Visiting Vancouver Island ... East Sooke Park & Witty's Lagoon

Upon arriving at my brother's house, we were welcomed by his sweet little wire-haired Dachshund, Natasha. She took a while to warm up to us, but by the end of our visit she was quite friendly. This little dog was a real trooper and followed us along trails that were a bit tricky for those short legs, but she managed very well.

And my brother. He moved to Victoria about 1991 after graduating from university here in Ontario. He now runs his own architect firm, and was proud to show us around his new office. I really liked how the office was decorated with the low wood slat ceilings and "barn" style doors over the boardroom. He made the live-edge table (behind him in the boardroom) himself! Such a cool idea for a boardroom table.

Our first weekend on Vancouver Island, we quickly set off for a hike along East Sooke Park. Beautiful views, and a wonderful trail! 

My nephews have two dogs, one lives with their mom, but he was with us that first weekend. "Albert" is his name, and he's kind of nutty, but the boys love him.

Another day we headed down to Witty's Lagoon where the boys took their homemade skim boards to skim across the shallow water along the edge of the beach. 

"See! It's easy!!"

On the way home, we stopped to have a look at some sculptures a local man, Paul Lewis, had put together from driftwood on the beach. They were all sculptures of birds, and they looked great in this natural setting. We read an article about the man who created them in the local paper (you can read another article here). He apparently had had a rough time earlier in his life with a criminal record and jail time. He wanted to turn his life around and started to work on these sculptures as part of his new life. There were plenty of people stopping to admire the birds.

And that was our first weekend with my brother's family. I'll share more of our adventures in another post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Visiting Vancouver Island ... Chemainus

At the end of May, my husband and I took a trip out west to visit my brother and his two teenage sons. We haven't been out west for fourteen years now, as my brother (who is a very good brother) would always do the travelling and visit us here in Ontario. But it was definitely time for our overdue visit. We were there for a week, and did a bit of touring around. I tried to condense my trip into one post, but there were too many photos to share, so I'm breaking it down into bits :)

We rented a car for the week and one day was spent driving up the Malahat to the quaint town of Chemainus.  The Malahat is a beautiful island highway with several spots to pull over and admire the spectacular view.

The town of Chemainus is famous for their painted murals. When the lumber industry was threatened  here years ago, putting many of the residents out of work, the residents came up with a plan to paint murals on the sides of buildings to attract tourists into their town. For the most part the murals depict the town's history, and they are quite amazing. Over the years, other themes seem to have been adopted. I do have a book somewhere in the house about Chemainus and the background of the murals, but here I will just share the murals with you. You may follow this link to read more on the history of the town.

  

 

After viewing many of the murals (and the above sampling is not all the murals!), we wandered around town a bit. People here have taken great pride in their little cottages, and their gardens are beautiful! 

I honestly think I could happily live in this little town by the sea and forests.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy