UncleMarkie is looking for coffee around 9, and waiting for the second breakfast of the household day, we will call that “brunch”. Thank goodness I have tolerant hosts – it also allows them to the garden watering out of the way early.
My lovely hosts, who don’t really know that I’d just be happy parking myself on the lawn or in the garden with a book and an umbrella listening to the chickens and the blueberries ripening… suggest a hike (queue “roll of eyes”) and then settle into another plan.
Shopping for groceries and booze after a stop a Valhalla Cabins to visit some of the other faeries on the island (not home, but groceries and Plymouth Gin)
Internet (Wi-Fi, both RobinHood and I had our laptops) and sandwiches at TJ Beans
Thrift store shopping (me, while they were still logged on)
Pretty hippy boy watching (think the San Juan’s in Washington State)
Winery number 1: Mistaken Identity. Got a recipe for a non-tomato-based pizza (and the recipe for the dough) that is roasted fennel root, Italian sausage and smoke Gouda cheese. I’ll try it an pass it on if it’s good.
Skinny dipping at one of the lakes – too bad the cute 20 something’s looking for free camping (but swum in their underwear) were leaving as we got there
Home for dinner with a couple of boys I last met in Yelapa which is on accessible by a boat (theme?) south of Puerto Vallarta (who run the Valhalla Sleeping Units). Wings, lamb, fresh salad and vegetables from the garden, chatting into the night, many spilled drinks….and many references to Bacchus.
Once again, to bed late. But oh, what a comfortable bed it is – I feel like I have landed in the lap of luxury rather and a rural farm.
It seems everyone was a little tired from yesterday. Nobody rolled out of bed until 10:30am. Personally, I needed that extra rest (and still had an afternoon nap as well).
“Breakfast” was at 12:30 after the boys returned from the coffee shop (no Half and Half or Splenda for Onyx’s coffee) and featured “European style breakfast sausages” which are basically small links of weisswurst and a cheesy egg scramble.
Lunetta and I headed out mid-afternoon to the “real” grocery store for ingredients for tonight’s dinner with CrowDog and RobinHood. On the menu:
When we got to the check-out like at the Thrifty Food Mart we realized that all our groceries would be in handle-less paper bags. Yikes. It seems Thrifty has endorsed the voluntary ban on plastic shopping bags. Must be recent as the check-out clerk was pretty clueless when it came to double bagging (with paper you insert bag A into bag B BEFORE putting any groceries in, the opposite of plastic). It was a fun walk back on a sunny fall day.
The Salt Spring Island boys (CrowDog and RobinHood) arrived around six for a parade of hats. Lunetta bought three this afternoon and the Salt Springs Boys brought me one as a present:
Oh the hell of an early morning travel schedule but totally worth it since Swanda and I are headed to Victoria this morning.
Here is the breakfast I made the night before for a quick heat-up in the morning:
That would be the microwave omelet maker from the trip to Hawaii with SurfBetty.
We got to Port Angeles with about two hours to spare – time for an early lunch, but first a round of…
They make a really good Bloody Mary, but the service at Smuggler’s Landing. Needless to say, the review I posted on Trip Advisor wasn’t complimentary.
The ferry ride was relaxing and the duty free cheap. $14.30 for 40 ounces of cheap whiskey, suitable for mixing. I’m not sure what it is about most Canadian Whiskey, but it just isn’t sipping quality.
By 3 we were checked in and relaxing:
Nice view from the deck.
A little before 6 the boys (RobynHood, Royce, CrowDog, Tyson) showed up for dinner which was:
Pupu platter of pate, cheese, crackers
Appetizer of shrimp cocktail
Salad of mixed greens (thanks boys for bringing)
Seared ahi tuna
Grilled salmon
Blueberries and clotted cream for dessert
Add a bottle of white and two of red and you have a party. And here is the aftermath of the party (CrowDog):
This week’s midweek trip is to lovely Victoria BC with Roxy who spent the night so that there was one less stop to make in the morning.
Up at 5:30am, out of the house at 6:30am, checked into the ferry at 7:00am – only to find the waiting room packed with Canuck hung-over Seahawks fans in blazing Seahawks gear – boy was in a quite ride to BC.
Mimosas at 8am while still at the dock in Seattle.
Nap at 9am on the boat. Photo courtesy of Roxy:
Taken, he says in response to the picture I took of him last night crashed on the chez lounge.
As expected our rooms weren’t ready – it was 11am after all and check-in is at 4pm. So off to the Blue Crab located at the Coast Hotel next door, armed with a 15% off coupon… which I forgot to use. Damn. C couple of good pictures from lunch…
Roxy reading (GREAT picture of him)….
It seems the Monday drink special with $3.99 CAN for a highball… which is VERY CHEAP for Canadaland – bring them on.
And our lovely lunch…
Roxy had the seafood sandwich – lox, shrimp, avocado, tomato, greens, I went for the diet busting fish and chips – the single piece version… but it was one big piece of fish – and I was patient enough to wait to eat the fish until it cooled down. It’s as bad as pizza just out of the oven.
For our amusement there was a team of police scuba guys going through trailing – complete with a really wet RusaAnnie….
After lunch it was off shopping as I’m cooking for seven tonight:
CrowDog
RobinHood
Roxy
Me
Royce
Kyle
Elliot
On the menu is a surf and turf – turns out Tyler is a vegetarian, luckily there are lots of non-surf and turf items for him:
Pupu platter of cheese, crackers, smoked oysters, hummus
Mixed greens with baby carrots and mushrooms with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing
Maui style marinated boneless ribs
A kilo of salmon
Dessert courtesy of CrowDog and RobinHood (who also brought me 222’s, a Canadian aspirin, caffeine, codeine mix)
A wild meal with some of us hottubbing after dinner.
Final damage in the booze department:
40 oz. of Bacardi Rum
13 cans of Diet Ginger Ale as mixer
½ a liter of Maker’s Mark
Almost 2 bottles of wine
For seven people – boy those Canucks can suck down the duty-free booze.
All and all, a wonderful evening with old friends and new friends. Was having too much fun to actually get any pictures. Sorry all.
This week’s adventure involves LOTS of people (well, for me). First through the door are Seth (31) and Maia (the little girl – 5½ years old). They drove up from Corvallis for our little adventure. Before long they set off for the airport to pick up Lunetta and Onyx who flew in from San Francisco.
Dinner for five – rib-eye steaks, saffron rice, salad, couple of bottles of Bonny Doon wine…rice instead of bread as I broke yet another bread machine a couple of weeks ago – probably should say “wore out” rather than “broke”.
And a good dinner it was…finding places for people to sleep was a little more problematic.
Maia in the single bed in the office so we could chat into the evening
Wrangling a child means you are the last people off the boat and near the end of customs/immigration – which went smoothly as I’d warned Seth that he needed at a minimum a letter from Maia’s birth mother authorizing taking her out of the country. Seth made EXTRA sure and brought the custody agreement with him. Good boy.
Walked to the WorldMark Victoria, expecting to stash are luggage because it was noon, and check in is 4PM. To our surprise, our unit was ready – which rarely happens that early, but often does more in the winter than summer. Dumped everything in the room and headed out to Moka for Grilled Ham and Cheese with Potato Soup – seriously, we all got the same thing (limited menu). Thanks Lunetta for treating!
After the early morning, it was nap time for Maia, Onyx and myself – we send the engineers to the store for supplies that we didn’t bring. I’d packed:
4 racks of lamb
2 packages of shrimp (meant to bring the white fish to be breaded with the Panko, except for Maia who would get corn meal)
2 cubes of butter
1 pound of bacon
Artichoke Bruschetta
Cornichons
Corn and Bean Salsa
Panko Breading
The WorldMark Bag (pre-packed olive oil/balsamic, curry, brown sugar, flour, skewers, birthday candles, McCormicks Steak Seasoning, coffee meat rub, Korean hot sauce, etc.)
But you also need:
Salad (and dressing)
Bread
Eggs
Mixers
Cheese
Gluten Free Crackers (Maia goes bi-polar when she has gluten)
Corn Chips
Portabellas (to stuff with the Artichoke Bruschetta and top with the Panko Breading)
Etc.
Of course when you sent two engineers to the store, you get MANY more things in addition to those on the list. Take the generic category “Mixers”. They came back with:
12-pack of Tonic
12-pack of Diet Ginger Ale (mostly for me)
6 pack of tiny Cokes
100% Cranberry Juice
Handful of limes
Why so much? Did I mention what we picked up at Duty Free on the boat?
That would be 4 liters of hard liquor for a party of 9 adults tonight and 4 adults for the second night – and those Canadians like to drink hard at Duty Free prices ($85 for all four). And the guests are showing up with wine to go with dinner. And what a dinner it was:
In the foreground, the racks of lamb, Then the Stuffed Portabellas – which were a HUGE HIT, not just with the Vegetarian and Vegan guests (one each). For Maia it was an “adult night” when she was allowed to stay up until she collapsed.
Good food, good conversation (though not around the dining tables since it seats 6, not 10), good hot tubbing after dessert (thanks RobinHood and CrowDog!)
A late night, but luckily not an early morning – Seth was reading the schedule I sent out a laughed when he got to the first morning there, where it said brunch at noon:
Yep, guess that makes me anal retentive in my planning – but that’s how it worked out.
The boys and Maia set out to explore the city while I stayed home for some quiet time (much needed after all the excitement). My job was to fill in the gaps in the night’s meal (smoked fish, more cheese, and chocolate) and to grab a little lunch snack for me at the food truck in front of “Finest At Sea” a local fish wholesaler that has a small retail shop in the back:
I got the special – three rockfish cakes with hot dipping sauce. I had one, saved the other two to share with tonight’s pupu platter. After the shopping, NAP TIME!
Here is a great picture of Seth after the movie (in the gift shop):
Lunch was at Santiagos, which is close to the ferry terminal (though we had to backtrack to grab out luggage). I’ve eaten here often because they always have muscles on the menu, AND they have HUGE drinks by Canadian standards, and cheap ($11) – again, but Canadian standards.
I had the Thai Mussels, Seth and Maia the HUGE nachos, Lunetta and Onyx the Ceviche and the quesadilla. We ended up taking a bunch of the nachos for the boat trip home.
Did I mention the pitcher of Sangria? And my favorite shot of the lunch:
Yes, they supply crayons, which was great for entertaining Maia.
Got to the terminal later than I wanted, but we were already checked in and had our boarding numbers, it was just the line to check in luggage that was a pain. And luggage we had – four checked bags.
But we did get a table for all of us. Here is Seth sating his Solitaire addiction:
Technically that’s 8 seats, but on the inner section so less coveted.
Three hours later and the last people through customs and this is the scene:
Four and a half people and their crap in a Saab. Tight quarters, luckily for only 20 minutes.
Once back to the house, an exhausted Seth and Onyx claim the big bed, Maia in the small one, and the Marks (Lunetta and UncleM) on the floor after staying up for hours beyond the others.
Work until 4:30 for me, then back to the house to prepare dinner for the boys, Bliss and myself for the final night of the CanadaLand holiday. Tonight’s menu:
Little lamb chops (LOTS of them)
Salad
A Spanish Red
MANY COCKTAILS
After another late evening – it was time for me to head to a real bed, albeit a tiny one in the office.
I was out of the house for work before the boys were out of bed, feeling a little spent. While fun, it wasn’t one of the more “relaxing” holidays I’ve had recently.
A lazy morning of eating, working, doing a shopping run.
Today’s video will probably only be of interest to me… some early inside shots of the Boeing 787 including the crew rest area (which you never get to see).
And the other news of the afternoon is that I’ve finally found someone to go to Mexico with me — you wouldn’t think that it would be hard with First Class in both directions for 8-nights in a one bedroom deluxe condo for $760 each…. hell, airfare is basically at $500 round-trip because it happens to be spring break when we are going.
Dinner is with CrowDog and RobinHood — who are spending the night so they can hot tub and go out dancing after dinner. Dinner:
warm bread from the oven (par-baked, not mine)
green leaf and yellow tomato salad with chunky blue cheese dressing
grilled asparagus
three beautiful wild coho salmon steaks with smoked salt glaze
three little heart shaped chocolates for dessert
Yum. Nice to have the boys over for a pajama party — OK, it’s really a bathrobe party.
Up at 5 and was at the Victoria Clipper for check-in before they were even open. And the coffee shop that was next door was closed until further notice. Bummer. That means a Clipper breakfast basket. At least that means I don’t pay for the cranberry juice to go with the champagne.
Being one of the first people through customs put me on the 11:05 bus from Government and Superior (3-4 blocks from the Clipper terminal in Victoria) to Swartz Bay. An hour an a quarter later if bought my ticket for the Salt Spring Island Fulford Harbour run — with enough time to get a little lunch from the cafe in the parking lot — good thing as the ferry has no services on it.
By 1:30pm I’m on Salt Spring Island — very much like the terminals on the San Juan Island, especially the Friday Harbor one. One small hitch… nobody to pick me up. Finding one bar of service I call and leave a message. A half hour after the next ferry arrived, call and leave another message. Luckily the eye candy around the ferry is amusing, and I finish reading a book.
After getting a Chai, I go out to hang around and wait for the next ferry to come in, and I wander into the “one-bar” zone — and I get a voicemail ding. The boys were late getting back from the mainland at the northern ferry terminal — call to confirm which terminal you are at. The joys of island life when you depend on ferries on a three day weekend (BC Day is today).
All is good — we are back at their place in time for cocktail hour followed by steaks on the grill and fresh potatoes and snap peas from the garden (and the steaks were from the island).
CrowDog is the early to bed early to rise type, so RobinHood and I spend the night trying to time-date the house. My guess is 40’s because of the lathe and plaster and the inlaid oak floors, but then turned into a mid-century with the swingers fireplace, new flat doors, recessed curtain areas, etc. What initially threw me off was the floors — but in a mid-century those would have been covered with wall-to-wall carpeting.
Pictures when I get back to the land of high-speed zeros and ones — the boys are on dial-up, and not by choice. The joys of island living… and there is only one-bar of service in the valley as well.
Just one more picture from last night. I packed a leather punch so that a belt that I gave CrowDog would finally fit around his skinny little waste. That is beadwork sewn onto buckskin making a pretty striking rodeo style belt buckle. I picked up several years ago at the Faerie Bazaar from Clyde Hall, a first nation’s person from Idaho, but the piece is from Leanne Chappell, she a member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes.
The boys and I were out of the condo on the dot of noon, and headed to the coffee shop and the comfy chairs (and the 10% discount because we are staying at the WorldMark). I stashed my luggage back at the WorldMark, and Lunetta and Onyx brought theirs along as they are taking the bus to the airport (about an hour and a half, but only $2.50 each). As for me, I hung at the coffee shop for a couple of hours, then went off to lunch and had a lovely ceviche at Santiago’s Café close to the ferry terminal. The only book I managed to bring was Bourbon, Straight: The Uncut and Unfiltered Story of American Whiskey, which aside from a lack of attention to line breaks in chapter heading, I found to be an informative read. Now I just have to figure out how to circulate it amongst all my bourbon aficionado friends because at $22.95 ($20.66 for the Kindle edition) it’s a bit overpriced.
No trouble with immigration, the boat ride, or customs on the other end. Actually customs conversation was as follows:
Them: How are you doing tonight?
Me: Tired.
Them: Any gifts?
Me: No.
Them: Have a nice evening.
Short and sweet. No asking about what I’m bringing back, nothing. Just jumped in a cab and $32 later I’m home.
Well, with all the other travel, and the Coho Ferry (Port Angeles – Victoria) being dry-docked longer, only one trip planned to Victoria this winter.
The trip didn’t start well – my Uber driver was stuck on 1 minute away for 15 minutes, killing any spare time I had to get to the boat – I ended up driving after finding out he a flat (which I didn’t find out for 20 minutes because he wouldn’t answer phone or text) – it, worrying that the car wouldn’t start when I returned from Victoria since the battery is weak and I’d had it on the charger all the previous night. Not the way I like to start a trip – stressed. You all know how I am about getting to airports/ship terminals/etc. in plenty of time.
This helped the stress:
This is Maia’s second trip with the boys to Victoria. Maia belongs to Seth. Maia likes my roller board and wants to help even though she has two bags of her own. Good Maia:
Miracle of miracles, our condo is ready – before noon! Usually, check-in time isn’t until 4pm. We have a 2-bedroom Penthouse unit on the second floor (yes, Penthouse doesn’t mean the top floor in this case, just the level of creature comforts – like our own personal hot tub):
And the view is good, even if it is the second (out of eight) floor:
You can sort of see our “pet”, Jonathan, in this shot – here is a better one:
And no – we don’t feed him – that’s against the rules.
Lunch out is at the Blue Heron Bistro, in the same complex as the grocery store. I start with a Caesar – which is a Bloody Mary made with Clamato. The Canadians are crazy about Clamato:
Lots of fun stuff on the specials menu –
I went with the Rabbit & Chorizo Poutine – that is French Fries, then a layer of cheese curds, then a Chorizo Rabbit Gravy over the top – others went for the duck curry:
Nap time for DancingBear and me – while Seth, MoSis (his BF), and Maia went out to explore the city.
But soon, it was time for dinner….and the couple of racks of ribs I brought up from the states.
Did I mention we bought a little duty-free booze? And here is the dinner, ribs on the upper right:
We do eat well on holidays. And we do relax well on holidays as well…
This is how DancingBear and I spent our time in Victoria, in bathrobes, cycling in/out of the hot tub, reading, playing Word With Friends, staring out at the planes landing on the Inner Harbour.
That and cooking:
Yes, Seth is having greens and sauerkraut with his eggs, babel and cream cheese (where is the salmon I brought?)
More relaxing for DB and I on Wednesday, with the rest of the kids out exploring (aka trying to run Maia out of energy) while we worked on dinner which included a vegan (it was supposed to include TWO vegans). Apparently we were having too much fun to get any pictures of the second night’s dinner which was olive tapenade stuffed portabellas for the vegan(s) and chicken cordon blu for the rest of us.
We were a little short on guest this visit at our favorites RobinHood and CrowDog are on the Sunshine Coast mourning the loss of a close friend – guess I should plan for next year in Victoria!
Before you know it the last afternoon is upon us – and a BIG shout out to DancingBear for renting a full-size car to get us around town and occupy us on the last day when checkout is at noon, and the boat is at five.
I wanted light, so I went for the tempura green beans…
Fish Tacos for MoSis:
DancingBear went for the Cheddar and Crab sandwich – which I really should have taken some of:
And before you know it, we are back on the boat headed out of Victoria –
And eating again….
Cheese, crackers, Chicken Caesar wrap, leftover cranberry juice and vodka we packed for the trip…
The car started when I got back to the garage. Because of the discount from The Clipper, parking was $30 for the three days rather than the $61 that was on the ticket. In the end the price was probably cheaper than Uber to/from.
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