Tuesday, July 31, 2018

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



10 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots! Natasha and Albert are both adorable.

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  2. The scenic views along your hike, are amazing.Such wonderful beauty.That gentleman did a fabulous job of creating those sculptures. Thanks for sharing all this beauty.

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  3. Lewis's story is such an inspirational one. His driftwood sculptures are terribly clever and imaginative. I love hearing success stories like this one. Those scenic views where you hiked are amazing. Sounds like a fabulous trip you enjoyed.

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  4. What a fabulous weekend in such a beautiful place. The sculptures are inspiring x

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  5. What a beautiful place, Wendy. I just love the views, the gorgeous big trees, and how lovely are the bird sculptures. We really must go to Vancouver Island on one of our trips over there. And what a cute little dog that is too. x

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  6. Lovely place to visit. The sculptures just went up at the Esquimalt lagoon after we left at the beginning of this year, so we are looking forward to seeing them in person. We did see a couple of other sculptures. Fantastic work.

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  7. Wendy, the pictures are beautiful! WOW! What beautiful scenery. Oh I love the skim boards. My grandson loves them. I have never thought about a homemade one before. AWESOME! Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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  8. Wonderful photos, Wendy. East Sooke Park is a favourite of ours for hiking. I love the mixture of sea and forest.

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  9. Very wonderful for your brother to be able to share with you a bit of his life. The water looks so welcoming and I love the cool driftwood sculptures.

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  10. Oh, those birds are simply fantastic! I just love them :) Thank you for sharing your amazing photos with us. My, what a stunning place to visit.

    I hope you are well, dear friend. Wishing you a lovely August! Hugs!

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Thanks so much for leaving a comment, it's nice to know when you've stopped by! :)

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