Victoria, BC

It was Saturday of the August long weekend and after getting the last campsite in the South West corner of the island the night before, we decided not to press our luck and headed for the city.

Earlier in our trip we had contacted my cousin Matt Love (check out his photography on Facebook TheRealMattLove) and he was glad to let us stay with him for three nights in his downtown Victoria apartment.

Beautiful waterfront 

When we first arrived, we found parking and took a self guided tour of the waterfront. The city was preparing for a weekend of floating symphonies, fireworks and parades in celebration of B.C. day.

After dinner in Chinatown we stopped in for gelato for dessert,

Decorative Gelato

Had to get some gelato

Fiddle playing Darth Vader

Military march for B.C. Day

After dinner we met up with Matt at his apartment, conveniently located right in the middle of downtown Victoria and a short walk to all things awesome. He  took us out to one of the bars near his place for a few drinks and good conversation.

Having a drink with our host, Matt Love

After the bar Matt took us on a short walk around the downtown area, pointing out some of his favourite spots and recommending stuff for us to do during our stay

B.C Parliament building at night

The next morning we walked down to fisherman's wharf. There were plenty of fish and chip shops, tourists and floating houses. Unfortunately, the resident seals weren't in at the time.

Floating houses at fisherman's wharf featuring Bill's finger

Narrow walkways connecting the floating houses

Found a new friend

Matt had recommended The Churchill as a good bar to sample different craft brews. They had a huge rotating selection of beers from local breweries. We spent some of the afternoon with a sampling flight. Our bartender was a Guelph University alumni and recommended some favourites out of the huge selection.

Huge selection of taps at the Churchill 

Featured Craft Beer at the Churchill

Back in Guelph, Bill and I had just started getting into the new board game trend that seems to be sweeping our generation. With our favourite board games thousands of Kilometers away packed up in storage, we found ourselves itching to play something. Luckily Victoria has a board game cafe. We gladly spent the afternoon learning and playing three new board games.

Learning a new board game at Interactivity Board game Cafe

We met up with Matt after he finished his shift and had pizza. Afterwards, we met up with a group of Matt's friends for a beer pong tournament. Their high rise apartment also had awesome view of the B.C. day fireworks going off in the harbour.


The next day Bill and I walked to Beacon Hill Park where there's a free petting zoo with goats and peacocks.

Petting zoo in the park

Peacocks in the city park

Beacon Hill Park is also home to some amazing ocean views and the official Mile 0 marker of the Trans Canada highway. By this point we've driven a decent chunk of the route, but not all of it.

Mile 0 of the Trans Canada Highway 1

North East of the park is Craigdarroch Castle which we paid a visit to next before walking back to the harbour front 

Craigdarroch Castle

Our third night at Matt's was spent a bit more low key. We made stir-fry, watched Interstellar and just relaxed. The next morning we said our goodbyes and drove North to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island.

Port Renfrew Loop

Leaving Nanaimo we headed westwards towards the southwestern side of the island. We camped out at Fairy Lake forestry campground just outside of Port Renfrew. The road used to be a logging service road and was just recently turned into a public road. The result was many one-way bridges, hair pin turns and steep grades. But we made it safe and sound.

Chainsaw sculpture competition entry

Along the way we stopped into a town called Lake Cowichan. To our delight we noticed a river full of people floating down the river, escaping the hot day on blow-up tubes. This being one of our hottest days thus far, we decided to join in the fun.

 

Floating down the river on in Lake Cowichan

 Before we left town, we bought a GoPro, a small waterproof camera. While we've gotten some amazing water and dashboard videos so far, neither of our computers are new enough to run the software required to edit the videos. That's why, unfortunately you haven't seen any videos from us yet. We have some awesome footage of our float down the river and hopefully one day we'll be able to share it with you all!

We rented two tubes for $15 bucks each which including a bus ride back to town. Three hours later we emerged from the river a little sunburnt, but satisfied with an afternoon well spent. We saw lots of neat summer homes, passed under three bridges, road down some baby rapids and floated by lots of beautiful parkland.

Feeling the need for ice cream we found a 50’s style diner, inside with refreshing ac and over 40 choices of milkshakes. We shared a hotdog and a cheesecake milkshake!

 

Cheesecake Milkshake

We headed to the campsite next and got there just in time. We got the last spot in the whole campground.  Being that it was the first day of the long weekend, it may have been the last site in 100 km. Between setting up and going to bed we must have seen a couple of dozen vehicles looking for campsites. The steady stream lasted well into the night.

The next morning we packed up and before we even left the site someone laid claim to our spot.

Then it was off to Port Renfrew. We headed to the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park which runs along the pacific coast. To walk the whole coastal trail would take a few days so we only covered a small section of the hike.

Juan de Fuca Provincial Park

Tidal Pools

Looking for sea life in the tidal pools

Low Tide

At Botany Bay there are tidal pools at low tide with tons of sea life inside them. We didn’t see any starfish due to a disease that decimated the local population. There were however, plenty of crabs, small fish and many different forms of plant life. After Botany Bay we took the coastal trail further south viewing the breathtaking ocean sights and the rainforest.

Along the Juan de Fuca Trail

 

Rugged Pacific Coastline

Instead of risking our chances of not finding another site at the busy campgrounds, we decided after the hike to drive straight to Victoria.

Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

Hello from San Francisco! We're many weeks behind I know, but we're working on it. I'll just continue from where we left off

We packed up our things in Wya Point and headed on up the winding road back to the east side of the island. It was about a three hour drive to Nanaimo. We spent a fair bit of time at the visitor’s center sorting out accommodation, activities and directions. There was a lot we wanted to do here!

We booked into a campsite the Nicol St. Hostel close to downtown and we were delighted to find how homey it was with an amazing view of the Georgia Straight.

After setting up camp, we promptly headed to the grocery store to get supplies for a stir fry and pork chops. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a full kitchen to use!

After dinner we walked around town and found ourselves at Pirate Chips for dessert. They make a mean deep fried Nanaimo bar and we just had to try it. Afterwards we went for a stroll along the lovely harbour font walkway. 

Dessert at Pirate Chips

Deep fried Nanaimo bar with ice cream

We took advantage of the wifi and complimentary desktop to catch up on our neglected blog. Hopefully we'll be able to stay on top of it now that we wont be in such remote areas all the time. While we worked, the hostel filled up with other travelers whom we exchanged stories with. 

The next morning we got up early and were excited to do another tasting day. The first stop was the Thirsty Camel for Middle Eastern food where we shared the Persian Chicken Plate with rice and eggplant. All though neither of us were crazy about the eggplant, I have to say that the chicken and rice here was my favorite thing we ate today.

Sitting outside the Thirsty Camel

Next was Gabriel's cafe on Commercial St. where we shared a pulled pork sandwich to go which we ate at the lighthouse. 

We then took a break to explore the Nanaimo Museum to cool off in some AC and learn about the local history. There was a small exhibit on the history of Nanaimo bars. The attached cafe, Serious Coffee was selling traditional style Nanaimo bars so we stopped in to order one there afterwards.

Museum exhibit about Nanaimo's famous annual bathtub race

A Nanaimo Bar exhibit

We popped into 2 Chef's Affair on Commercial St again and ordered 'The Cheating Heart' which consisted of roasted red pepper soup and Bill's favourite of the day; House-braised beef with Monterey Jack cheese grilled on fresh sourdough bread.

At Two Chefs Affair

Public chalkboard

Full of tasty food we walked it off on our way to Wolf Brewing Co., a half hour walk up the street from our hostel. There Bill tried a flight and we chatted up the staff. 

Sample flight

I really love the artwork on the Wolf Brewing Co bottles

Lots of walking and eating in the sun had us tired out so we went back to the hostel to relax for a few hours, I took a short nap. In the evening we were ready to hit the town again and walked back down to the waterfront to catch a ferry over to the Dingy Dock Pub, a floating pub just off an island.

View of Nanaimo from the floating pub.

Funny story, we actually got to the ferry too late in the evening. The driver informed us that we would be getting there just in time for last call. Seeing that we were dissapointed, he offered to let us come along for the ride for free while he picked up passengers. En route to the pub one of the three other passengers decided to strip down and jump overboard. All of us were so busy looking out a tthe islands that we didn't notice until we heard a big splash.

The ferry driver was super unimpressed as he had to turn around to fish the guy back out and then stop him from trying to jump over again or throw his shopping bag of clothes overboard. The rest of us were dropped off at the pub and waited while the guy was escorted back across to town with the ferry driver and the pubs bouncer.

Because of this strange turn of events we actually had time to look around the pub. The staff, amazed by our story, let us buy drinks even though we had just missed last call. Our return journey back was far less eventful by comparison.

The floating pub

The next morning we decided we weren't done with Nanaimo and carried on sampling small dishes at multiple restaurants. We started with sushi at the Firehouse Grill, a stylish restaurant in an old fire department building. 

Sushi at the Firehouse grill

Another Nanaimo bar at Mon Petit Choux

 We stopped in for another Nanaimo bar and a ham and cheese croissant at a French bakery called Mon Petit Choux

Nanaimo waterfront skyline

Back down at the waterfront, we walked out onto one of the public piers and caught a few sighting of a seal. Apparently this friendly local seal is called Lucy, and is often spotted along the waterfront.

Lucy the neighbourhood seal

There were plenty of families on the public pier crab fishing. In order to keep the crabs, they have to be male and of a certain size or else you have to throw them back. We watched one grandfather teach his grandson how to catch and measure the crabs

locals crab fishing along the public pier

Others relax with a fishing pole

The waterfront also has a small public water park with artificially created tidal pools and a beach.

Checking out the tidal pools

Next we walked farther inland to the older part of Nanaimo where we stopped in a cafe for another afternoon snack. 

 We found a store that sold fudge and we couldn't help but try the Nanaimo bar flavoured fudge

Nanaimo bar flavoured fudge

Heading back to the hostel after another long day walking in the sun, we relaxed and chatted with some of the other travelers there.