Leaving Victoria--boo-hoo!

We spent our last days here in Victoria visiting gorges and coastlines.  We NEVER got enough of water.  Let the pictures do the talking.

On Tuesday we're off to Paris! A bientot!

 Along The Gorge

Gonzales Bay

McNeill Bay

 House along Beach Drive

 Golf course along Beach Drive

Oak Bay Marina

Fall colors

 View from Mt. Doug

Bye, Victoria!

Seriously Seattle

We caught the Clipper ferry out of Victoria on Friday 19th, destination Seattle (3-hour ride).  What a special city, especially in the sunshine!  Lots of energy!  Right near the ferry terminal was the Olympic sculpture garden.  The weather was spectacular and the art quite interesting.

Sculpture at Olympic sculpture walk

One reason for our Seattle visit was to see Jodi and her husband Robin.  Jodi is a long-time San Mateo friend from 3rd grade and we last saw each other 17 years ago during our Vancouver sabbatical.   We had a wonderful reunion and shared so many memories.

The next day, we met up with another mutual San Mateo friend, Paula, who lives in Tacoma and together we went to the Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.

Me, Paula and Jodi

The museum is really outstanding!  It includes an Exhibition Hall, the centerpiece Glasshouse and a lush Garden.  And in the cafe, there are Chihuly's personal collections that include accordions, pocketknives, citrus juicers...a wide array of collectibles.  I could never take enough pictures, but here's a sample--so much better in person.

An example of Chihuly's basket series

Ikebana and float boat

Glass in the garden

We continued wandering around the busy streets and walkin' and talkin'.  Here's a shot of EMP (Experience Music Project).  We didn't go inside, but were very impressed with the Frank Gehry architecture.

EMP

EMP is a nonprofit museum, dedicated to contemporary popular culture and was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000. 

We wandered around the Pike Market and what a mob scene!  This place deserves a lot of time and is so fun, but we just couldn't take the mobs.

A colorful stall with chile garlands at Pike Market

Our time in Seattle was way too short and a re-visit is a MUST!

Update on Miles' hand:

We went to the Island Hand Therapy Clinic yesterday and they changed Miles bulky wrapped splint to a smaller removable one.  Good news!  He only had a plate and screws put in the center finger and nothing was done to the ring finger.  Therefore, he won't have to see a doctor in Paris (our next stop) to have any pins removed.  Seems like there weren't any pins used at all.  He is so happy to be able to scratch his hand (and wash it) and has to do lots of hand exercises in the coming weeks.  Whew!  He is really healing well.

Never a dull moment!

On Sat. the 13th we were going to take a ride in Miles’ colleague’s 6-person motorboat.  As Ben backed the boat into the water, the winch unexpectedly released and the boat slid on the trailer.  Miles instinctively tried to stop the boat from sliding and his left hand was hit repeatedly by the spinning handle of the winch. I was standing on the side and was concerned about the boat falling off the trailer and getting scraped on the ramp when Miles walked over with a very bloody hand, with fingers at odd angles and calmly said, “Oh, I think I busted my hand or at least a couple of fingers.”  Men. Sigh!  So instead of a boat trip, we ended up at the emergency room at a small hospital near the boat launch.

Ben before the fateful launch

After a lot of waiting around and x-rays, Miles had indeed broken the middle finger of his left hand in a couple of places and broke his ring finger, too, but not so badly. Fortunately, none of the finger joints were broken. They had to cut his wedding ring off since his hand started swelling and the ring was cutting off the circulation. (He says now, without his ring, he has a “get out of jail free” card.  Oh, he’s so funny.)  When the doctor said he’ll have to put a splint on the whole hand, Miles asked, “Well, if possible, can you only splint the 2 bad fingers, so I can type on the computer?”  The doctor laughed and said he understood academics who need to type, so he did this and told us to tell the surgeon at the main hospital (where Miles would have surgery) that it was the patient’s idea, not his. 

Miles giving me the finger

The surgery was yesterday, Wed. 17th, and all went well.  It was a 1 1/2 hour procedure and the doctor put a plate and pins in the middle finger and pinned his ring finger.  He's all bandaged up again and will have to go back to the hospital next week for follow up.  He'll go to physical therapy to get some exercises.  When we get to Paris, he'll have to have the pins removed.  We are both so grateful that the accident wasn't worse--Miles is a fast healer and it's not stopping us!

In between the accident and the surgery, with the doctor's permission, we went ahead with our plans to visit "up island" to Campbell River and Strathcona Provincial Park.  And what a trip we had!  We rented a car and headed north.

Day 1: We first stopped at Duncan famous for 40 totem poles spread out around the downtown area.  This is the world's largest urban collection--who knew?

The widest totem in Duncan

Thunderbird totem

Next stop was Chemainus where we saw murals on public buildings which depict historic scenes and also reproductions of paintings by BC artist Emily Carr.

 Chemainus mural

Rathtrevor Beach is special because it's sandy--lots of families enjoying the beach. We ate our picnic lunch while trying to escape the very friendly bees.

 Rathtrevor Beach

We then hiked to Englishman River Falls--just beautiful:

Englishman River Falls

Our next stop was at Coombs to see the goats on the grass covered roof atop the country market.  What a space-saver! (Be sure to click on the picture to see the goat)

Can you see the white goat on the left side of the roof?

What else is special about Coombs, you ask?  Well, LICORICE, of course.  Huh? There we were, just driving along when we came upon a huge sign beckoning us:

A quick licorice fix for the addicted

And the sign didn't lie.  This shop, owned by a Dutch family, has no less than 65 kinds of licorice (and all kinds of Dutch food items.)  What a treasure trove!  Miles was in licorice heaven!

Happy Boy!

Our next beach was a rocky one called Qualicum and what a view--so peaceful and serene.  When the tide goes out it exposes half a kilometer of tide pools.  Unfortunately, we missed the low tide.

Qualicum beach

Finally, we reached Campbell River, famous for salmon fishing.  We stayed in a motel over looking the river and had a delicious fish and chips dinner.  Ahhhhh......

Campbell river balcony

Day 2:  After checking into Strathcona Lodge (more about that later), we drove 45 minutes around Buttle Lake and hiked to Lower Myra Falls:

 

Buttle Lake

 

 

Lower Myra Falls

And then because we read the sign wrong (don't ask), instead of getting to Upper Myra Falls, we ended up hiking Phillips Ridge path which we hiked for 1 1/2 hours basically straight up through the forest--never got to the end (my legs and I thought is was endless).  Hard but beautiful!

Now a word about the Strathcona Lodge:  We were very lucky to get 1 night there because it's usually very busy.  This is mainly an outdoor education center where groups of school kids come to learn about rock climbing, kayaking, nature, etc.  We had a very special room with a lake view to die for--just see for yourself:

 View from our room at Strathcona Lodge

Hello from our balcony!

Sunset on Lake Buttle

And at night, what a view of the stars with absolutely no light pollution!  I never saw so many clusters in my life!  It was totally amazing and beautiful--too bad we couldn't capture it with our camera.  Miles even saw a shooting star (no pain med hallucination!)

Day 3:  From the lodge, we hiked the Beau Trail and reached high above the ridge:

Beauregard Lookout

After driving back towards Campbell River we went to Elk Falls Provincial Park and hiked to the falls and continued on the river walk:

Elk Falls Park

We also stopped at the Quinsam Fish Hatchery where we saw Pink salmon.  There are 5 kinds: The largest salmon is the Chinook (Spring) with the smallest being the Pink. Other species include the Coho (Silver), Chum and Sockeye.

 Pink salmon

Our last stop before returning to Victoria was at the Kinsol Trestle Bridge, the largest wooden trestle in the  Commonwealth and one of the highest railway trestles in the world. Very interesting!

 Kinsol Trestle Bridge

A real Canadian experience

I met up with Corinne, (thanks, Melanie!) who was nice enough to take me to lunch and then drive around Victoria showing me more of the amazing coastline.

I had heard of a particularly special lookout but instead of going up to the lookout we went down to the beach. That's when the fun started.......

We got down to a small cove and there was a woman restraining an injured seal pup.  Her male friend and another guy then came down the stairs and said they had been trying to phone someone (Coast Guard) to come and help.  The woman had a bite that was bleeding, she and her friend left, so the other man was left with the seal.  Neither Corinne nor I wanted to abandon him with the seal so Corinne got on the phone and called the SPCA who put her in touch with Marine Mammal Rescue.  We brought her dog kennel down from the car and put the seal in it--not so easy, because he was quite vicious.  The MMR told us we needed to get him to the float plane and fly him to Vancouver (no rescue services in Victoria--funding cuts!)  Fortunately another guy (visiting from Belgium) came along and the two men carried the kennel with the seal up to her car.  Corinne and I then drove to the float plane depot located at the Inner Harbor.

Injured seal pup

Her kennel is cloth and they wouldn't take a cloth kennel on the plane so they gave us a hard sided small kennel and told us to transfer the seal (remember he is vicious and quite aggressive).  We asked for gloves and all they had were thin latex gloves. Not a good solution!  Fortunately Corinne had some heavier gloves in the car and a pair of leather ones that I wore under the thin latex.  And..no one would help us because the staff at the float plane office are not allowed to handle live cargo!  Between us we directed him out of one kennel and into the other and it was quite a sight.  I was trying to push him one way and Corinne was between my legs moving the kennel in the seal's direction.  I wish someone would have been there to film it--the blink leading the blind.

After the successful transfer

Corinne checked in with MMR the next day and said they named the pup Rutherford and he was being cared for.  Talk about team work! 

Victoria & Sooke

What a pleasure exploring Victoria!  It is a very laid back, friendly city.  Even the taxi driver from Pakistan told us people here are chilled out.

Imagine this:  The public bus driver says "Thank you" when you come on board.  When you get off the bus, the rider calls out, "Thank you, Driver!"  You barely brush by someone and they say "Sorry!"  Our land lady leaves homemade scones on the counter and says, "Help yourself to all the herbs in our garden."  When you hear an emergency vehicle's siren, the drivers pull over WAY ahead of time on BOTH sides of the street.  What a wonderful, civilized place!

Ben, our host at University of Victoria, along with his wonderful wife Petra, had us over for dinner.  We loved hanging out with them and their adorable children.

Petra, Ben and their children Adam, Tommy and Ellie on a walk near their home in Gordon Head Cove  

I spent the first part of the week exploring neighborhood sites and getting set up.  Then on Thur.,  we had our first visitor, Pat Sinervo from Toronto.  We went on a few wonderful walks with Jan, a mutual contact who has been extremely kind and helpful.  Pat, Miles and I explored Chinatown and walked the West Song Walkway to Esquimalt.  It was a supremely beautiful day!  

 Pat and me in Chinatown

The view from West Song Walkway

Today, Miles and I rented a motorbike and rode along westward to Sooke.  We passed forests, inlets, boats, views--really spectacular.  The pictures say it all:

The view of Olympic National Park from Victoria

Our little scooter at Spirit Bay on the way to Sooke

A view of Whiffin Spit near Sooke

Oh, Canada!!!

September is here and we are finally off and running!

UBC campus lookout

 On the beach in Beautiful Vancouver

We spent a much-too-short 3 days in Vancouver seeing old friends (Ruth and David, Lotti and Shael, Morrie and Mary, and Gary) and visiting beloved places we hadn't seen since 1996-97 two sabbaticals ago.  (I have to admit, accompanying Miles on these sabbaticals has got to be the BEST GIG ever).

Ferry crossing between Vancouver and Victoria

After a smooth ferry sailing, we arrived in Victoria.  Ben, our generous and helpful host at the University of Victoria, met us at the dock and we immediately drove off to meet his family at the Saanich Fair.  This Labor Day tradition is much like an American county fair.  What I liked about it was the low-keyed pace and rural farm atmosphere.  There were many kinds of animals on display and various demonstrations like harness racing and milking.  The following is NOT for vegetarians:  we witnessed a 4-H auction of turkeys, steers and pigs.  Yep, these critters were sold off to the processing plants and would eventually end up on the dining room table.  Not easy for the kids who raise them!

 Steer sold 1200 lbs live makes a lot of steak!

We're staying in a charming studio apartment in a residential section of Victoria near a bus route.  The landlady owns a home with two rental units underneath.  The view is of her beautiful overgrown garden.  The unit is appointed with modern appliances and state-of-the-art kitchen tools. (I am lucky the landlord is a gourmet cook and furnished the kitchen accordingly!)

After 24 hours, I am the proud owner of a bus pass and have ventured out with Miles to the University (a 1/2 hour walk) and nearby grocery store.  I'm beginning to make my connections with friends of friends (Jan and Corinne).  Victoria is going to be very fun to explore and besides today's rain, I'm sure the weather will be mild.