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Home >> Articles >> Life of Myden
Sooke, Sealed, and Delivered
December 11th
Landed in Victoria. We made our way to the budget rental car counter where we met up with Jill. It ended up being perfect timing for our flights arriving at the same time.
Once we found our rental car we made our way to Jana's mom's house where we sat and had a nice little visit. After that we went to Jack's on the lake for lunch. Jack's on the water where we all had tacos except for Jana's mom.
After lunch we made our way to the grocery store to stock up on some snacks to last us for the next five days. We ended up spending quite a while in the grocery store including a nice wine tasting where we sampled a couple of good reds. One of them was from Oconagan Falls.
We thought we would just get some baskets to fill up with a few snacks but then we ended up lugging around a whole bunch of baskets, two jugs of milk, a couple things, a sparkling water and a lot of food in the grocery store and spending $250 very quickly. We then carried the groceries all the way back to where we had parked because we thought the grocery store would be a quick little jaunt.
We packed it in the car and then by that time Lindsay had landed at the airport and we drove there to pick her up. We then all piled into the car and made our way to Sooke encountering some rush-hour traffic on the way. We finally made it by dark and found our Airbnb. It ended up being a nice big house. We couldn't see much of the property at night but we still enjoyed a quick hot tub before dinner.
Jill and Lindsay headed off into the night along the dark maybe slightly sketchy road into town to route 14 to meet us for dinner. We got out of the hot tub, had quick showers and then made the short drive into town where we had a pretty tasty dinner. After dinner we did a little scenic tour around Sooke to look for Christmas lights. We saw some fairly impressive displays.
December 12th
We had some smoothie bowls for breakfast, and then unfortunately Lindsey had to stay inside and do a board meeting while the other four of us went for a kayaking adventure. We made our way down to the water, found the kayaks and some smallish life jackets for Chris, and then emptied all the water out of the kayaks and proceeded to carry them down the stairs and launch them into the water. It turns out Jen and I had slightly more stable ones than Chris and Jill, who had a little bit of a tippiness issue when they got in, but luckily everyone stayed dry. Chris's kayak was sitting pretty low in the water, but it made him quite sporty and agile and able to move quite quickly across the water.
We paddled east and made our way along the shore. On the way to the other end of the lake, or ocean, we didn't see too many exciting things. Once we reached the end of the inlet, we turned around and made our way back. We enjoyed some bird watching, as we saw some puffin-like birds floating on the water, and then they would take off and land feet first, like brakes to slow themselves down as they landed. A few of them had some babies with them.
After the puffin birds, we then encountered a very curious seal. He kept popping up in various places, surprising us wherever he would be, and seemed very curious about what we were doing. First of all, he really liked Jana and was very interested in her boat. Then he decided to check mine out. At one point, he looked a little too eager, and we were worried he might try and climb on one of the kayaks. So we continued on our way and back to the Airbnb.
We then had a hot tub to warm up our cold feet, followed by a lunch, and then we made our way to the Sooke Potholes Provincial Park. We weren't entirely sure what to do when we got there, so we found some parking, looked at a map, and went on a nice little walk up along the river. After looking at a few viewpoints, we made our way up to the start of a waterfall hike. One lady we ran into told us that the hike was very steep and difficult. And then while we were looking at the map, she came back to tell us that maybe she remembered it incorrectly, and it might not be too bad after all. We decided to carry on up to the waterfall. When we got there, we were quite impressed with the amount of water coming down the falls.
Our next stop was a trestle bridge along the Galloping Goose Trail. After the bridge, we were a little confused about how to get back to the car. So we followed a wilderness trail back down to the road, which Lindsay led and broke trail for us. We made it to the road and back to the car, all of us intact.
Once back at the Airbnb, we played a few rounds of Bananagrams, and then did our own beer flight tasting, comprised of various beers that Jana had brought from New Zealand, Jill had brought from Calgary, and Lindsay had brought from Kelowna. We then made our way back to the town of Sooke on foot, once again up the dark highway, and to the Sooke Brewing Company. We went to go order from the food trucks, and while Jill, Lindsay, and Jana were ordering, Chris and I went into the brewery to grab a table, where we were informed that they were closed for a private event that night. We then aborted the food truck ordering and made our way to the Lazy Gecko for some Mexican food, followed by another walk home back down the dark highway. At one point, I tripped. I was lucky there were no oncoming cars.
December 13th
I woke up and I went down for early morning walk out to the pier. I mentioned to Jana that I was going, thinking that she would take it as an invite to come out as well, but she did not. I went down by myself and encountered a seagull with an entire starfish in its mouth. I guess it had found its breakfast, but it was having a hard time choking down the entire fish. I watched a bit longer, the puffin-like birds, and started to make my way back up, where I ran into Chris, who was just starting to come down. As soon as he saw me, he told me, "Jana said you didn't invite her down to the boardwalk with you." I was like, "Well, she could have come." So we made our way out to the end of the pier. Once we got there, a seal immediately popped up and started looking at us. Maybe it was the one we saw the day before.
Came back to the Airbnb for a smoothie bowl and granola for most of us, and then packed up our stuff to head out on the hike for the coastal trail. We made our way to the trailhead, where we took the coastal route first. It was a nice hike along the coastline with great views of the ocean, where we spotted a few more seals, maybe some sea lions, one bald eagle, and some birds. At one point, we saw a couple of seals swimming together. Just as Jana turned her back to continue walking, both of them popped their heads up. We were like, "Ooh, double head," but unfortunately, Jana missed the double head appearance. At another cove, a little baby seal popped its head up and looked at us with curiosity. It was very cute, and then swam along, not to be seen again. We also heard a seal barking.
The hike was pretty interesting with lots of little scrambly sections and always seemed to be uphill, and we were glad we were going the direction that we chose. We made our way to Cabin Point, where we took in the views and then made our way back along the inland trail to the car. Once at the car, we had some licorice for snacks and then headed to Sooke Oceanside Brewery. We all enjoyed the apricot beer and ordered some mac and cheese from the food truck outside. We were a little disappointed in the mac and cheese because it was a little cold and a little under-seasoned, but the chowder was good.
After that, we made our way back to Sooke and decided to pick up some pizza from Give Pizza Chance. We ordered the Janus, the Ozzie, and Plant and Paige. We went back to the Airbnb for a nice hot tub to warm up and then played some games, proceeded with more beer tasting, and ate our pizza and reheated mac and cheese. We brainstormed some titles for our journal. We have several good choices to choose from: Sooke it to me, Sooking it up, You Sooke me all night long, and Sooke Sealed and Delivered. We'll see which one ends up being the winner. And a good long Sooke in the hot tub.
December 14th
We went for a morning walk out on Wiffin Spit. It was the busiest place we'd been yet. There were lots of people out walking their dogs. We met one very friendly dog who couldn't wait to say hi to us all. We walked out along the Spit. It was actually quite far, maybe about a kilometre each way. Along the way we saw lots of different bird life and several seals. We saw more of the bufflehead looking ducks and quite a few brown birds that looked black and white when they flew, as well as several other ducks and one hawk or eagle soaring overhead. We finally made it to the end of the Spit where we enjoyed the views, and then turned around and walked back to the car. By the time we got back, the parking lot was filled up with lots of people setting out in their kayaks.
We went back to our Airbnb, had some breakfast, and got all our rain gear ready for our adventure out to the beaches west of Sooke. Our first stop was Mystic Beach. It turned out to be a 2km hike from China Beach. We parked and set off on the hike. It actually took us quite a while for 2km as the trail was quite mucky and there were lots of branches and logs and things to step over, as well as lots of roots. We finally made it to the beach, which was very nice with a waterfall coming down the cliff at one end. We enjoyed the beach and then made our way back to the parking lot where we then took another path down to China Beach. We got to China Beach and could see several seals bobbing out in the water. We walked along the beach and watched the seals for a bit.
Our next stop was back to Shirley for something to eat. We went to Shirley Delicious. We had some desserts and then headed out to our next destination. Our next stop was Sheringham Point Lighthouse. It was again a bit of a walk from the parking lot down to the lighthouse. We made our way out to the point where the lighthouse was and watched the waves for a bit. Fortunately no interesting sea life here.
We then headed back to the car and we decided we were beached out, so went back to the Airbnb. We had a hot tub to warm up as we were all a little chilled as the day had been a bit blustery and rainy. It was nice hot tub weather though. We sat relaxing in the hot tub, then got out and had some sparkling wine, cheese, and crackers as a little snack before heading out for the evening.
We went to Sooke Brewing where we had a beer. Their food trucks were all closed for the night, so we went back to Route 14 for another dinner. After dinner we came back to the Airbnb where we played No Thanks and Monopoly Deal while we watched the movie Cocktail.
December 15th
Made my way down to the dock for an early morning view of the ocean. It was pretty calm today. The water was like glass, however there were a lot of Canadian geese. There were several flocks of them and they were all making a lot of noise and honking. Turns out they were getting ready to fly off somewhere. Three different groups of them took off and headed out towards the ocean. Other than that, there wasn't anything too interesting to see on the water.
Chris came down to join me for a little bit. We took in the views and then made our way back up to the house. Just as we were almost at the house, Jana decided to come out. Her timing was unfortunately not great, so she had to enjoy the dock by herself. We had breakfast and then packed up. Our first stop was the Sitting Lady Waterfalls. They were quite exciting as there was lots of water coming down. We watched the falls for a while and then headed to our next stop, Fort Rod Hill and the Fisgard Lighthouse Historic Site.
We took a look around the fort. Part of our reason for coming here was that there were two sets of red chairs located here. We found the first ones. They were in a very uninteresting place in the middle of a little garden that wasn't very good in December. So we then made our way out to the lighthouse. The views of the ocean were quite nice, and then we spotted the chairs on a rocky outcrop near the lighthouse. We all climbed out over the rocks and made our way to the red chairs. They were in a fairly difficult spot to reach. Once at the chairs, we took some photos and admired the views. Then we made our way back to the car and went to Hatley Castle.
It was closed for private function, so we walked around the castle, looking at it from the outside, walked through the gardens, and enjoyed the views again. We were all getting a little hungry for lunch, so we made our way back towards the airport to grab something to eat. We tried to go to the Fickle Fig, however, it was getting pretty windy and rainy and their power was out. We had to come up with another plan. We went to the Homestead Cafe. One of their entrances was blocked as a giant tree had fallen over. We went in and ordered some lunch. Lots of people got soup. After lunch, we dropped Jill and Lindsay off at the airport, Jana back at her mom's, and Krista and I made our way to downtown Victoria, where we checked into the Fairmont.
We changed into our swimsuits and went down to enjoy the pool and the hot tub. After relaxing for a bit, we got ready for dinner and for our walk to see the lights in Victoria. Jana came down to meet us, and we took a walk over to the Parliament Buildings, which was nicely lit up for the holidays. We then walked around the Inner Harbour, where all the boats had Christmas lights on them, and took a photo in front of the red and green Canada sign. By this point, we were getting a little hungry. We went to Toro for some Japanese food for dinner. We were greeted by a Japanese server, and Krista and I each had a sake flight, and Jana had a Japanese-style beer. We ordered some sushi and ramen in Gyoza. After dinner, we had a couple other light displays to check out.
We then walked up to Centennial Square, where they had a whole bunch of lights lighting up the square. We took some photos, including some in a tunnel of lights. Chris had one more place that he thought that there were lights, however, we walked around but couldn't seem to find it, and our tour came to an end.
December 16th
We went for a morning sauna, swim, and hot tub at the Fairmont and came back to our room, packed up our stuff, and went down to the hotel restaurant to use our food and beverage credit towards some breakfast. We had a pretty tasty breakfast. Grace had some homemade hot chocolate and an omelette that came with artisanal toast. I had eggs benedict.
After breakfast, we had planned to walk around and also tour the Parliament buildings. We had planned a walk that tried to give us the best chance at seeing some more seals. The weather was supposed to be very rainy and blustery, so we weren't sure how far we'd make it on our walk. We started off in the Inner Harbour again, walking out to the end where we noticed a bunch of people on an old docked ship that apparently had been turned into a spa. They were lounging in hot tubs on the rooftop of the boat.
We walked around the Victoria Harbour and then made our way towards Fisherman's Wharf. We then made our way to Ogden Point and out along the Ogden Point Breakwater, a breakwater pathway that stretched quite far out into the ocean. While we were there, we saw one weird looking drone in the water. It looked like a paddleboard with something at the back of it motoring around by itself. We then continued walking along the ocean to do a loop back to the Fairmont.
We'd heard that there was a gingerbread house contest in the hotel beside the Fairmont, so we went to go check that out. We saw several very impressive gingerbread houses, where you could vote for your favourite. By this point it had started raining pretty subtly. We grabbed our bags from the Fairmont and then made our way to go pick up Jana, where we then went to visit the butterfly gardens.
The butterfly gardens started off with some exhibits of very interesting bugs, including some ants carrying pieces of leaves along a large tree batch. We also saw insects that looked like leaves and some that looked like sticks. We then made our way into the butterfly exhibit. There weren't that many butterflies, there were a few flying around. We started to make our way through the loop, where we saw a macaw, some turtles, and then we saw a flamingo. His name was Mango and he was 50 years old, which apparently is very old for a flamingo. We saw some more birds, including an African parrot, another pair of macaws, and one other little green one. We also looked at a display case that had different types of poison frogs in it.
After we were done at the butterfly garden, we went to Sydney, where we had dinner at Farmer's Daughter. We each had a wine flight and we had some good food, including some mac and cheese that was way better than the one that we had gotten from the food truck a couple days ago. After dinner, it was time to head to the airport for our flight back home.
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