Happy Labo(u)r Day!!

I hope everyone has had a nice holiday weekend. Although we have been fighting oppressive heat, heavy rains, and migraines, we still managed to have a little fun. 

We bought new starts for our fall garden -- arugula, chard, cilantro, and lettuces. Lisa already snuck a few into the carport garden, and we'll probably put the rest in the raised bed.

With all this rain we've been getting:

...our front garden has been doing really well. The alyssum couldn't take the heat but everything else is flowering like crazy. Our purple grass is 10x the size when we planted it in the spring!

It has been fun to watch the butterflies -- they are everywhere this year. So pretty!

And look -- our passionflower finally bloomed! Lisa didn't even believe it was truly a passionflower. Now it is using our serviceberry and our house as a trellis, but it is so pretty that we'll let it get away with that for a little longer.

Lisa's mom introduced us to kale smoothies back in July, and now we are hooked.  They don't look appetizing, but they are so good. We can even use our own apples in it. Mmmm, liquid veggies....

Being a long weekend and mostly stuck inside can only mean one thing:  lots of excessive baking. Lisa made these beautiful baguettes yesterday:

And we have already eaten two of them. One we ate almost immediately with the blood orange olive oil we bought in Victoria (yummy). Today we used the second to make these delicious sandwiches:

Brie, ham, apples (our own), thyme (our own) on a crunchy baguette. Add a glass of Perrier and we had ourselves a nice Paris lunch! I know you are jealous.

Shortly after lunch, Lisa exclaimed that she had been doing dishes all weekend and what in the world have we been making? I proceeded to list off all the culinary delights in the past 48 hours or so: pancakes, granola bars, baguettes, pizzas, frozen yogurt, ham & brie sandwiches, and a peaches & cream pie. That'll make a lot of dishes.

Finally, some funny pet photos. Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day!!!

Vivian actually looks like she's cowering...

We call this "stranded walrus pose"

Victoria -- Day 6

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!

Most of the beaches are pebbly and covered in logs, although at low tide there is sand.

The water is so clear!

You know you are relaxed when you can fall asleep on a bed of pebbles with a log as a pillow...

The logs make good tripods for self portraits...

The air was a little chilly (especially in the shade), but the sun was so nice and warm.

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.

This was a hiking trail that went along the beach.

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.

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)

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.

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).

We finally made it down to our very own pool.  I'm testing the water with my feet...

50% 

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. 

Lisa trying to get the little fish to nibble at her toes...

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).

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.

Victoria -- Day 5

Our fifth day was yet another beautiful day, and we started it out by walking through the neighborhood of James Bay. We stayed in this neighborhood last time, so it was a bit like walking down memory lane (past the bank where we got our marriage license, the little breakfast place, the coffee shop).  We eventually made it to our destination, Niagara Grocery.  We were in search of Cold Comfort ice cream, a gourmet ice cream in lots of cool flavors, made by one woman in Victoria and sold in very few locations.  She makes them in small batches, so when she's out, she's out.  Lisa stumbled upon this, and knew we needed to find it.  We did, but the hard part was choosing a flavor.  We agreed on cinnamon pine nut praline, and enjoyed it for dessert that night.  It lives up to the hype -- it is really good!  We also really liked the no-frills packaging:

Then we took a nice walk to Vic West and the Westsong Walkway.  We recreated one of my favorite photos from our last trip of me daydreaming about a life in Victoria, with a new twist:

Here I am again from another perspective.  Hard to believe there's a city of 70,000 just beyond that rock.

Then we headed to Fol Epi bakery, another find of Lisa's.  I think she would have moved in if they had let her (ironically, there are apartments above and all around this bakery).  That round brick structure is his oven.  In front of the window was their herb garden, and while we were sitting there, a guy came out to clip rosemary with flour all over his shoes. This is Lisa's Mecca.

The whole outdoor eating area is in a very cool modern development that I think was mostly apartments with businesses scattered within.  You can see some of the apartments behind me here, and the cool water garden (there were plants and gardens everywhere, despite looking like new construction):

We enjoyed a roasted pepper and goat cheese pizza, Italian sodas and pain au chocolat. So good.

 On our way back to the city, we stopped on the Johnson St. Bridge to get this cool view of the city and mountains:

Then we got in the car and drove up the peninsula to the seaside town of Sidney. There are beautiful views of the Gulf Islands, and although you can't see it very well, that faint white blob in the middle is actually Mt. Baker, in Washington. I love looking out at clouds, and realizing they are mountains.  At home I like to pretend the low clouds are mountains...

After spending a nice afternoon exploring Sidney, we took the scenic route home (and passed the house we bought our wedding flowers from).  We really love the peninsula area -- curvy roads, farms, roadside stands, and every now and then an excellent peek at the water.

We took a quick hike around Swan Lake at the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary.  It was a nice little walk, complete with a few dozen adorable ducklings swimming about...

When we got back to Victoria, we stopped at Upland Park near Oak Bay for a late afternoon snack (did I mention we hit our 4th bakery of the trip in Sidney? We were never without a treat or 2).

I love this shot of Oak Bay -- I don't know what Lisa did to make the mountains look so clear and huge:

I think I was trying to get another shot of Mt. Baker, which was still barely visible.  It didn't come out, but it is still pretty.

Finally, we took a quick walk down the main street of Oak Bay village, then went back to the hotel to relax and eat dinner -- a United Nations smorgasbord -- leftover Thai, lasagna, and fish tacos! (and of course the ice cream for dessert)....

A view of the Parliament building all lit up:

If you are wondering when they turn off for the night, it's 1AM. On our first night here, we got in just before 1 and even in my tiredness decided to take a photo. By the time I got the camera and walked back to the window, the lights were off!

Victoria -- Day 4

We had a few hours left before we had to return our bikes, so we took one more ride.  We went along Dallas Road, which follows the southern coastline and is definitely the scenic route through the city area.  We thought it would be a leisurely ride, but there were a few more hills than we were anticipating, and our legs were a little sore (not to mention our rears) from the long ride the day before.

We went through some beautiful neighborhoods, with quaint seaside houses.

As we moved east, we could see a fog rolling in...

And in no time it looked like this:

This was the view of the water, but behind us was clear blue sky.  

We rode as far as we could, but eventually the fog made us very cold (plus we were riding SO FAST). We turned around and headed back.  In all, we biked another 12 miles, on top of the 20+ from the day before. So much for a leisurely morning.

Once we dropped off our trusty bikes, we opted for even more freedom and rented a car for the final few days of our trip.  We wanted to explore new parts of Vancouver Island, so we headed up Route 1 to the small town of Duncan.  It was a beautiful drive up (although a lot of traffic, and a few scary deer sightings).  We stopped at an overlook to take in the view.

This is looking east toward the northern reach of Saanich Peninsula. The land you see in the very distance is actually the San Juan Islands.  The ferry you see is headed to Mill Bay from Brentwood Bay, where we got married.

We had a nice couple of hours in Duncan. We ate lunch and poked around a few shops.  It reminded us a little bit like New Bern (but not as big) or Hendersonville.

Then we headed to Goldstream Provincial Park. Our first little hike took us to Niagara Falls (western edition).  The water was icy cold but felt good on my feet. A local was building up the nerve to go all the way in, but he only made it to his waist.

It was so pretty here!

Then we went on perhaps the most challenging hike of my life. We thought we'd just do a little mild hiking, especially with our already tired bodies. We picked the wrong trail.  To our credit, the maps were not very clear and not drawn to scale, so our quick but uphill climb turned into a grueling test.  Considering the highest peak at home is the 22 ft above sea level "hill" that our house sits on, we were in over our heads.

This is the trail. It was more rock climbing than hiking.  The photos don't really grasp the perspective, but most of this was near vertical, and nothing but large rocks and gravel.

Sadly, we did not make it all the way to the top.  I'm afraid to know how close we were, but Lisa finally was the voice of reason and made us turn back.  Our legs were so shaky at this point, she was afraid of one of us stumbling on the way down (going down is so much more painful than going up).  Once we finally decided to head down, we were quickly passed by a woman bounding down the rocks like a mountain goat.  And she was ~4-5 months pregnant.  

This was a rather steep stretch of the trail. You can see in the middle there (if you look really closely) a wooden bridge WAY down in the valley.

 We made it off the trail in mostly one piece, so we rewarded ourselves with a good foot soak in the stream.

After a physically challenging day such as that, we were in immediate agreement on dinner plans.  Italian for some good carb loading.  We picked Pagliacci's (good reviews) and it was yet another restaurant with a long waiting line out the door.  It helps to have just 2 people; we only waited about 15 minutes.  Food, excellent.  Ambiance, OK.  They pack so many people in there, it was like eating at a communal table.  We met nice women on holiday from Scotland, though!