A Victoria Vacation

Where has the summer gone? At the end of July, Kirby and I took a week off and went to Victoria on vacation. We decided to fly into Vancouver, rent a car, and take the ferry to the Island. Mostly because it was cheaper to do it that way, but also because we really missed taking the ferry. When we booked our travel we didn’t realize how busy and chaotic summer travel would be so we were a little nervous about lining everything up. But in the end, our flight was on time, our rental car was waiting for us, and we caught an earlier ferry than we expected. Our vacation was off to a great start!

Once we got to the Island we headed to our Airbnb, which was actually a real B&B and absolutely beautiful.

We chose this place because it’s in James Bay and just around the corner from where we used to live. So after checking in we decided to go check out our old apartments. Our first stop was on South Turner.

This was a bit of an emotional stop because the sidewalk across the street marks Harvey’s final resting place. So I had myself a little cry and then we continued on to Simcoe street.

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur of food, getting turned around on familiar streets, and trying to figure out how to use the television in our room.

The next day we walked through Beacon Hill park on our way to eat dim sum. I forgot how beautiful this park is.

After dim sum I headed back to James Bay to meet an old colleague for coffee and Kirby went to get a tattoo. That evening we went out to Brentwood Bay to have dinner with some old friends. I mean, the friendships are old, not the people. Actually, the people are kind of old too.

The next day we went for breakfast at a Dutch restaurant we used to frequent. If you can’t tell by now, this vacation was mostly an excuse for us to fly across the country to eat. And I’m not even mad about it. I mean, look at this breakfast!

I’ll be honest, I didn’t finish mine. And to fight off a food coma we headed out to the southwest coast to hike the trails at China Beach.

It was really nice to be back amongst the big trees.

The next day we headed up Island to Qualicum Beach. Along the way we grabbed sandwich fixings and stopped along the coast to have lunch. And much to our surprise, we stumbled upon a lunch companion.

He was so cute! It was really a very beautiful spot that we just happened to stumbled upon.

That evening we went for dinner in Parksville and popped into the sandcastle competition that was going on. It was really cool to see all of the different sand scupltures.

The next day we were back on the ferry, this time over to Denman Island. We toured around the island looking for potters.

However, this time we didn’t have as much luck as in the past. But we weren’t worried because our next stop was Hornby Island. On Hornby we stopped by one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever visited. We gave ourselves lots of time to just walk in the water and take in the scenery.

And then we had more luck in the pottery department.

After Qualicum Beach we were off to Comox for a couple nights. Covid interfered with our plans a little so at the last minute we managed to secure accommodation in our family friend’s home that was sitting empty.

We made very good use of that front deck. Later that day we stopped by the studio of one of my favourite potters, Katy Fogg. I felt like a kid in a candy shop being surrounded by so much amazing pottery.

We had a nice time visiting Courtenay and Comox and spending time with Nell and Mitch as well as Kirby’s cousin Judy. Then we packed our bags for the last time and headed back to Victoria for the last night of our trip. That night Kelly and Eric were gracious enough to host Nell and us for dinner and we got to spend time with their new baby Emil.

This also gave me a chance to give Kelly and Eric the felt mobile I made for Emil.

It was also really nice to see Nell before she welcomes her baby girl into the world, sometime in September.

I really don’t know why people keep giving me the bird.

That evening Kirby and I went for a last walk along Dallas road to take in the sunset.

Overall, we had a wonderful vacation that felt long-overdue.