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!

Scare the Kids

Whitewood Beach

Sundaes on the Deck

Let's go back to Sunday now shall we...

It was super nice out in Nanaimo, so we decided to head to the beach.  There is a lake just within Nanaimo called 'Westwood Lake'.  It was so pretty with huge trees, you would never know you were in a city.  There were lifeguards on duty and a nice area roped off for swimming. the beach was nice as well with lots of sand, and the total beach was probably 100 yards along the shore.  The water was quite cold, yikes, but we had fun. Our oldest even swam out ot the anchored raft with Dad, even though she "...couldn't see the bottom of the lake!", she said. 

Our youngest was super exhausted afterwards so Dad took the older 2 to "Brave" the new Disney movie. Sounded like a great thing to do...except for the massive scary bear in the movie that freaked them out!

It wouldn't have freaked them out as badly if they hadn't seen bears in the wild a couple days earlier. The evil bear followed them to Sooke a few days later where we learnt "...there are more bears here than anywhere else in BC."

Terrifying bear movie while in bear country....Good one Dad!

We cooked a super BBQ supper of chicken, hot dogs, asparagus, corn on the cob, and then made sundaes with homemade chocolate sauce, gummy bears and reeses pieces for dessert. 

We tucked the kids in early to bed so that we would be ready for Victoria and Sooke in the morning!

......

Then with everyone asleep Mom and Dad enjoyed some wine we had found on our way through Kelowna. If we both loved wine, instead of just liking it, we would have had more than the one bottle, because it was a great evening to sit on the deck and watch the ferry do it's thing in the Nanaimo harbour.

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!!!!

Canmore, Giant Cedar, a drive and then Revelstoke!

So our morning in Canmore began very early, our middle kid was awake at 5:00! We tried to convince him to go go back to bed because it was waaaay to early for a hotel. Around 5:30 Dad got up with him and they went outside to not wake up everyone else. When we returned a few minutes later the young one was up!

So the three walk to Tim Hortons for a muffin and a coffee.

We had many other highlights for the day.

We left Canmore and headed towards Revelstoke. It was a slightly rainy day so the drive was a wet, lush and green one. We stopped at a few small streams and gathered some rocks and threw some rocks.

And we came across Giant Cedar.....the coolest damn place ever!! It was just off highway #1 but it was the farthest thing from pavement and RVs. It was a fantastic rain forest walk along a boardwalk. It was a lot of stairs that took you up the mountain a few hundred yards to an amazing cedar forest. The kids were good and enjoyed the walk and the old fallen trees, but it would be easy to lose their intest if you don't keep them engaged in the walk.

Giant Cedar was Dads highlight so far!

We also did a a forest walk to a 'rock garden', which was about 20 minutes long. It was on a a rougher path than Giant Cedar but the kids liked being able to walk and climb through the forest more. The rock garden was actually a deposit of old massive boulders that were covered in moms and lichen. Super fun as well, a lot more interactive and active.

Then it was in the Revelstoke after braving the last day of the long weekend traffic. It was raining and grey so we did not get to walk and see much of Revelstoke. But we did enjoy the Best Western Wayside Inn!!!

It was very new and had some very cool features that sets it off from others. It had a 6:00 am continental breakfast (great for early risers).

It also had an outside heated pool, outside warmer pool and an outside hot tub. Which was amazing because it was Gary and raining outside. But the best part of the hotel were the facilities. The pool change rooms were stellar, the breakfast area was clean, spacious, and the room was very nice and modern.

One thing lacking in town may have been the restaurants, though we ended up finding Emos pizza.....yes Emos. And to our dismay it was not staffed with long banged, pale, pantera shirt wearing teens. The food and service was very good though.

Busy day with a tough drive but a great end to the day sitting in the hot tub in the rain.

The hotel rates like this:

Best Western Wayside Inn

Room 5/5 (it was a good size and had amazing beds!)

Pool 4/5 (the pools were great, very clean and maintained. Only tick against it was no waterslide, but it is nice to sometimes not have a waterslide.)

Location 3/5 (it was just inside town so it was easy to find, but it was not really close to anything that we could walk to.)

Hotel 5/5 (a great place, the plaque said it was the #6 Best Western in Canada, and we agree!)

Canada's Birthday

Mom getting her feet wet in a cold mountian stream

The kids enjoying the refreshing splash in the mountian strem.

Our oldest boy looking out of the gondola in Banff.

The kids waiting for a Parisian Waffle in Canmore

A little cotton candy at the Canada Day celebration in Canmore.

A little Boston Pizza art to share with the world.

The view from our hotel balcony.

The view on our hotel balcony as we read books before bed.

Today started with a bang. Everyone was awake by 5:30....I guess that is the down fall of being asleep by 7:00 the night before. Instead of waiting 3.5 hours till the pool opened the family decided to get going to check out the mountains and get a start to our day.

We were exploring kananaskis village by 7:00 am. And on our way back to Highway 1 we came across a waterfall at the side of the road. It was awesome to see the kids put their feet in the water and try to come up with ideas as to why the water was so damn cold.

We also stopped the at a Texas gate and let the kids loose at figuring its' purpose. It took them a few minutes and some wild ideas like " a place where animals can hide under and get away from the cars." or "this is so I can balance on these.", and our middle child began to tightrope walk across the gate.

Then it was on to Banff and the sulphur mountain gondola. When we pulled in it was getting a bit busy, but we had almost no wait at the bottom and the top to get on the gondola. Both of us, Mom and Dad, were a bit worried as we started off but all the kids did great! Our middle one was crazy excited and was yelling and twitchy eyes. We were not the most prepared for the fact that the weather was going to be colder up top, we forgot our youngest one's hoodie. And he just kept saying "burrrr, cold. Burrrr, cold."

Then it was off to Canmore for some Canada Day celebrations. We walked around town, ate ice cream, ate cotton candy, ate Parisian waffles...and even ate birthday cake. The town was alright too. Then believe or not we even ate lunch.

Then we checked into the Best Western in Canmore and proceeded to go straight to the pool.

Meh.

The pool was alright, would be even better if the kids were a few years older. The was no shallow end and the waterslide launched the kids out at Mach 2. But the best part of the hotel was the balcony. We read books on it, we ate snacks on it, and at 10:30 we even were able to watch the fireworks. It was a great end to the day.

Except we then watched some bad rom com on cable way to late and we are currently regretting we stayed up for it.

Overall the hotel rates:

Best Western in Canmore

Room 3/5 (clean and roomy, but a bit old and dated)

Pool 4/5 (it is still. A good pool, slide and hot tub. But not quite suited to younger kids)

Location 5/5 (on the main drag in town and nice and close to restaurants and grocery stores)

Hotel 3/5 (we would stay here again but would likely look somewhere else next time for a place with a cool pool)

Tomorrow we are off to Big Cedar and Revelstoke.