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Home >> Articles >> Life of Myden
Making A Splash in Vancouver Island
<<< Mon Jul 29
- Jana met us at the airport after our flight to Victoria had been delayed.
We had pre-ordered some groceries. Jana said the woman was frazzled fulfilling our order. "Rosemary crackers!"
- Picked up the rental car and arrived at the ferry terminal nice and early. The ferry ride to Salt Spring Island was
uneventful, no animal sightings.
- Drove to the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company. Saw some goats and chicken, bought some nice cheeses.
- Drove to the Chris Hatfield hike. Sat on some wet rocks and ate our lunch. Thought we saw a dolphin or a porpoise.
After lunch we walked 20 steps and realized there was a perfect beach around the next corner we could have had lunch at.
- Went to Ciderworks and tried a flight of cider. Sat on the patio and enjoyed the view. We couldn't find any hidden ducks.
- Checked into the Airbnb, watched some Olympics, and then picked up some massive burritos from Paco's Clubhouse.
- Came back and watched more Olympics and then went in the hot tub.
<<< Tue Jul 30
We woke up at our Airbnb. While we made breakfast, we watched some Olympics. I did some yoga. And I offered Jana to join me. However, she declined, even though she had just told me the day before her resolution was to do yoga every day. For breakfast, we made some scrambled eggs from the neighbors chickens, some granola, grass-fed yogurt, blueberries, sourdough toast, strawberry jam, and orange juice. After breakfast, we went to Beddis beach and rented some paddle boards. As we were leaving to go paddle boarding, Jana asked, should we bring a towel? And I said no, we won't need towels!
We met up with Jai on the beach to get the paddle boards. He offered us dry bags, Jana took one for her cell phone, which turned out to be a good idea. We got out on the water and headed into the wind and into the oncoming tide. So it was tough going to start with. We paddled and along the way we saw a couple dolphins and a seal followed us for a little bit. Our goal was to get to the island at the end but after an hour and a half of paddling into the wind and we didn't quite make it. We turned around to head back towards Beddis beach. This time, we had the wind at our backs and we were going with the tide.
We saw a couple more dolphins on the way back. Just as we were coming into the beach, some large waves approached us from the back of our boards. As Chris was paddling into the beach, he lost his balance,flailed, his arms a few times, I thought, for sure he is gonna end up in the water, but somehow he managed to save himself and landed on his board.
Then the wave caught up with me. I went straight to my knees, as I saw had what happened to Chris. Then, the wave caught Jana. Apparently, she flailed her arms a few times,took a few steps backwards but couldn't quite save it and light it up in the water.
I heard a splash as I saw Jana gasping in the cold water and struggling to get back on her board in front of the people watching from the beach. We made it back to the beach and walked along the beach. Saw a couple jellyfish washing up on shore.
We picked a few blackberries by the side of the road and headed back to our Airbnb for some lunch. After lunch, we headed out to hike Mount Maxwell. We parked the car and followed Trail eight to Trail four, up to a couple viewpoints that our hosts had recommended.
Saw some nice views on the top, looking out over the various islands and a tennis court. As we were walking back down, both Chris and Jana got attacked by some sort of poisonous plant that made their skin feel tight and stingy. After the hike, we headed to Salt Spring Island Brewing where we sampled some beers, our favorites were the mango raspberry sour and the Hazy IPA. We tried to go for dinner at The Treehouse Cafe but there was an hour's wait. The guy told us a good luck after we told him we didn't want our name on the waiting list. Chris grabbed chicken from the grocery store and Jana and I had for had sushi from Express Sushi 2 Go, which ended up being quite tasty.
We ate back at the Airbnb while we watched more Olympics. We saw New Zealand beat Canada in the women's rugby for the gold medal. And then we capped the night off with a nice hot tub.
<<< Wed July 31
We had our same delicious breakfast again at Airbnb. I did some yoga.
And then we packed our bags to head to the ferry to start our trek to Port McNeil. We were a bit tight on time for the ferry departure and rushed to get there only to find there was a huge line and we couldn't make it on the ferry anyways. We killed some time by walking down to Vesuvius Beach and then went back to the car and watched the triathlon. We were absorbed in the New Zealand guy getting beat at the very end of the triathlon and didn't realize the lineup of cars had started moving ahead of us. Chris rushed to start the car and drive onto the ferry.
The ferry crossing was uneventful with no whales sighted. We continued on to Englishman Falls Park, where we went on a short walk to some nice falls. We tried to have a picnic lunch at the picnic tables there, but got attacked by wasps and had to pack up very quickly. At this point we realized we still had close to a four hour drive.
So we pressed on to Port McNeill. On the drive, we watched the women's soccer game Canada beat Colombia to move on to the quarterfinals. And we played a game where we had to name a band for each letter of the alphabet.
<<< Thu Aug 1
Checked into our Airbnb in Port McNeill. Jana and I drove in and saw all of Port McNeil on our way to grab pizza at the Harborside Restaurant. We brought the pizza home where we watched Olympics while we ate and then capped the night off with a hot tub. At the restaurant, we noticed a ginormous teddy bear sitting in the corner and Jana took a picture of it.
And we also noticed that the girl who rang up our order was a recent grad of 2024 and Jana recognized her because they had her photo posted in the window. Along with three other grads who we assume worked there. Although Chris thought that those were the only people who had graduated in the town and was curious why they only had a graduating class of 4.
We later noticed when we went to other businesses in town that each organization posted who worked there and who had graduated. So there were grads at the grocery store and also grads at a hardware store that we walked by. So every business celebrated their own grads. We drove to Telegraph Cove for our whale watching tour with Prince of Whales.
Paid our five dollars for parking. We strolled down the boardwalk. Found our whale watching boat. We boarded the boat which had an all-female crew and headed out onto the water. First thing we came across were some sea otters followed by some porpoises. Along with some birds that were related to the Puffin that looked like a rhinoceros.
We headed through the eerie fog and came across our first humpback. It was a male humpback named Quartz. We watched Quartz for a while and then continued on to see what else we could find. We came across a humpback named Freckles. Who had her baby with her. We got some good close-ups of Freckles and we even saw a double tail when Freckles and her baby both dove at the same time.
The boat was only half full and so there was lots of places to sit and room to move around the boat to get the best view of wildlife.
The next thing we came across is a pod of white sided dolphins. We watched the dolphins feeding and then they swam along behind the boat playing in the wake. We got a nice close-up view. While we were watching the dolphins one of the crew members spotted two black things poking up in the distance.
It turns out it was the fins of some transient Orca whales. We drove over to spot the orcas however they eluded us. We drove in circles searching for the orcas as they had disappeared into the fog. We eventually found the two orcas which were brothers. They did not have names (T60)
We watched the orcas and then headed back to the harbor where we got off the boat and found a nice spot to have our lunch at the end of the dock. While we were having lunch I received a phone call from the kayak tour operator that we had scheduled for the next day.
Unfortunately one of the guys had suffered an injury so our kayak trip was cancelled. At first, we questioned the accuracy of this since there seemed to be some confusion when we had booked the kayak trip. Originally we were "unlucky" when other people had stolen our spots, so Jana went in to verify this information.
They confirmed that there were no other tours. They said the reason that they were backed up was because their guide had hurt their back. And as she was telling Jana this another guy came in and he was limping, and she looked over at him and said, "Oh no, are you down as well?"
And he said "no no no I'm fine" but this was foreshadowing for a bit of information we would find out about later while on a hike.
Headed back to Port McNeill and checked out Devil's bath Brewing. We sat on a nice patio overlooking the harbor and watched some Olympics where we sipped our beers. After the brewery we went for dinner at Lada's Kitchen, a food truck just up the hill. We had some large portions of french fries
that came with our burgers and the food was all delicious.
As we were finishing up a gentleman asked if he could sit at the end of our table. We said "Sure, pull up a seat." and he did. As he was eating Jana felt inclined to engage in some conversation with him, just because he seemed alone. And so she said "Oh is that the brisket?", just trying to make conversation.
We found out that he was actually from Calgary as well. So that was a bit of a small world and he was the father of the young teen who was working at the ice cream plac, which had caught our attention earlier. Because Jana noticed that the sign said they made ice cream in New Zealand style, And we weren't sure what that meant.
It turns out that the fruit is just mixed in with the vanilla ice cream. And that's what supposedly makes it New Zealand style. Uh, I disagree but okay. Anyways we found out from the gentleman that the teen's name was Tyler. Which was... interesting.
After dinner, we walked along the Harborfront to check out the world's largest Burl. It was from a Sitka Spruce, but unfortunately it had some burn damage and was just sitting in a parking lot with some yellow tape around it. So it wasn't the most picturesque spot. After dinner, we went back to our Airbnb and did our usual routine.of watching Olympics and having a hot tub.
<<< Fri Aug 2
The next day we took the ferry over to Malcolm Island, about a 20-minute ferry ride from Port McNeil. On the ferry we saw a couple of sea otters along with the same (human) family that had been on our whale watching tour with us the day before. We disembarked the ferry and then dashed up to the information center to try to rent their free bikes.
The free bikes were already taken so instead we went to the e-bike place to get some e-bikes. The e-bikes were named after Orcas, The ladies at the e-bike shop said they hadn't been very busy so far this year because the bikes were too expensive to rent. We thought the price was pretty reasonable.
We hopped on our bikes and headed over to Bere Point. This was the location of the Orca whale rubbing beach. We locked up the bike and then hiked a short distance to the beach where we sat and watched and waited for Orcas. Unfortunately we didn't see much aside from some pieces of seaweed drifting which we occasionally mistook for seals or otters.
There was a bald eagle that came and sat in a tree. After waiting to know avail we decided to make our way back along the beach. We got past a little cabin where we a guy from National Geographic was set up to observe the whales.
We hopped back on our bikes and did a little tour around the island. We biked down the coast which had some very nice views. There was a nice flat paved road with no traffic and the ocean was to our right the entire way. Chris kicked his bike up into level nine assist and got up to a speed of 37 kilometers per hour.
Jana and I were a little more conservative, I put it to level four or five but at least we got a little exercise. We return the bikes and the ladies realized that they had forgotten to give us helmets. We then went to Malcolm Island food company where we picked up mac and cheese and some desserts for dinner which turned out to be very good.
We had some time to kill before the ferry, so we decided to check out Nan's Hands, a little gift shop, but when we got there it was just a small setup by someone's patio. So we continued on back to the ferry terminal and sat and watched some Olympics while we waited for the ferry, The ferry was late due to the high volume of people coming over for the long weekend, as well as the power outage earlier that day.
We eventually got on the ferry and made our way back to Port McNeill where we headed home to heat up our mac and cheese. Awkwardly debating about who was going to take a turn to go upstairs to interact with the hosts in the kitchen.
Chris and I were the ones who drew the short straw to go up and ask the girl (who we thought this whole time was the daughter of our Airbnb host) if we could use the oven. It turned out she was not the daughter. She was just some hired help, I guess to look after the hosts's kids.
Anyways, she let us use the oven and we put our partially still frozen mac and cheese in the oven and cooked it for almost an hour. By then it was perfect and delicious and a very good dinner. And then we watched Olympics and had a hot tub, as always!
<<< Sat Aug 3
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We headed back to Telegraph Cove to hike the Blinkhorn Trail. There was a little confusion initially over where to park, but once we found our parking spot there was a nice marked trail through the forest up to a viewpoint.
We stepped over lots of roots and logs on our way to the viewpoint which opened up to a very nice view out over the Johnstone Strait.
We sat for a while. We waited for some whales to appear but unfortunately none did. We had some lunch while other people came and joined us at the viewpoint. At one point another couple mentioned that their kayak tour had been cancelled due to a broken leg by the guide. So it turned out maybe our cancellation was valid after all.
After we finished lunch we packed up and headed back down the trail and made our way to the Lttle Huson caves. It was a bit of an interesting drive along some rocky narrow gravel road but our Toyota Corolla made it to the end. Once we arrived we walked down to a viewpoint of the caves which was a little disappointing.
From there we turned and went down to the swimming area which had a much nicer view but was also very busy with lots of people swimming in the shallow water.
For dinner we headed back to Lada's Kitchen. This time we packed a glass of wine and played Tribond while we waited for our food to come. After dinner we headed to the grocery store where there was something very interesting in the fruit and vegetable section. There were signs above each of the different produce sections that were very entertaining puns.
A few of them are shared here for your enjoyment...
Above the lettuce section: "Romaine calm!".
Above some turnips and beats: "Lettuce turnip the beat."
In the cheese section: "You have gouda be kidding me!"
And so as a Jenna was taking a photo of that last one over the cheese an employee was pushing a cart into the back and she decided to engage in conversation with him and say, "We love your puns." He didn't hear her and said "What?" And so she said. "Your puns, we love them."
"What?"
And she had to say again, "We think the signs above the produce are funny." And then he looked annoyed and said, "Oh. Right. Yep." So Jana regretted trying to compliment him on the signage, or beginning the interaction.
Back to the Airbnb for the usual hot tub and Olympic watching. However tonight we saw a glimpse of the Northern Lights from the hot tub but it was very brief. Chris questioned what I actually saw and then after he looked online and saw reports of other people saying they saw them he's like "Oh yeah I guess that's what you saw." He obviously don't believe me the first time.
The girls also drank cracked open a bottle of wine left by our Airbnb host. It was called "Miami Vice". It had an... interesting... tropical? Taste.
<<< Sun Aug 4
beach, beer, apricot,
Addendum
Squirrel was throwing things at us at the Viewpoint. God.
Okay, while we were enjoying the view at the top of the Barrett, Dave, ferret Trail. Uh, we heard a noise behind us in the trees and we were worried that it was something possibly stalking us like a coer. So we checked the Treetops and we listened, and we still couldn't see anything and but it sounded like, it was getting closer and closer and then we just covered.
It was a squirrel and he was throwing pine cones. And yeah, it was Pinecorn, wasn't it? Something and some sort of other Nut thing probably that he's burrowing. And so he was throwing them behind us and it wasn't too bad, but then they started getting really close and I think did Chris Biden almost got hit.
Yeah, and Chris Blanchard took shelter protected her face. And yeah, that was really exciting. Very angry squirrel. Yeah.
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