The Pacific Marine Loop

This blog starts with our Thursday night happy hour in the Cook St. Village (a few minutes from where we are living in Victoria) -- in keeping with the theme, here are three happy Victorians.

 

On the Saturday after the happy Thursday, we ventured to the West Coast of Vancouver Island to start our tour of what is called the Pacific Marine Loop, which goes from Victoria, part way up the west coast to Port Renfrew, across the centre of the Island (through Cowichan Lake) to the East Coast, and down again to Victoria. Our first stop.... Jordan River, where we had a lovely picnic lunch at a spot where we could watch the surfers ride the (cold) waves.

Second stop was French Beach Provincial Park, where we camped on Saturday night.    Here is Carolyn on the beach itself.

 

The next day, we drove further north and hiked a few kilometres to Mystic Beach, which is on the route of a 4-day backpacking trail.  There was a great waterfall crashing onto the beach (a perfect natural shower!)

and a rope swing for the young and young at heart (we believe the swing is over water at high tide!)

 

a little further north of there is Botanical Beach, which, at low tide, is awash in strange tide pools.  See the person reflected in the tide pool below (very artsy shot!).

 

and some tide pools of different shapes that reminded us of a lunar landscape -- quite surreal

 

After much beaching, we took a break in the local pub in the nearby town of Port Renfrew

 
Then we set up camp again for the night at Fairy Lake, a little further east on the Pacific Marine Loop.  There were no other campers, no rangers, no staff, no anybody except us in this rustic campground, so we chose the spot right next to the lake.
 
The next day, we headed further east and inland to Cowichan Lake -- here is Tony at a park in the village of Youbou on Lake Cowichan.
 
For lunch, we stopped in Cowichan Bay, on the ocean back on the east coast of Vancouver Island.

 

In Cowichan Bay, there was a sign outside a restaurant that we thought Joan would appreciate....

We headed home to Victoria Monday afternoon -- below is Carolyn at her bbq on our patio.  A nice long weekend, but now back to our usual routine; work and enjoying Victoria.

Oregon

This blog is a bit out of order, being about a trip I (Carolyn) did with my brother Mark at the end of March.  We went to Oregon to see family, while Tony was visiting his family in London.  It has taken me this long to figure out how to get the photos off of my (relatively new) phone. 

And a warning -- this post contains family photos not necessarily of interest to those without a Hafer family tree hanging in their living room.

The trip began with a 1.5 hr. ferry ride from downtown Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington -- here is a shot as we head out of Victoria's inner harbour.

  

At the end of a lovely drive down the Hood Canal area of Washington, we set up camp at a state park; it was very peaceful being early in the season (I think we were the only tenters there)

 

 Ah, nothing like a camp shave in the truck window.....

 After leaving the campground, we hit civilization with a microbrewery lunch in Portland, Oregon, along with shopping at REI (like MEC, for those outdoors fans) and a super fabulous gigantic bookstore called Powell's (no shopping pictures; shopping pictures are boring; food pictures are interesting)

 The reason for our trip was to visit Aunt Jerene (my Dad's sister) and her husband Jim, who live in a farming community (Scion) outside of Salem Orgeon.  Below is a historical bridge in the town of Stayton, near Salem and Scion (not sure why all the places around there start with an "S").

 

There is a very pretty walk there along a river (reminded us of a Huckleberry Fin story).  Here is Mark and Jerene along the river path.

 

Jerene and Jim's house in Scion.  Jerene is an avid gardener, just like her mother!

 On the Saturday afternoon, we had lunch with Holly (my cousin, Jerene's daughter), who lives in Salem.  Here are Jim, Andy (Holly's husband), Holly, Jerene, and Mark.  I told them to look natural and this is what they gave me.

 

I call this picture "Little Mark, Bit Water."  This is part of the amazing Silver Falls State Park waterfalls trail.  In the picture is one of two falls that you can hike behind (see Mark contemplating life from behind the falls)

 

The countryside in the area (on our drive back from Silver Falls State Park)

 

Happy hour in Jerene and Jim's backyard.

 

Just to prove I was there...

 

Some of Jim's antique tractor collection.  Yes there is a collection of these on their property, along with their 2 horses, Jerene's vegetable and flower gardens, Jim's woodworking shop, an outdoor pizza oven, and a vineyard, not to mention Jim's canaries (in an aviary at the back of the house), Jerene's weaving looms, and so on.  I really don't think they have enough hobbies.

 

On the Sunday, after a large farm breakfast, Mark and I drove all the way back to Victoria (of course a ferry was involved as well).  And that is all for the Hafer family trip.  Will post some pictures of the little neighbourhood where Tony and I are currently living soon. Till then,

love, Carolyn

(p.s. did we mention that there is an extra bedroom here??)

Up-Island

After our stay in the Ross Bay area of Victoria, we both took brief, whirlwind tours to see family--Carolyn to Oregon with Mark to see an Aunt, uncle, and cousins, and Tony to London to see his family.

After our respective returns, we headed north on Vancouver Island .  We rented a cottage on Qualicum Bay (about an hour north of Nanaimo).  The beach of Qualicum Bay is below.

and our lunch spot, on the cottage patio (the tiny black specks in the water are seals; we are still working on our wildlife photography skills)

We headed out to Denman and Hornby islands for a day, two of several small islands in between Vancouver Island and the mainland -- it's a 20 minute ferry to Denman from Vancouver island, and from Denman island another 20-minute ferry to Hornby. So Hornby island is a somewhat isolated (and therefore very interesting) community.  Below is a blustery day at Tribune Bay (on Hornby), with the tide out.

Helliwell Provincial Park on Hornby island has a great hike, with beautiful sea views

 

Another beach on Hornby island

 

On a different day, we ventured out to the Horne Lake Caves, and did a 3-hour caving tour, which involved climbing a waterfall in a cave, hitting our heads several times on the ceiling (thank God for the hard hats!), and a passageway called "the cheese grater"--see Tony's ripped pantleg (he will tell you the entire story on request)

 

We also visited one of Carolyn's ex-graduate students, Brenda Correy, who now lives not far from Qualicum Beach (in Errington) with her husband, Rod. Here is Rod, Brenda, and Tony, posing in Rod and Brenda's beautiful country yard.

They took us to "Cathedral Grove" nearby, to see the giant trees!

Rod is born and raised in Port Alberni (nearby), and took us on a "local's tour". The below picture is from a lookout that we got to via an unmarked and somewhat scary 4-wheel drive track, followed by a 15 minute straight uphill hike - Rod points out the Alberni valley to Carolyn

the Aberni valley from ground level 

 

and the Port Alberni marina -- check out the cool snow-capped peaks in the background!

At the end of the day, we hit a popular local Bavarian restaurant and ordered two Bavarian dinners for two - we have rarely seen as much meat in our lives!

And back near Qualicum Beach and a neighbouring town called Parksville, is Rathetrevor Provincial Park, which was stunning.  Here are a few shots from there. First, a driftwood shelter Tony tried to build -- artistic although likely not water-tight

And Tony trying to take a picture of the large flocks of Brant Geese who pass through the area every spring during the herring run (the black specks in the background are the geese - as I said, we are still working on wildlife photography)

That's it for now. We are currently back in Victoria and settled in here for the next three months - we have an extra bedroom too for anyone who wants to visit!
lots of love, C & T