August 9 & 10

Here we are at Cowichwan Bay on Vancouver Island, BC. Everything is laid back and slow. It is an old fishing village and logging town. Sometimes its hard to believe quaint little places like this still exist. It reminds us of Fulford Harbor on Saltspring Is . We experienced rain and cloudy days here with some sun breaks, but the backdrop of the mountains made the scenery beautiful. We saw some interesting things. There is a group of ladies here that do a rowing skull. I would say there are 25 ladies in the boat of all ages and sizes. They've won many awards for winning races. We saw eagles and because there were very low tides lots of birds feeding on the clams. There was a great Kayak rental place and we enjoyed talking to the gent who owned it. He had a fun accent and was interesting to talk to. From here we went to Brentwood Bay, which was at the end of Saanich Inlet and where Buchart Gardens are. We went there in the evening and the special lighting and beautiful sunset gave it a lovely aura. A blues/jazz singer and group were performing. They were very good. At the end of the night the moon lit dingy ride back to our boat with orange hues of what was left from a spectacular sunset was magical.

Today we are in Sidney B.C. The weather was very windy coming in and we had a hairy landing, but made it without scratches to the boat. Sidney is the "posh - ist" marina we've found anywhere on our travels to date and the city has a lot of activity. There is music in the marina park every Sunday.... we could hear it well when we came in but by the time we docked and walked up there it was over. Still it was a welcoming. There's also an incredible market every Sat. night in the summer down main street with a lot of artists, musicians etc. We missed it this year because the rain had us held up one extra day in Friday Harbor. We are out on the furthest pier possible (almost) so to take Cisco up to relieve himself, we have quite a walk. This annoys Lyle every time because the harbor master made us believe we got the last slip; yet we walk by many empty slips every trip to the park. The wind died down and the evening was beautiful. Our next stop is Cowichwan Bay further north on Vancouver Island.

Saturday 8/7

Here we sit in a coffee shop called the "The Bean" updating our blog. It is a very rainy, cloudy day. Cisco didn't even want to come with us. So today's itinerary: shop, read, relax, play games and spend minimal time outside. Wondering if you're at home doing the same. Despite the weather everything in town continues... the Farmer's Market, a sailboat race out in the harbor etc. Great Northwesters!

San Juans

Well, here we are in the San Juans. We needed to make up a few days due to the need to stay home a couple of extra days at home to help out. So our first stop was Oak Harbor. From there we went to Deception Pass, waited a couple of hours for the right tide and headed to Friday Harbor. When we got here, we met up with Scott and Tess. They were going to only stay till the next day and head to Roche via the whales. They saw the whales and I guess they were all around their boat. We met them in Roche, where we both stayed two nights. We really enjoyed the ceremony at the end of the day and the pool. We decided to stay an extra day and then went to Fisherman's Bay on Lopez Island, where we had never stayed before.
It is a very laid back community. The facilities are ok. We went to the pool and enjoyed walking into town where the locals are very friendly and helpful. I had a kraut dog for lunch. It was a good one. We then decided to head back to Friday Harbor for the next night, August 6th. We have been eating "on board" a bunch and enjoying the sunsets and clear evenings. Tonight, we are in E #41 and we are still planning what to do tomorrow....