very own pool. I'm testing the water with my feet... |
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| 50% |
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| 100%!!!! I admit I didn't last long, as I was afraid my body would be too numb to pull myself out. It was cold, but the sun felt so good when you got out. |
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| Lisa trying to get the little fish to nibble at her toes... |
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| The view from the bottom. |
If we ever get to live here, everyone who comes to visit is getting a trip to the potholes. It's a must-see!
We headed back, and took another trip to Beacon Hill Park to see the goats (since Lisa videotaped the first time, she didn't really get to enjoy it. So I manned the camera this time).
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| There was another couple without kids there who were talking like they had definitely been there before, so we aren't the only weird ones. |
Dinner was at the
Spice Jammer (indian) and was delicious. It began to rain while we were there, but stopped briefly on our walk back. But then the lightning and thunder started. It was scary enough to quicken our pace, and then we watched the storm roll in from our balcony:
It was followed by a rainbow:
And a beautiful yellow lighting for our final sunset.
