I love Cheeeese! we went to a cheese farm today.

Little guy in a giant wooden shoe outside the Dutch Grocer

The evil waves will be defeated by Weenie the Brave

Trying to catch lunch at Dinghy Dong Dock Pub

Chowing on the chowder!

Kids loved the bunnies at the Cheeseworks.

Making a doomed sand castle as the tide is coming in

So we are going to combine yesterday and today into one epic, monstrous post! And as well we are going to have a contest, details at the end of the post.

Yesterday we booked it out of Sooke bright and early and headed back to Nanaimo. Along the way we stopped at a little art gallery just off the highway.

During our trip our oldest has been taking an interest in totem poles, as we have come across a lot of amazing ones on the Island. And in Sooke she found a piece of drift wood and said she was going to make a totem pole, she used her markers and made a cute little totem pole of her own.

So Mom and her went into the little art gallery and came out with a nice little replica totem pole for her to keep in her room.

By the time we got to Nanaimo it was lunch time, so we hopped on the ferry and went to Protection Island in the Nanaimo harbour for lunch at Dinghy Dock Pub. It is the only restaurant on the island and it is at the end of the dock that the ferry uses, so the kids loved that they ate lunch at a floating restaurant, and they serve pretty good meals too. Mom had a tuna sandwich and Dad had to try their clam chowder and then ate a honey ginger glazed salmon salad with a wasabi dressing!!  

A really neat thing for the kids is that they have a place outside where we sat where the kids could fish. They had little fishing poles and line with corn on the end. Little fish kept coming by and nibbling but no one took the bait and was caught. But it did not stop the kids from trying and trying and trying and trying.

We did not get back to our home base in Nanaimo until late afternoon so Mom ran out for some groceries while the kids played and relaxed for the rest of the day.

And of course Mom and Dad rocked the tea on the deck in the evening relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

Today, we had a much busier day because we had no travelling to accomplish. We started out by heading to Qualicum and checked out their beach. Because the tide was just about all the way back in the kids played in the sand and were constantly being pushed back closer to land every few minutes as the ocean kept washing their shoes away from the dry spot they had placed them.

We think the little guy was still choked about getting thrashed in Tofino because he had a wooden sword and was very angry at each wave as it crawled up the beach at him, and it ended in tears when the ocean first took the kids shoes from an earlier dry spot and slowly washed them about.

After we were evicted from the beach by the water the kids voted and we decided to go to Parksville and play at their playground and spray park.

On our way there we came across a sign that read,

"Moonberry Winery and Little Qualicum Cheeseworks"

So we of course veered off the highway and searched for this amazing combination of a place. What we found was perfect! It was a dairy farm that produced cheese and also made wine, AND they also had a cool self guided tour for kids that was a scavenger hunt taking us all around the farm to get different stamps for each clue. The kids played with a few rabbits they had, they saw some baby dairy cows, which caused the youngest to shout "Be-be Kow! Be-be kow!", over and over again for a good 10 minutes, even after we left the cows.

We were able to see the barn where they milk the cows and check out the horses they have on hand for trail rides, all in all a great stop.

Oh, and we ate cheese! The kids were sooo excited to be at cheese farm because they could then tell a friend of theirs, who LOVES cheese, that they were at a cheese farm.

So we left the Cheeseworks with a bottle of wine and some cheese and finally found ourselves at the playground and spray park in Parksville.

2 hours later we packed up and drove off with a van full or rosy cheeked kids, and stopped again at that nice little restaurant Avo's Eatery in Parksville. Mom had the Santa Fe wrap with broccoli sprouts and carmelized onions and Dad had an avocado, tomato, and Asian salad on noodles. We both agreed that Mom's was the best!

On our way back to Nanaimo we were again sidetracked!

A sign that read,

"70 flavours of Licorice" caught our eyes. Sooo we pulled off the highway again and found a neat little Dutch grocery that indeed had at least 70 different flavours of licorice. The kids dug through the bulk bins and selected quite the assortment of licorice tp give Grandpa once we get home. And the nice lady who owned the store gave the kids a bag of chocolate soccer balls and Dad a dried farmers sausage.

The kids loved the chocolate but the large farmers sausage made Dad's stomach feel - bletch!

Once finally home we ate a buffet of random foods we had on hand, had a quick evening dip in the hot tub and then bath and off to bed with the lot of them.

Tomorrow we leave the Island, which will be a sad moment. We had a hell of a good time here and I think we would all galdly spend another couple weeks checking out what it has to offer.  

But it works out well for us because tomorrow we are going to meet up with someone in the family who the kids adore and have a super fun time in Vancouver at an amusement park.

Thanks for a good time Vancouver Island, stay classy!

Now for the CONTEST!!!!

We have so far taken a lot of pictures on vacation, and more than a few of them are completely ridiculous! So we thought it would be fun to have a caption contest.

Take a look at the picture below and in the comments section below write your best caption for the picture. I don't think there will be a prize but we can all enjoy the stupid and silly captions that everyone comes up with.

What's your best caption for this picture?

Eating what we 'catch'

   A wee breaking of our fast on the front porch in Sooke.

  Morning walk on Wiffin Spit in Sooke. Wiffin Spit from our pilotless drone that came with our new Nikon D3200. We are that dark spot beside that light area. 

Our first pothole we splashed in, nice and shallow here.

A little dip in the second pothole we visited. Being submerged in the icy water was quite the shock to the human body!

Our youngest did not want to part with his egg that he picked.

After dropping and cracking his precious egg he was more than happy to eat it!

Our middle child prepared with the lid in case the crab escaped the transfer.

Our first morning in the cabin in Sooke was pretty decent, except for the early birds wanting their worms. But it seems that when in a cabin or camping early mornings are a guaranteed occurrence.

We started off with pancakes, waffles and toast and some strong (new coffee makers are always fun to learn) and finished off on the front porch planning our day.

We first headed off to the natural peninsula in the Sooke Inlet called Wiffin Spit, cue the wild crazy laughter from our oldest boy. It is a full kilometer long and almost stretches across the whole opening of the inlet. We were advised that is was a good spot to see sea otters, sea lions, and seals.

After a good hike out on Wiffin Spit, and disturbing many early morning walkers peaceful stroll, we headed back with nothing to be seen.

Until we spied two sea otters diving and swimming near the shore! The kids were excited and watched them for a good 53 seconds and were then off to the Boardwalk down the coast a bit.

The board walk was a cool little walk down a bunch of stairs and then along the coast for a couple hundred yards. It was a great view of the inlet and is supposed to be a great place to watch whales that happen by the area, no sea animals for us though.  We dis meet a nice boxer named Lola though.  She was rescued by the "Without Borders Boxer Rescue" and taken in by this super nice family when she was only a pup.

Once we made it back to the van we were off to the destination that everyone was excited to see...the Meadery!!!

I think it is called a meadery?

There is a little farm outside of Sooke that is a honey farm and a meadery (they make their own mead!) called the Tugwell Creek Farm and Meadery. After our trek down the coastline we found out that meaderies are closed on Tuesdays. Crap.

So we went back to the cabin to drown our sorrows in lunch, and a nap for the wee one.

After the rest we were off to what the locals called the Potholes, well I gues the government calls them the potholes too because it is called the Sooke Potholes Regional Park. But this is a place along the Sooke river where over many years the water has worn away the rock to form these little pools along the bank that are great for swimming.

So we vanned it up to the park and hiked down to two of the different pools. They we great!

The water was cold, clean, and clear. It was a popular place for people to hop in a tube and float around, swim the little pools (the first one was about 100 feet wide and in the middle we couldn't see the bottom), or to bask on the pebbly beaches.

It was a great afternoon in the sun. And we are amazed at how many different places to swim we have found that have been absolutely different than each other.

It was supper time by the time we left the potholes (which by the way look absolutly nothing like a pothole.) and so we were going ot stop for some fresh prawns at one place and some lettuce at another.

At the first stop we bought some prawns but Dad, in his wisdom, also bought a live 2 lbs Dungeness Crab to boil and eat.

At the second stop we bought some mixed fresh greens and jam and in talking to the owners Ellen and Dick ended up spending an hour and a half touring their farm. It turns out Ellen is from Saskatchewan and has been turning her little plot into her little prairie oasis.

She has a great garden (which she plants wheat and oats!), a few sheep, some goats (which they milk and make cheese out of), a few geese and ducks, a dwindling flock of chickens (a pesky racoon has been taking the hens), and a great little orchard of fruit and nut trees!

This was an absolute fantastic evening! The kids got to pick eggs from the coop, eat mulberries and thimble berries, feed the goats, see all the trees (they spun around the mulberry bush, and picked artichokes from their garden.

Ellen and Dick, or Grandpa Dick and Grandma Ellen as they introduced themselves to the kids, were amazing, and sweet to the kids. Ellen showed everything to the kids and did not just talk to the adults and even picked up our youngest and excitedly walked him to the almond tree they had.

If you are even in Sooke keep your eyes open for a little sign that mentions fresh veggies and baking, Ellen and Dick are busy people (their veggie and baking stand in the yard is a self serve and pay deal with a slotted tin to put your money in) so hopefully you get the opportunity to meet them!

We wantd the kids to eat the eggs they had gathered so we planned on making some scrambled eggs with supper, except our little guy had different ideas. He did not want to part with his egg. He carried it back to the cabin and would not hand it over. But he ended up cracking it pretty good when he was playing with it and toy car he had. Then he was ready for the circle of life to take place, once he realized that the egg that he had gathered from the hen house was nothing but...an egg.

Supper was a buffet of sandwiches, salad, scrambled eggs, veggies, crab legs (receipe below), prawns, hot dogs, and yogurt tubes. We ended the evening with a marshmallow roast over a little fire and plopped the kids to bed before 9:00 pm.

We did end up finding some of the local mead at a pub in town, so Dad enjoyed a glass of honey mead and Mom a cup of tea.

Tomorrow we are back to Nanaimo for two nights then homeward bound.

Dad's Not Famous Crab recipe

ingredients

1 -2 lbs dungeness crab - as live as possible

1 big pot

lots of water

1 stove

First you put lots of water in the big pot. Then you put them both on the stove and boil.

Once the lots of water is boiling, place the as live as possible crab in the water, bottom down, and slam lid on pot as fast as possible so you don't have to see the angry crab boil.

After 20 minutes remove cooked crab and consume!

Feeding Wild Seals and Other Shenanigans

This was the best part!

Sharing at the Soda Shoppe in Victoria

Traditional banana split from the soda shoppe in Victoria Someday we will see the end of the highway!Just in the woods near SookeWild harbour seals in VictoriaThe Forest House in Sooke

We left Nanaimo early and headed out to Victoria and then Sooke.  After a very disappointing visit to the "Undersea Gardens" (seriously, just because you can see fish in a tank does not mean you are an undersea garden and should charge a family $40 to see it), we walked around downtown Victoria. 

It was pretty hot and sunny so we found a super neat restaurant called "The Soda Shoppe".  Dad had a pineapple fizzy and then we ordered a traditional banana split.  The kids had only ever seen a soda shoppe in cartoons so they loved sitting on the stools and looking out the windows while enjoying some ice cream.

Then we found "Mile 0" of the trans-Canada highway.  Mom loved having pictures taken there...someday we will have our pictures taken at the end of the trans-Canada highway. We also showed them the Terry Fox statue at Mile 0, our oldest had learnt about him in school so she thought it was neat to see where he had been.

The best find of the day was HARBOUR SEALS... real wild ones! 

We heard from a local fellow that there were a few seals that hung out in the Oak Bay Marina.  We walked around the dock and found them right away.  For $1.99 the marina shop will sell you a bag of frozen, dead, cut in half fish to feed to the seals. 

The kids loved the fact that the fish were frozen, dead AND cut in half. We didn't get it but to each their own.

OMG!  So much fun!  Our middle child didn't want to touch the fish, so he just dumped his entire bag into the water and the seals went nuts. They swam around the dock and nabbed the fish every time we threw some.

One seal even floated there and waited to have the fish thrown in his mouth, if you waited to long he would splash you with his flipper. The kids loved watching and feeding seals!

The dumb lady who dropped her sun glasses in the harbour while watching the seals was almost as entertaining. She freaked out when they fell and then stomped around trying to figure out how to get them out...they were 30 feet down. he he he!

Everyone then rested, except for Dad who had to drive, as we went to our cabin in Sooke.  The cabin was nestled in the forest.  Even though it was hot and sunny our cabin 60 feet off thehighway was cool and refreshing.  A nice dog named Tobi met us there and even showed us around the inside of our cabin.

We had supper at a local favourite spot called, "Stickelback".  We sat overlooking the water and watched a game of kayak ball.  Our youngest got so excited when they scored a basket though that he would cheer and clap (which normally would be alright, but it was a more upscale restaurant and the cheering and clapping didn't really fit in). 

We had a great seafood supper...well mom (pesto mushroom crusted halibut) and dad (salmon and sun dried tomato salsa) did...the kids had spaghetti (noodle) and meatballs (balls of meat) and chicken fingers, all of which were served in cardboard pirate ships, and came with ice cream.

Back at the cabin we lit the fireplace and cuddled up in blankets...one of the best things about winter...but it is summer, so it is a real treat. The temperature must have dropped to high single digits because Mom and Dad saw their breath just before bed time.

The Forest Cabin

Room 5/5 (The cabin interior was fabulous! It had two big super comfy beds, one in a loft, a full bathroom, kitchen, living room, front porch, and back patio. For the cost of a regular hotel room we had a great cabin with a fire pit and BBQ. Even though it was a cabin it was super super clean! The fridge was clean and did not smell bad at all. The cabin even receives our patented 'No Spider' award.) 

Pool 0/5 (...There wasn't one. It had a shower and tub but no other H2O options.)

Location 3/5 (It was close to Victoria, maybe 20 minutes away, and only 3 minutes from Sooke. It was just off the highway and still very secluded.)

Cabin 5/5 (We planned on staying there from the beginning but once we were there we realized how amazing it was to have a little break from the regular hotels. Being fully stocked we cooked full meals and had the little extra room and outdoor space to spread out a bit. We would recommend it to anyone.)

A racoon ass kicking and lots of crabs

Our day started off early (as usual) so we went to hang out on the deck. 

every kids dream, a canon ride!

playing at the park on the harbour in Nanaimo

just starting our trek to the ocean's edge

In the shallow tide pools the water was nice and warm.

having a blast in the water

The family enjoying supper at a local joint just after leaving the beach

We got quite the treat while eating pancakes.  2 baby deer and 3 adult deer were playing in the yard, they were only a few metres away from us, but on the other side of the fence (this fence offers little to no protection we learned as this evening we saw one jump the fence quite easily).  Then Mr. Raccoon came back and put on a little show for the kids climbing trees.

We decided to start the day and hit downtown Nanaimo today and check out the harbour.  Seeing all of the boats was very cool.  It is so different for the kids.  They wanted to explore everything.  We grabbed lattes and walked the docks and enjoyed the dragon boat races that were taking place in the harbour.  There was a massive playground that was neat and the kids played their hearts out all morning. 

By 11:00 am they were exhausted.

We planned it out so that we went to Parksville when the tide was out.  The tidal pools were unbelievable!

They freaked the kids out though. First they took off full tilt into the first one and were shocked to see tiny little crabs running around, clams and sand dollars (none of which they have ever seen up close before).  Then they all wanted to be carried, yeah right! 

It took awhile for them to realize there was nothing to be afraid of, then they were ready to explore.  They collected a whole bucket of neat shells and helped save some sand dollars by putting them back into the water. We walked close to 300 yards through the tide pools and sand until they were able to swim in the ocean. We ended up hanging out on an island of sand right at the oceans edge and created worm habitats as we dug in the sand. We realized it was time to walk back to land once water began to creep up and was going to flood our bag and blanket in a few minutes time.

The kids were amazed to see the tide come back in!

Not only was the beach amazing at Parksville, but they had an unbelievable playground and spray park. The kids didn't want to leave. We spent so much time playing there that the kids were starving and ready for supper. Even though we had planned on BBQing, we instead stopped at a very neat restaurant that we stumbled upon by accident. Avos was the name, and avocados was its' game.

We had fresh chips and salsa sitting out on the patio. Our oldest son ate his weight in prawns. The kid meals were awesome and came with fruit and veggies and dip and juice.  The kids had grilled cheese and chicken quesadillas.  Mom and Dad shared a Baha salad with avocados, beans and sprouts and fish tacos with mexican rice and refried beans.  They were amazing!!!

The other amazing thing today is that it is Mom and Dad's 11th anniversary! It was a great way to spend a day like today, we relaxed, we played, and we had a great time together.

And it was as if the racoons in the backyard this evening knew that today was a special day, because they put on a 3 minute show as 2 racoons proceeded to kick the ever loving s*** out of a third racoon who had wandered by.

Gotta love what vacations throw at you.

only 1 kid threw up

A standard Ogopogo picture is needed.

Ferry ride to the IslandOur oldest enjoying Little Qualicum Falls. 

Our first foray onto the beach

Kids having fun, extreme insanity building....

All living s*** opens up and our oldest fella regresses 50,000 years!

Now we didn`t forget  to post about our day yesterday, we just wish we could forget about it.

We headed out of Kelowna early and hit the road for Vancouver.  It was a long drive for the kids, which made it a long drive for us! 

We checked into our hotel in North Vancouver.  It was a bit of a dive (so we al together left it off the hotel ratings for this summer), but supposively close to all of the attractions and close to the Ferry.  We dropped off our stuff and took off for the 5 minute drive to the Aquarium. 

But after 40 minutes of waiting to drive  the 3 blocks onto the bridge that would take us close to the Aquarium we decided it was best to go back to the hotel. I guess everyone in Vancouver also wanted to take the bridge to Stanley Park. The 1 km drive back took another 35 minutes.  We learned our lesson, driving in Vancouver is not the same as driving at home. The kids loved the pool though and didn`t want to get out, even for supper.

So we learned another lesson, book the ferry earlier than a day in advance.  When we went to book the Ferry over to Nanaimo our only options left were 6:20 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. 

6:20 a.m. it was! 

We packed up the night before and set the alarm for 4:15 a.m.  The kids loved the Ferry though.  Mom and Dad wanted to stay out on the outer deck, but the kids were more comfy in the big chairs on the inside of the boat.  We had brought breakfast with us, which was smart.

And they served delicious hot coffee.....so hot and delicious.

We got off of the Ferry at 8 a.m. and saw that Tofino was only 200 + km away so we made the silly decision to head to Tofino.  It took 4 hours to drive!!! 

We are still glad we went though.

The road to Tofino can be summed up by the warning signs of: Caution:  Narrow Winding Road.  Twisting and turning through the most beautiful forest ever! The trees were huge and we even saw 2 black bears.  We made a couple of stops on the trip, one to Little Qualicum Falls which was a super great little hike (lots of stairs, but easy terrain) and the goats on the roof in Coombs.  What a cool gimmick the goats are. 

The store is super neat and has lots of stuff and really reasonable rates.  The kids found wooden pop guns...you can imagine how long they lasted in the van before we had to threaten to take them away.  The bakery was also super neat and they had lots of food and garden stuff.  Dad ended up buying salmon jerky, home made granola bars, and a spinach brioche, so damn yummy!!!

Very fun stop! Worth it for sure for a few groceries or a lunch stop.

After we finally reached Tofino, but not before someone couldn`t hold his pre-lunch down going around all the little twists and turns in the road, the drive seemed worth it. 

Even with the sweet stick of barf mostly aired out of the van we stopped at the Tacofino stand for lunch, someone told us it was their choice for best fish tacos.

Ding Ding!!!

We ordered 1 fish taco, 1 bean taco, 3 cheese gringas (quesadillas), 1 mango-coconut smoothie, 1 mint-lime freshie, and 1 lemon-ginger freshie. It was amazing! The fish taco was hands down the best thing we have had in the fresh locally made food category. The little Tacofino truck pumped out a lot of tacos but they were lined up down the parking lot. We waited 30 minutes for our order, and they were moving to get everything out!

After lunch our little prairie children went nuts in the ocean.  Our youngest spent the entire time running out to the waters edge and then running away as the waves came.  He did this for a long time until he tripped and a wave caught up to him.  He had sand everywhere.  After that he yelled `bad water`and threw sand at the waves.  The other 2 ran and screamed and giggled.  They loved everything about it, the waves, the sand, the shells.  The were filthy and loving it!

It was great to see them experience something new and so different to what they have even done. There is something magical about waves and surf.

The drive back was long...but we did it!  We made it back to Nanaimo and went to a friends place to stay.  The graciously let us stay in their new house before they even move in.  It is on the side of a mountain overlooking the harbour!  It is insanely cool.  Tonight from the hot tub on their deck we saw a baby deer and a racoon.

Today was long but amazing!!!!