I visited friends who live near Sechelt for a few days. They are in the midst of renovations, so it was hard to pick a good time to visit between all the scheduled (and rescheduled) rounds of contractors and renovations. They were redoing the floors, windows and doors, and installing an all-new kitchen. We finally managed a couple of days when they were between contractors. The floors, windows and doors were done and the old kitchen largely dismantled, but the new kitchen still in the works. That meant no kitchen cabinets and no dishwasher or kitchen sink. Dishes were stored temporarily in a laundry room cabinet and water came from the laundry tub (good thing they had one!). Carpets were rolled up and furniture was shoved into corners.
The visit was fun though, we spent one day in town doing errands and shopping and another day hiking out to nearby Smugglers' Cove. While in town I checked around for the cost of snow tires for my truck, I need new tires and they may as well be snow tires at this time of year.
I told my friends about a car that friends in Nova Scotia think I should consider for my next vehicle, the Pontiac Vibe. We saw one parked on the street in front of a store where they cut keys, it turned out to belong to the store owner. When he wasn't running the store he was out gold prospecting, he said he used the Vibe for everything and it was a helluva good car. He couldn't understand why they discontinued it, it was so good. Maybe that's why.
Anyway, after that Morrie was spotting Vibes everywhere. It's based on the Toyota Matrix, and looks almost identical to it, but Morrie quickly determined and pointed out the small differences in styling. I would never have figured that out.
Smugglers' Cove is a little cove hidden from view on the coast, as most smugglers' coves are. This particular smugglers' cove was used for human smuggling. When the first national railway was completed in 1885 many Chinese labourers were let go and had no work. They were unable to leave the country and were mistreated because of racism. So human smugglers transported them, for a price, into the United States to find work there. This was one of the points of embarkment.
We hiked out to a rocky point where we enjoyed the sunlight and beautiful view. A bald eagle in a tree there was disturbed by our arrival with three dogs, but it did not budge from its perch. We took a few pictures of it while it pretended not to notice us.
We watched a tugboat slowly towing a huge log boom, the logs looked to be very large and at least three deep. I think the tugboat was moving at no more than one knot, it took a very long time to cross our line of sight. We had lunch while watching its progress.
On the walk back we encountered a couple of mushroom pickers. They were from one of the yachts moored in the cove, and were looking for edible mushrooms in the woods. They said it was a poor year for them, too dry.
We later went for an early supper at a nearby pub with a view of another cove just up the way. I had a hamburger and fries with beer. Although the walk was not strenuous or long, we were quite exhausted by the time we got back to my friends' house.
While at their place I was happy to be sleeping in the truck, it was not cold and was more comfortable than an air mattress on the floor. I don't much care for air mattresses.
The ferry trip back to Horseshoe Bay was uneventful and I got in some reading. Johanna and Dave, my hosts in Vancouver, and I have been working our ways through the Stieg Larsson Millennium trilogy (The Girl Who... books). I recently bought the last one and am trying to get through it in time to leave it behind for Johanna and Dave to read after I leave. So I have a bit of a deadline and it is a huge book. Reading time is valuable.
