Every now and then, I get a hankering for salt water ... so last Thursday we headed to West Vancouver to catch a ride on the ferry to Nanaimo. This would 'kill two birds with one stone' (which is a very cruel cliche, don't you think?) as we had never been to Nanaimo before, although we have had our fair share of their bars.
It was quite a long commute, and relatively boring, for a change. Early morning bus to the sky train, then train to downtown Vancouver, and a few steps to another bus which brought us to Horseshoe Bay. Bet you can't figure out how that got it's name.
Howard bought the tickets (it was his turn with the wallet)
... and we followed the red line to the waiting room. It was a long red line. The blue line would have brought us a ferry with a different destination, so we had to be very careful indeed. And we were. By the way, can you find Howard? We can be pretty sure that Joe Nichols didn't have Howard in mind when he recorded this song.
However, there was a reason why he got so far ahead - the very pretty harbour. At least he knew I wouldn't get lost - as long as I followed the blue line ... or wait, was it the red one?
While we were waiting for the ship to leave dock, I took a stroll around the deck just to see what I could see before we headed out to see the sea.
And no, I didn't know this. I probably will end up getting one of these, as my hands find it very difficult now to open bottles and jars.
Ah. The road ramp is getting tucked away now, so I guess we'll soon be on the move.
Our ferry is the Coastal Renaissance - and it wasn't long before she started on our journey across the Georgia Strait - which is part of the Salish Sea. It seems this body of water has many names ... but I'm going to stop with these two.
There was a fair breeze blowing .. or as some of us would still say, It wuz blowin' a starm, b'y. It's a good job I had forgotten my bucket hat, or by now it would be somewhere near Ontario. At least according to Howard - he said we were sailing into the wind, which meant it was blowing eastward.
The views were mystical.
And the salt air really roused my appetite. Toast and coffee at 4:45am don't really last long, especially when there was a restaurant and a coffee bar, plus several machines selling all sorts of goodies, aboard. So I took my windblown head and followed my nose to a cafe, where I got a coffee and a Banana Chocolate Chip muffin. I'm not a Starbucks fan, really, but this coffee must have the coffee they make for Canadians who don't like Starbucks coffee, because it did go down quite nicely. And the muffin was yummy.
The friendly biologist aboard the ship was getting ready to do her presentation, and there were a few people gathering around when I once more braved the windy climes on the top (sun?) deck.
I was hoping she would just go to the side and call out - fin at ten o'clock, or something similar, but no - she was going to talk about bears and wolves. So I decided to just wander around myself and see if I could spot a dorsal fin. Her displays were pretty interesting though.
Note Number 6 below.
The closest I came to one of these monsters below was on Alexandra Road in Richmond, when it flew right over my head and deposited a huge load on the road right in front of me. I will be forever grateful that it waited a few seconds. I think I would have drowned if it had not.
And this map shows our route - the number 4 line leads from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay near Nanaimo.
Where it's wave over wave ... but no sea over bow, thank Goodness.
After about 90 minutes, we docked at Departure Bay, which in at least half the times should be called Arrival Bay. However. This was like a small airport terminal - unlike the one at Horseshoe Bay, which mainly boasted a red and a blue line, this one had lots of little gift shops and snack places. However, we just wanted to get on to Nanaimo and see what there was to see, so we just hightailed it to the bus stop.
This Not In Service bus changed its sign to Ferry Shuttle, so we hopped aboard. These seats are a lot more comfy than the ones on the 410, let me tell ya.
We got off at downtown, near the waterfront. Now I will tell you, we saw very little of Nanaimo in the next few hours. This is a town that needs a car, more than a day, and a good tour guide, to get through it - as I was looking out the bus window I saw lots of places I wanted to visit, but unfortunately had to pass by. Our walk along the waterfront brought us through a bit of old and a bit of new, and more than a few art installations. So here we go ....
Here, I think, is an Arbutus Tree.
At least, Howard said that's what it was, and according to my Google search thingie, he was probably right.
The blue part isn't tree, though.
Oh for goodness sake, why can't he stop and smell the roses every now and then? Or the trees?
The Marina at Cameron Island, which as we know, isn't really an island at all.
A sign on the other side of the road tempted me across, past the old guy sleeping on the bench. I didn't know this before. It's always good to learn something new, isn't it?
Then back across the street to the town clock. Goodness knows where Howard is by now.
I don't know what the gates say, but I say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This looks interesting.
Up the stairs I went. Lots of stairs.
But ... hark! What is that sound?
Thank you, Mr Piper Man. Thank you.
Aw ... how sweet!
And it's real ocean, real beach. Real rocks and stones and barnacles and all that jazz. Breathe in ....
New amongst the old.
Sometimes, signs are very helpful. Sometimes, they aren't really necessary. Because if we can see to read the sign, we probably can see that steep slope. Right?
Sorry the words aren't too clear, but here comes a sculpture of a Dungeness Crab, made of red cedar, aluminum, and fibreglass, carved with a chain saw and power tools ... I can't read the rest of it, sorry.
And here is a big crab with a .... no, I better not. It's too obvious anyway.
But this one does look awfully crabby, doesn't it?
A bit more history here ...
... and a true saying from a seaside bench ...
A lagoon ....
... and a bit of piracy ....
Just (almost) like my back-home beaches . although there don't seem to be any clay pipe stems here.
.. not even beach glass ... but my toes are here, getting a touch of the Pacific Ocean.
The steps from the beach are a bit eroded, but they were built with shells embedded. Which I thought was pretty cool.
Since the plaque pic below is so hard to read, check out the story of The Zephyr here.
Now, these 'gates' probably mean a lot more than the previous ones.
Geez. Is that him way up ahead? Wait ... I'm coming ....
Borrowed Light by Sam Houston. Steel art installation. I did take the info shot but it`s too blurry to read. There must have been a gust of wind when I pushed the button.
We decided to use this path as our turn around point to head back towards food, and since we didn`t know how many points of interest there were ahead.
We cut through a park with Washrooms! Pretty washrooms!
We see more art installations, like this one, titled Nanaimo With Love ....... which is marked with the characters ``Nana`` and ``Imo`` ....
...which means ``Seven Potatoes`` in Japanese. And we discover that some signs can indeed be very helpful after all.
At last - a readable sign ...
And one of the coolest sculptures I`ve ever seen ...
At the edge of the park, there is a beautiful display of flags. Since the Newfoundland one wasn`t proudly flying, we wondered what they symbolized. Howard did recognize several of them, but other than our two, I just knew Japan and Mexico. How smrt are you?
You won't find any answers here, though. Just an explanation of why they all are fluttering in the breeze.
When we reached some busy roads, it was time to decide what direction to take. We chose a very uninteresting street, a bit industrial with garages and other boring stuff, but we did see Cliff Street branch off ... and I guess I know why this got its name. I would name this building Building On A Cliff.
AHA! Finally .... a place to browse. Howard even dropped in, but all that meant was for me to hurry up ...
Some more outdoor art. It's a Songbird, by Muse Atelier. Sitting on top of yet another sort-of gate.
And lookee here. We've almost made a complete circuit. The bagpiper was piping just behind the Bastion, but he's gone now.
Well, we couldn't get this close to a 160 year old building and not go in. We even climbed the rickety narrow steep stairs ... and there were no warning signs there, either. This is the room at the top, where the windows were mere slits just big enough to shoot through.
I guess it also served as the wardrobe.
Down a few steps and across a boring parking lot, and we follow our noses ... to Trollers Fish & Chips. Lunch. Yum.
This is like Pajos, in Steveston, another great little fish'n'chip place built on a floating jetty. We were lucky to find a place sort of in the shade (the only part of us that got the full sun was my back) and we checked our Nanaimo guides while waiting for our food.
A tour bus full of Asian tourists decided to join us for lunch, so we felt sort of at home anyway. But I didn't appreciate the boys who were having a spitting contest off the side of the jetty. I have an aversion to saliva.
However, they wandered off (or fell in, doesn't matter, they were gone anyway) before our food arrived. Complete silence while we gobbled it up. So good.
How happy is that face, I ask you?
As we were leaving Trollers, we noticed some people bending over and staring at the water, so of course I had to have a look too. Remember the Number 6 I told you about way back? Well, there's a live one at the bottom. Biggest starfish I ever saw.
After lunch, we decided to find out where the bus stop was for our way back to the ferry. We knew the boat left every couple of hours, and wanted to time our arrival at Horseshoe Bay before the buses stopped running to Vancouver.
And that's when we realized we'd have to wait about an hour and a half for the Ferry Shuttle. By this time, we were pretty pooped, and the sun was beating down unrelentlessly. We decided to cross the street and check out a mall ... and look what we saw behind that mall.
So the plan was for me to spend five bucks in a slot machine, win a couple of hundred bucks, while Howard was having a cold beer at their bar .... well. That didn't work.
Their bar was a snack bar, where you could drink only if you ate - and our tummies were full of fish and chips. And my five bucks wasn't long changing into twenty cents. I 'cashed out' and still have my 20c voucher. If you want it, just send me a SASE and I'll post it to you.
So we ended up sitting in the cool of the mall for a while. Just a small mall, an anywhere in Canada Mall, with a bank, a grocery store and a London Drugs. Then it was back to the bus stop, where at least there were pretty wildflowers blooming.
See? Ferry Shuttle.
And when the Ferry Shuttle shuttled along, we hopped aboard ... only to be told it wasn't going to the Ferry. It was going to Country Club. I guess the driver asked us because we didn't look like the kind of people who would be going to the Country Club. He told us to take the #2 bus to the ferry - and that one had just left a couple of minutes previously. So another half hour wait.
Even the pretty wildflowers lose their charm in the heat of a shadeless summer afternoon.
But finally, a bus came along, and after the driver's assurance that yes, she would take us to to the ferry, we hopped aboard. Within five minutes we were once again ticketed and buying our way on board another boat. This time we only had to wait another hour, as we had missed the ferry we were hoping to catch. However, it was much better waiting in a place where you could buy a huge Pecan Toffee Crunch ice-cream come while waiting for our ship to come in.
Oh. Here it comes now!
And once again, across the strait we go. I stayed indoors most of the time this time, as I was tired and hot and couldn't stop thinking about the looooong bus ride and sky train ride and bus ride awaiting. Howard and I shared an Egg and Red Pepper Sandwich and Cranberry Cocktails from the White Spot that was aboard this ship, and then I just dozed and bided my time until we got near Horseshoe Bay.
I think the hardest part of the trip was walking up the hill from the bus stop. I'm not sure where our next adventure will take us .... but first I have to get over this one!
This recipe for Nanaimo Bars seems a bit high class .... if you try it, send me some. I don't think I can find European style cultured butter. Or instead, you can try try this one
Send some of them both and I'll let you know which is better. Just so you don't serve substandard ones at Christmas.
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