Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A Little Island Time

ES and I recently headed up to British Columbia, namely the Gulf Islands for some much needed R&R.

We boarded the ferry at Tswwassan, BC on a warm sunny afternoon.  The 2+ hr ferry ride was quite scenic, going across the Georgia and up through the Haro Straights to Salt Spring Island.

Once we got to the island, we headed for Ganges (main town) and their weekly Farmer's Market.  Many vendors.  Mostly crafts, but some actual farmers.  ES and I found a painter that we really liked and bought a few of her prints.

The Ganges, Salt Spring Island Farmers Market

We toured the rest of the island, going to the highest peak (Mount Maxwell) and walked about Ganges Harbor.




















Ganges Harbor























Mount Maxwell

The next day we found a local farm was having a Lavender Festival, complete with demos, foods, and tarot card readings.  The day started out a little gray and never really did improve, making it the only day on our trip where the weather was rather blah.  We spent several hours wandering among the flowers, learning how to propogate our lavender (we're going to try and make cuttings from ours in the garden) and about the 3 basic varieties in the states - English, French, and Spanish.  French is my favorite, but I like the "butterfly" like flowers on the Spanish variety.

























Lavender Festival on Salt Spring Island

One our final night on Salt Spring, we decided to try a local favorite (and written up in Fodors, Wine Spectator, ect to name a few).  It was called House Piccolo.  It was amazing.   The first course (salad) had an amazing vinagrette (house speciality) that I'd love the recipe for, but they declined to share.  We next had crab cakes...amazing.  If I could have picked up the plate and licked the sauce (and wouldn't think ES would die from shame), I would have.  So good.  I had a seafood risotto and ES had salmon.  Both were amazing.  Dessert was a chocolate terrine for ES and a crepe with lingonberry sauce.   One of the best meals I've had for a really long time.  Made up for the crummy food (withholding names to protect the guilty....) we'd had to date on the island.  We were bemused by the $590 bottle of wine on the menu.  Our waiter called it "the lottery winner bottle."  We agreed.  

































Dinner at House Piccolo

The next day we hopped about the ferry again and headed to Pender Island.  We took what we called a "peanut ferry."  It was very, very small.






















Ferry to Pender Island

Pender Island was actually 2 islands, cut back in the 1920's by a barge to make a canal down the narrowest portion of the island.  The two smaller are joined by a 1 lane bridge.  South Pender was much more uninhabited.  We visited the farthest point south of the island (Gowlland Point) and headed to a local park to hike through the woods (Enchanted Forest Park).  We also visited the Mortimer Spit, close to the 1 lane bridge separating the islands before we headed back across the bridge and explored North Pender.























Gowlland Point























Enchanted Forest Park


























Mortimer Spit and the 1-Lane Bridge

The sun came out after lunch and we took the opportunity to head to the 1 National Park on the island - at Roe Inlet and Roe Lake.














































Roe Inlet














Roe Lake

We headed to our B&B for the night.  We found one online that purported amazing views and we weren't disappoint.  The views were amazing and 180 degrees of the Haro Straight.  





















We decided on spur of the moment to head over to Vancouver Island the next day.  We'd been there before, but it was during the early months of spring when it wasn't quite time for flowers.  Therefore we'd missed Buchart Gardens last time.  We decided to head over for the day to see the blooms.  We weren't disappointed.  The flowers, smell, and overall gardens were amazing. We hopped on yet another ferry and headed over to Swartz Bay.






























































































We headed back to Pender Island and had dinner at the Hope Bay Cafe (ended up eating there both nights).  Had some really yummy Fruit de Mer (night one) and Fish and Chips (night two).  ES had chicken and salmon, respectively.  Finished off with homemade mocha cake with chocolate ganache.  Yum. The view at the restaurant (literally hanging over the bay) was amazing.  



































Hope Bay Cafe

We watched the sunset from our room and enjoyed the colors of the sky as they turned from blue to yellow to pink to black.  The stars came out in full force later in the evening.  Haven't seen such a view in a very long time. 






















We headed home the day, and between getting to the ferry 1 hour early, a 2.5 hour ride, a 1+ hour wait at the border, it took a little over 11 hours to come 350 miles.  But worth every minute of it.  What a great trip.


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