The Road to Mill Bay

This is being written the day after.  Yesterday was a travel day as we retraced our steps from Ucluelet through the mountains, past Cathedral Grove, to Nanaimo and finally to Mill Bay. 
The skies were sunny at first which was wonderful in looking out at the incredible mountain views. I drove this time which allowed Ann a chance to take a good look around. But oh my the sharp curves and narrow roads that hug the mountains, there were times that I slowed down to a crawl just to feel safe while some of what we thought were locals zoomed by the first chance they got!
We had packed a picnic with the leftovers of our chicken supper from the night before and we passed more than a few gorgeous roadside picnic areas. In the end we stopped in a parking lot back in Nanaimo to eat our sandwiches LOL would like a "do-over" on that one!!!
We finally passed the sign for Mill Bay about 5:30 pm, a little road weary and anxious to find our B&B and relax. Our GPS took us to a rock face on a busy stretch of the highway where we pulled over and called Ruthie (from Ruthies Roost). We needed to backtrack a bit, but eventually found her house tucked into the bush a few miles back. It looks like a country barn style house with balconies, maybe more like something you'd see in Germany. Flowers and plants everywhere! We were met at the door by Ruthie who looked for all the world like my Oma Visser. When we said hello and reached out to shake her hand, she just reached out and hugged us instead. She settled us in and invited us to have tea with her and chatted a bit about where we could go for supper. Her grandson dropped in while we were there to show his grandma a picture of the bear he'd shot and talked to us as well, showing us snapshots of his dogs.  It felt like visiting family!
We found the fish and chip shop Ruthie recommended and finally had our feast of fish!!
We returned to the B&B and found Ruthie chatting with a few other guests, again, gathered around her kitchen table. We sipped tea (at least I did) and joined in the conversation. One man, a tall aristocratic looking Romanian is a professional artist who is taking a course on building his own home, and a younger lady from Mississauga who is moving here. She has a job but not yet a place to live.  
We rounded out the evening with a few episodes of Mrs. Brown's Boys on my iPad since I haven't seen a TV here ...... Poor Ann!

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