To Sea Or Not To Sea?

Back in the West, we did our very best to proceed with the summer. Long days at work hardly reach the surface of my memory as I reflect on the weekends, the friends, the sun and the good times.


Good times!

One lovely, hot weekend I ended up getting rid of my Saturday shift (again! Bad me.) and we made some serious plans to jump on the ferry and head over to Victoria. We had been invited by our dear friend Jessica, who has a great little house out there, and we even convinced our other dear friend Haley to come along for the trip! (She has Saturdays off on a regular basis, after all) In the end, Chris got to spend the entire weekend with three awesome ladies. Who could ask for anything more? ;)


We’re on a boat!

The ferry ride was pretty gorgeous, as far as I remember. But then again, as long as it’s not storming out here, you’re guaranteed to have some really beautiful scenery. We arrived in Victoria in the late afternoon, and just as the boat was preparing to glide into port, we just… stopped. A few minutes later they announced that there was a power outage in the terminal and, since the lights weren’t working, we couldn’t dock the boat. Maybe it wasn’t the lights. Maybe it was lifts or pumps or whatever else ferry terminals need power for, but there we were, just floating! We could see the shore, we could see the terminal, in fact, we could probably see Jessica in her little Yaris in the parking lot if we looked close enough. Thinking back now, I suppose we were luckier than the people waiting inside the terminal waiting to board, because on the boat we did have power, and they even started handing out free coffee and tea all over the place to keep people from getting antsy. No problem for us, it’s the weekend! We graciously accepted our free coffee and just hung out on the top deck, watching the beautiful summer sunset, as most others were down below, probably sitting in their dark cars.


Haley kept busy in her usual way.
“Ack, don’t take my picture. I’m in my creative space!”

Eventually, just as the sun was slipping past the mountains in the distance and we were polishing off our free coffees, did the lights come on and we inched neatly into port. We found Jess no problem, patiently waiting for us at the entrance. A couple of hugs later, we and our bags were all tucked neatly into her car and we on our way into Victoria.


Welcome, friends!

It was a hot weekend. Well, “hot” in Vancovuer/Victoria doesn’t really mean what it means in most other parts of the world, but it was pretty much as hot as it ever gets here. So, let’s say 30 degrees. In my books, perfect.

We had a relaxing evening just hanging out at Jess’ place, digging into some cool watermelon and chatting away. The next morning, our adventures began. To fuel up for the day, we started with breakfast at my perennial Victoria favorite, Molé. Well, the coffee was great, as usual, but somehow our food took intolerably long to arrive (I mean, even long for the West Coast) and as good as the coffee is, it still doesn’t make you feel much better about sitting and waiting for 45 minutes in a gazillion-degree window booth.


Passing the time. Disclaimer: this is not Haley’s artwork!

One good thing that came out of our extended waiting was that we stumbled across my old friend Craig! He’s studying in Victoria and we’re a little out of touch, but when you’ve been roommates with someone, they always have a little place in your heart. I was mid-sentence when I suddenly saw him on the sidewalk, gasped and ran over to him at full speed. He was so surprised to see me too and he even joined us for a bit of coffee even though he’d just finished eating at the very same restaurant.

At some point after Craig had gone again, our food actually came, and for some reason I ordered a tofu scramble, because for some reason I wasn’t in the mood for eggs, and for some reason the tofu scramble tasted like salty breadcrumbs.


Nice, until it ends up in your mouth. Pflch.

Hoping I’d at least ingested enough protein to carry me into the afternoon, we proceeded to our next destination, Brentwood Bay. Who’s ready to kayak for the very first time??


We are!

Well, to be more specific, Chris and I were the first-timers. Jess and Haley, each having grown up in beautiful BC have, as a requisite it seems, have taken a turn in a kayak few times before. (Like growing up in Manitoba – who hasn’t been on a snowmobile?) Anyway, we still didn’t have all that much experience among us as we donned our life vests, grabbed our paddles and negotiated our bums into these precarious plastic vessels.

The plan was to go each in a separate kayak, but all they had left was two singles and a double. Who’ll go in the double? Anyone? No? Jess will. Ok, we need one person to go with Jess…

“… They say that a double is harder to steer…”
“… And they tip over easier…”
“… I’m afraid of water…”
“… My legs are too long…”
“… Jess how good are you, really?”

Eventually my brave and gracious heart gave in. I’ll go with you, Jess. I am, apparently, the least afraid of drowning.

As it turns out, Jess and I really cruised! Now, she and I are both pretty nervous drivers. We’re the type who grips the wheel, checks the wrong mirrors, forgets the parking brake, etc. Basically, we hand the keys to Chris whenever possible and just plain stay home in bad weather. Yes, we were hesitant to get in a kayak with each other. But on the water – look out! With me in back steering like a master and her in front, paddling as smooth as butter, we were all over the double kayak! We left Chris and Haley in our spray as they teetered out into the bay behind us.

It was incredibly sunny and hot and absolutely gorgeous. We splashed each other a lot (both accidentally and on purpose) and it was awesome. We saw a ton of beautiful jellyfish and driftwood and even survived the wake of a couple of boats. At one point we decided to go and take a breather on a beach we saw that had some huge arbutus trees.


The master paddler.


You see Haley? Pallets are good for more than just boxes of w-ECBF…



As we came up on the beach and struggled to un-wedge ourselves from the kayaks, we saw a lot of big (what we hoped were) animal bones in the shallow water and on the beach. The beach was a little dirty with cans and other things scattered about; baby stroller with seaweed all over it, old rusty boat, stuff like that. These things just randomly end up on natural, Vancouer Island beaches I guess... I’m just happy we didn’t come across a foot. Anyway we chilled a little while longer under the huge, beautiful trees, and then began to arrange ourselves back in the kayaks. As we were doing so, a couple guys with a cute little girl came down to the beach from the higher ground. We said hi. They said hi and looked at us funny, I assumed because we were wearing puffy red vests and carrying around plastic torpedoes… and then we were off.

Geez, I thought. I hope we weren’t on some private beach or something. And then I had a recollection of the map I’d looked at on the way into town.

Indian reserve.

Guys? I think we just kind of trespassed on an Indian reserve. Does anyone know if that’s against the law? Do they have the same laws in those places? Do they have laws? Well. If I had a dirty old beach on my land, and a couple of nice kayaking Indians wanted to rest there I wouldn't have a problem with it. So good. Moving right along.

After all our paddling and sun-exposure, when we got back to the house that evening we were ready to chow down. Jess had prepared some seriously yummy hamburger patties that morning and it was time to get ‘em on the grill! Apparently the secret to good hamburgers is Worcestershire sauce and honey! She even had a few salmon fillets (BC girl, represent). We rounded out the meal with some bread, salad and all sorts of other good things that barely fit on her little table. The evening consisted of us sprawling on the living room floor, nursing our tired arms and watching French movies on TV. Good times.

The next day once we were up and at’em again, we filled up on Chris’ famous banana oatmeal and made a beeline for the Royal BC museum. They had a special display on insects, spiders, bees, bugs, snakes, eggs and all those kinds of icky things that scientists like to put in creepy jars of liquid. It was super interesting. The rest of the museum had loads of Aboriginal art and other cultural things and, of course, the requisite fake village with the old mills, printing presses and haberdasheries. My favorite is always those old mini movie theatres that play Charlie Chaplin loops. Sitting down mid-museum is always a welcome thing. And you get to see a movie! Except for some reason in Ottawa’s mini museum theatre they play footage of the Winnipeg General Strike. Oh, Ottawa.

My apologies for the lack of photos from the museum. I guess we just didn't bother! Erin took a few good ones when she was there this summer, though, and here are a few from the museum's website:


Reminds me of Yamashina Heights... Chris, quick! Gimme your shoe!


Herpetology = frogs in creepy liquid. Mmmmm.




George Vancovuer's ship. A little more roomy than a Kayak!

Oh, and was it frigid in that museum! Here we were, all dressed down in our skimpy summer clothes thanks to the hot weather, and in the museum they’re just pumping the air as cold as can be. Those dried spiders gave me enough shivers, thank you very much. Luckily, though, we were able to leave the building and come back in with our tickets. So halfway through out tour we all decided on a lunch break outside. More specifically, we had all been quite looking forward to getting our hands on some of the mean fish and chips from Redfish Bluefish down by the water.

So. Good. Take that, Molé.

Eventually, we reluctantly left the beautiful harbour and, with fish-filled bellies, returned to the museum for one last floor. Before we knew it, we were were done with the museum and they were kicking us out of the gift shop for closing time.

That very same evening – thank the Lord for loooong summer days! – we returned to the house, packed everything back up and Jess whisked us off to the ferry terminal. It was, of course, yet another gorgeous ride back over to the mainland. We even got to see some sea otters playing in the sunset.


Looking slightly more relaxed (and kayak-experienced) than before, yes indeed.



Of course, the ferry terminal is still a significant distance from good old Main Street, and since our Vancouver friends aren't all quite as mobile as Jessica, we had to cram onto a bus from the terminal back to the city. The night was still pretty hot, but with the bus windows open to the sea air, it was actually a pretty decent ride.


Although... this girl may not be enjoying the bus ride so much. That or she didn’t like me taking the picture… I guess we’ll never know.

Good times, Jess! Thanks again for having us!
Me + you = kayaking again next year!