Most people tend to focus on ‘events’ that are highlights to them. In reality, there is something that happens between the weddings, funerals, feature vacations, concerts and other ‘cool’ things. It is called ‘the rest of your life’.

This July we’ve done things that, while not spectacular on their own, are still amazing. Each event showcases just how special Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia and Canada are. 

The Yukon!

We spent a week up north, exploring the wilds of Canada. Big spaces and big places. There’s a full write up on our trip in a previous post. 

Oak Bay Farmers Market

A lot of people will gravitate towards a farmers’ market. We are squarely in that group. During the summer months, the City of Oak Bay shuts down Oak Bay Ave for about four blocks on the second Wednesday of each month. A farmers’ market is held, but it is really a ‘local vendors’ market. Many of those selling are the same merchants at other local markets, but there are some who are unique to this one. 

The usual selection of offerings is available. Bakery goods, fresh veggies, arts and crafts as well as food and drinks. A number of restaurants set up ‘meals to go’ as well as small samples of their specialties. There are also food trucks which, for some reason unknown to me, have huge lines of people waiting to get their ‘not so fast-food’ – fast-food fix. Then there are drinks.

Along with some coffee and tea merchants, there are multiple distilleries, cideries, breweries and liquor stores offering samples of adult drinks. On our first visit to the market, about half way through, we both cut ourselves off due to the number of samples we had. Our next visit we were much more strategic. 

We were glad to sample the breweries wares. All were local and, despite both of us being so passionate about craft beer, we were left underwhelmed by most of the selections. That’s not to say they were not good; they were just not to our likings. In the end, the tried-and-true winner was Spinnakers, one of Canada’s oldest craft breweries. I’ve been going there since 1983 and the ESB, which is an original from the day it opened, is still my favourite. 

Baseball

The boys of summer and the crack of the bat. Victoria has an “A” level ball team, the Harbour Cats. We decided to take in an evening game on a sunny night. The play, while obviously not at the major league level, was a good diversion from everyday life. One added bonus of the game we went to, the Snowbirds were doing a mini show over Victoria and we could see them as they flew by. Watching their precision flying, with the wings as close as 2 meters to each other, never gets old. The ball game was a bit of a downer, the ’Cats lost 13 – 4, although we saw a couple of home runs, a double play and some diving catches.   

Owls in the park

The park close to our house has many old trees. In the park, in spring and early summer, there are families of owls. We’ve seen two parents and this year, there were three owlets. On most nights we headed over to the park, with many other people to watch the owlets. As they quickly grew, from fluff balls to little owls, they gained confidence. However there was learning and supervision taking place.

One evening, a Coopers Hawk swooped in and took a run at an owlet. In the wild, it’s every bird for themselves. The owlet took off and out of nowhere an adult owl dove down towards the Coopers Hawk. The hawk immediately broke off the attack and took off. The parents, whom we had not seen, were obviously watching.

As the owlets grew, they were also learning to hunt. One night, we saw an owlet dive down and attack a pine cone. He missed on his swoop down and landed on the ground about one foot away from the pine cone. Being “cool”, he hopped on over to the pine cone and jumped on it. He was so cute as he looked proudly at the non moving pine cone he had caught.

The Lieutenant Governors House

Government House is the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia and the ceremonial home of all British Columbians. The Lieutenant Governor, or ‘LG’ for short, is the King’s representative in British Columbia. They are appointed by the Government of the day, normally for a five-year term. I met the last LG, Janet Austin, when she attended HMCS MALAHAT for my change of Command. 

We took a tour of Government House this summer. It is an impressive building, steeped in history. There are many pictures of those who have stayed here. Queen Elizabeth and other members of the Royal Family have visited and stayed. 

There is a lot of art, with an emphasis on Indigenous artwork. The stained-glass window, as you head up to the second floor is amazing.

Concerts on the lawn

Courtesy of the LG. Every summer, at Government House, they host a few free concerts on the lawn. There is a permanent bandstand there and two groups will play. The night we went, The Ravens opened up for the Sutcliffs. The Ravens were a folk-y type group who had one song in particular that resonated with me. I have not been able to find the lyrics online, however the theme mentioned our heroes. The hero’s they referenced were Canadian heroes. In particular they noted 

‘we found our heroes on the Plains of Abraham, 

marching in as we freed the Netherlands 

and in the deserts of Afghanistan” 

They then mentioned the ‘Patricia’s’, which referenced Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry or the PPCLI. That is the Regiment our youngest serves in. To me, it was a moving song.

The Arts

When we relocated to Victoria, one of reasons was to take advantage of the arts. There are so many small theater companies in town, it is hard to keep track. In July we saw two plays.

The first was by the Victoria Shakespeare company. Each summer they do one of the Bard’s plays at an open-air venue. This year it was on the lawn of Craigdarroch Castle and the play was Romeo and Juliett. I can’t say I am all that keen on tweaking his plays. They’ve survived for centuries. The number of quotes Western society uses in everyday language that come from him is likely only second to the Bible. So why mess with something that works so well?

This summer’s version featured an almost all female cast, even Romeo was a female. She was by far the best actor among the Troope. While we were not enamoured with the Director’s version, it was only a 15-minute walk from our home. Spoiler alert – they both die at the end of the play.

A new take on Jane Austen

The second play we saw was Yes and Yesteryear. This was not actually a play but an improv on Jane Austin. As improv goes, no one knows what will happen when they start and every performance is different. 

This play was held at Carr house, the home that Emily Carr grew up in. It is located in James Bay, a district in Victoria, about a 10-minute drive from our home. On the front lawn of Carr house, were about 50 chairs. We were treated to a cucumber sandwich, naturally the crusts were cut off. A glass of refreshing lemonade was provided to wash it down. The Troope was hilarious. They were dressed in period costume from Ms. Austin’s day. Prim and proper were their manners. Societal class was important. 

To kick it off, the Front of House asked the audience for a letter, any letter. “F” was tossed out. Then two words were sought out which started with “F” that would have been used in Jane Austin’s day. Fidelity and Flirtatious were the words. The Troope then worked out a Fidelity club to avoid being Flirtatious. At times, some of the actors “set-up” others, much to the delight of the audience. We were howling at times.  

Observatory

The Dominion Observatory is located in Saanich, the community next to Victoria and about 25 minutes from our home. Every so often they open the observatory up to the public and you can see what the big telescope sees. There are also members of the Victoria Astronomical Society there with their own personal telescopes pointed at the moon, Mars and other celestial objects. 

To provide even more insight to the cosmos, there is a mini planetarium and the volunteers put on shows about the heavens. We headed up there one evening to see great city views (the observatory is obviously up high) and learn about the stars. As it was early July, we were limited in what we could see as sunset was almost 9:30 PM. We hope to go back in the fall or winter when the nights are longer.

Painting

Some rooms in our home, well, all the rooms actually, need to be painted. We had the outside done last year and it was time for the inside. Focusing on the kitchen and bathroom, two coats of primer and two coats of paint turned both rooms into bright and airy.

Yoga in the park

The ocean is your studio! The City of Oak Bay puts on free yoga in the park weekly during the summer. The event is packed, likely 250+ people, all on mats following a fairly easy hatha themed yoga class. Willows beach park overlooks Cadboro Bay and you can see all sorts of marine activity. Just remember to get there a bit early and place your mat out of the sun, or wear sunscreen.

British Columbia is blessed with so much nature and beauty. Vancouver Island is one of the gems in BC. It’s been a few years since we were camping, but we decided it was time to get back to nature. 

Camping

A few days before we headed out, we assembled the various things we needed to take to be successful campers. We headed out to Englishman River Falls Provincial Park. We had camped here once before, in 1993 with a one-year-old in our old tent trailer. 

The drive took a lot longer than we thought it would. Leaving at 11:00, with a short lunch stop at the top of the Malahat drive and a quick dash into Costco, we arrived at 3PM. It took 45 minutes to set up our campground. Pitching the tent, making the beds and squaring things off. After a quick break to re-group, we explored the area, scouting out hikes for the next few days.

During our time at Englishman River Falls, we hiked both the upper and lower falls at Englishman River. We headed over to the Errington Market on Saturday morning for the weekly farmer’s market. The baked goods that were being offered were no match to our will power. Or maybe that was ‘won’t’ power 😉 I caved in and bought some s’mores cookies. They were awesome. I did show enough will power to only eat one and save one for desert that night. Meg bought a delicious scone.

More markets

Venturing into Coombs, we spent some time at the Goats on the Roof market. Getting some of the fresh veggies for the next few days as well as some artesian cheeses to go with the breads we had.

On another day we headed to Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park and walked around the trails there. The campground at this park seemed much more inviting than Englishman River Falls. The services were the same, but the feel was a lot nicer.

Camping turns into Glamping!

After three days camping, we headed out for our reward. Breaking camp, we headed to Parksville where we checked into an ocean front resort for a day. We really had not slept well during the previous three nights. There was a lot of noise from other campers as well as cold evenings. The resort was welcomed for a warm night, clean showers and comfortable bed.

Walking the low tide beach at Parksville is always a treat. On our way back to the resort, we managed to find some ripe blackberries and filled a small container. They made an outstanding breakfast treat!

We headed over to Rathtrevor Provincial Park for our next three nights of camping. This campground was more in line with what we expected from a Provincial Park. It also helped that the weather was warmer. We learned from our last time setting up camp and were able to be fully set up in under 40 minutes. It was a short walk to the beach and, over the next three days, we spent a lot of time at the beach.

Desert at the beach

One special treat we found was maple cream liquor. Meg noticed it at the liquor store and we asked about it. The staff told us it was very good. They described it as a Canadian version of the famous Irish cream liquor that so many people know. Sipping on this at the beach, at sunset, left us wondering what else could make life better?

During our time at the beach, there were sunrises, sunsets and simply sitting in a chair watching the tide come in or go out. It is a great place to read a book (or type your blog!). 

July came to an end with us spending our last night camping at Rathtrevor Provincial Park. Some great meals, and being with nature our some of our happy places.

And, the rest of our lives…

All of the above were what we feel were our highlights from July. We haven’t mentioned our day-to-day living. Regular walks along the Victoria breakwater. Multiple gym classes. Trip planning – a lot of time is going into planning for the fall adventure. House hunting: we’ve been to more than 30 open houses. Our Realtor has shown us another 10 or so. Pouring over listing is time consuming. 

July has been a good month.

August is shaping up to be another good month. While there are no big trips planned yet, there will be day trips, bike adventures, paddle boarding and other activities to keep us amused, young and engaged. 

Thanks for reading, feel free to share any things you did in July to make your time special. We’d love to hear about what you did and get some ideas for future activities. 

Cam and Meg