2017-06 Joanne and Ann Go West

The days have flown by and alas, it's time to head for home. We woke just after 6 am with the intent of arriving early, just in case our best laid plans should go astray. LOL You just never know when you might need to look for a gas station or even where to return the rental car. Lots of things to stress about ..... sigh..... traffic jams perhaps!  But mercifully, perhaps because it was Saturday, the drive went smoothly and happily the car return went well.  Poor Ann wasn't stressed when we left our motel, but perhaps after trying to calm "me" down, she may have been been by the time we boarded the plane.  Our flight to Toronto was was great. It was a larger plane and smooth so Ann was glued to the window to enjoy the experience. The flight from Toronto to Ottawa was another story. It was a small propeller plane. You could truly feel the plane banking, climbing and every air pocket for the entire hour we were in the air.  I was just a bit queasy but poor Ann got real...

We started our last full day of vacation sitting around  Ruthie's kitchen table. We enjoyed yet another country breakfast and discussed ideas for things to do in Victoria. It seemed Butchart Gardens was the way to go. After hugs and promises to send pictures, we loaded up our little rental car and headed off to Victoria.  We arrived at Butchart Gardens by 10:30 am thinking we would look around for 2 hours then head off to the waterfront. The sun was out and the weather pleasant, not hot. What a beautiful day and what a beautiful garden! From the roses to the sunken garden (it was once a gravel pit, but now a veritable fairy land of blooms), the Japenese gardens etc, there just aren't words..... It is incredible!!  Soooo our 2 hour planned tour turned into almost 4 hours, but worth it! We have noticed that we have met a lot of people from Ontario who come to visit and then move back to live or just .. never leave. We stopped for tea and ended up talking to a really interes...

We started our day with a fabulous country breakfast and conversation with our host Ruthie. A vintage wood cook stove was used to warm the kichen and cook the food. Ruth managed everything, seemingly without effort! It actually makes me hopeful that I can do the same things when I make it to my mid to late 70's (I am just guessing at her age.... Well, it was raining, but we just decided to make the most of things, plus Ruthie had such great ideas for us, how could we lose? So we set out, maps in hand ( hand written by Ruthie). First stop was a Lavender Winery which, we soon found out was closed! Despite the rain, and since we were there anyway, we checked out their gardens which included lavender, surprised?!?! I wonder if they had surveillance cameras because soon afterward, a youngish man came out.  Rather than shooing us off, he gave us a tour. There were several lavender products as well as Lavender wines and of course after he was so nice to us, we both bought something! S...

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...

This morning was all about getting ready for our grand adventure, however, before we managed to walk out the door, we had some surprise guests for breakfast.  We had heard about the urban deer in the area, and well, two of them walked right past our picture window this morning. They were so tame and close that we could have reached out and touched them! We booked a whale watching cruise for noon and thought we were arriving early only to find everyone waiting for us because a whale had been sighted just out of the harbour.  The waves were not dangerous, but high enough to give us an interesting ride, kind of like a roller coaster with bumps!! We did see lots of sea lions (do they ever get big!!), but it was the whales we wanted to see.  The skipper, Cameron was great, picture an older hippie/surfer who never left the ocean. He gave us lots of info and told fabulous stories! He had us helping to look for spouts which would let us know where the whales are, and we did find ...

Our B&B totally felt like cabin in the woods, the decor was so comfy and anything you could want was right there. So we had a relaxing breakfast, packed up the car and went to say goodbye to our hosts. That was when we discovered that they were Southern Ontario natives and in fact, Bev had lived in a rural community, Donegal, close to one of Ann's relatives. We had a great chat and the longer we spoke, the most connections we found! Under beautiful sunny skies, we headed off toward Ucluelet with plans to stop at a few fun places thanks to the info we got from Sandy.  There was a market with several boutique style buildings in Coombs. All of them had roofs with soil and grass (?thatched) and all were connected. There were a few goats that we saw munching happily as they wandered the roofs and ... likely watching the tourists who were watching them LOL.  And there were lots of tourists from all over. I heard several languages while we checked things out! Besides the usua...