It was our anniversary. After much deliberation we decided to make a short trip somewhere we'd never been, outside the good old USA. Our adventure took us to Sooke, BC on Vancouver Island. We live close enough that we've made several trips to Victoria, but never ventured beyond. It turns out Vancouver Island is a big, wild, outdoorsy place. Victoria is lovely, very touristy and fun for it's British vibe. It's a great place for urban hiking. The ferry runs from Victoria, so we spent some of our time there as well. Here's our weekend in pictures!
DAY ONE
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| A mostly gray ride over |
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Waiting for the best fish and chips ever at Red Fish Blue Fish
with my friend Jonathon Livingston |
DAY TWO
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| At a scenic view on our drive up the coast to the beaches |
We hiked to several beaches along the Juan De Fuca Marine Trail for a day's total of a hilly 11 miles. An over-sized soaking bath tub was perfect at the end.
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| On the trail |
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| A view on Botanical Beach |
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| Tide pool life |
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| Tide pools abound on Botanical Beach |
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| I caught some waves, with the camera |
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| Crane at the beach |
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| This beach is popular with surfers |
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To get there and back I had to overcome my fear of suspension bridges
(and heights) |
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| Yikes! |
DAY THREE
This was our actual anniversary, 34 years! The day found us trail weary and limited by time. We had to get in line for the ferry in Victoria by 1:30 PM, so we got going (slowly) and spent a short day of urban hiking in Victoria. We ate brunch at an old favorite, in the garden room of Swans Brewpub. No photos, as we left the card in the tablet the night before and didn't realize it.
We had a lovely ride back to the U.S. Then we began our search for someplace open to eat one last celebratory meal. Somehow we ended up in the quaint town of Sequim (pronounced "skwim") at Blondie's Plate.
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| Yummy local steamer clams |
The entire meal was truly delightful and was topped off with complimentary truffles for our special day!
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| Honeymoon 1980 |
34 years ago if you had said I would be eating tapas in Sequim and photographing the food and Moscow mule on my phone before blogging and facebooking it for everyone to see I would have said you were mad!
On the other hand, if you had told me I'd be doing that or anything for that matter, with my best friend, the guy I married 34 years ago, that, my friend, I knew.
