White Rock, BC

We have moved from Gibsons to the gorgeous suburb of Vancouver called White Rock. We had no interest in living in Vancouver, cause we lived here for years, but when the opportunity came up for us to spend five weeks near the beach we grabbed it.

What a lovely place. It takes over an hour to get into Vancouver, but since that is not of a concern to us we will just hang out here. The Semiamhoo Bay where the beach is located is wonderful and has a huge boardwalk. In the distance you can see the US, nearly a short rowboat away.

We have lucked into a house on the hill with a large deck and a great view. I am sure this place rents for $2200 a month, so it is rather a nice place for us to hang our hats.

We have one adorable shnauzer and two amazing bengali cats (those are the ones that look like little tigers, or maybe more ocelots).

Paul and I have been so lucky to do this for already 14 months. We have met great people and really explored the hearts of so many communities.

Wine - Vancouver Island Style

We just spent a week on Vancouver Island taking a break from house and petsitting. We stopped off with a good friend in the small town of Duncan, city of totems for a few days and had a great time. Then we went on to a small rustic cabin on high bank in the area called Cherry Point.

The picture above shows one of the vineyards in the area, Cherry Point Wines. Our cabin is virtually on that same shelf overlooking the ocean. Vancouver Island has a good number of wineries now, a cider press and a meadery. It has taken a while for the island to get their wine production up, but now it is there with the best of them.

One wine which is special to the area is the Blackberry Wine, a scrumptious summer berry.

We are back now in Powell River, two ferries above the mainland and will stay here until January 6th. It is beginning to feel a lot like home here. I imagine this is the place we will buy a small house. Still waiting for the prices to adjust to our liking.

Sitting Lady Falls

Just as we are getting ready to leave this housesit on Sunday we discovered a new trail to the Sitting Lady Falls. This view is about a 15 minute walk from the house, not far and very fresh, down lovely trails. I am not sure why they are called Sitting Lady, but I guess there is a reason. The weather is very cold and very crisp. What a lovely place Metchosin is.

We are getting ready to move "up island" to Duncan and then on to Powell River

Garbage Exploration

Well somehow this week we missed putting the garbage out for the pickup. So last night I think a bear got into the garbage can and we woke up to old mouldy food and plastic bags around the yard. So we packed it all up and headed off to find the landfill. Having paid our $3.00 to dump off the bag of garbage we found ourselves right by a beautiful lake.

Our 3 dogs were in the back of the suv so we popped out on a trail and went partly round the lake. What a gorgeous area. Now I grew up on this very big island near Victoria (you know Butchart Gardens), but I had never seen this part of the island.

So because we neglected our garbage duties we ended up on a lovely ramble and an exploration of a wonderful area.

Sea Lions

Took the three dogs walking on the beaches of Metchosin and saw a whole big batch of seals and sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Some of them looked to be truly huge and we could hear the barks for miles around.

The beaches here are on the west coast of Vancouver Island, which tends to be wild and wavy.

We went back the next day with binoculars to spot the animals. We couldn't see any until we had looked really closely at the brown log and the black and white speckled rock which turned out to be seals.

River Walk

http://www.city.courtenay.bc.ca/visitors/gallery/courtenay-river-walk.aspx

Took this lovely river walk in the town of Courtenay this morning. I am really enjoying this little town on Vancouver Island. It has a bit of everything, some river, some ocean, some mountains and a whole lot of spirit.

We are narrowing down our search for where we are going to buy a place. I think we are down to Courtenay and Powell River. While Courtenay is on Vancouver Island, Powell River is more isolated two ferries above Vancouver.

They both have what we like; coffee shops, art, music, friendly people, decent prices (in an unreal market) and great scenery.

It seems to me that the real estate might be about to swing down a bit, so we will likely wait this out. I would like to make an offer on a house in the midst of winter, when the sellers are sick of selling and just want to see it gone.

So with another 5 months of housesitting already lined up, we are in a pretty good position for looking around.

Loving every day of this adventure.