A bit more catching up

Last time, I left you with a photo from a ferry. Our first ferry ride took us to Vancouver Island, where we visited Stephen's mom, had dinner with an old friend, went to a few beaches. 

This beach is in Sidney, close to the Victoria ferry terminal. Sidney is now quite a cute little place, catering, perhaps, to seniors who want a view of the ocean and an accessible, walkable place to hang out. 

It's cute now, but this spot has been the site of mills, canneries and other industry over the decades, so it is not difficult to find signs of human endeavour on the beach. So much clear seaglass; no greens or blues to be seen, though!

We went to a place called Spiral Beach, down a steep cliff. I was reminded of my photo theme for the month: hidden. 

It is called Spiral Beach because there is a big concrete tower, with a spiral staircase around it. The beach, being at the bottom of the cliffs, is a bit hidden away, too. 

This little house was hidden in the woods on the way up from the beach. Well, I suppose it wasn't hidden, really, since it was right there for me to see, but it was not on view for the masses. 

Our next stop was Mayne Island. We stayed in a lovely B&B, overlooking the water and the sunrise. Across the water was Mount Baker! I was awoken by the sunrise the first morning, took this picture, went back to sleep. 

We were lucky to be there when there were super low tides at convenient, post-breakfast times. The water was up quite high the evening we arrived, but the following morning the tide was way out, exposing rock pools and eroded sandstone and a place seals liked to hang out. 

The island in the centre background is not visible at higher tides. You can't see it here but there were seals on it at times. 

As we were clambering around on the rocks, we spied a London phone box next door!

We were mainly on Mayne Island to see our niece, but we did some exploring around. We were told to go down the road past the Private Property sign, follow the very well kept path, but don't go past the door with the fish on it.  

The owners of this land don't mind people walking around on most of it, but they keep their house private, behind the fish door. It was a lovely place, and generous of the owners to let us walk past their rocks, trees and water.

Next stop was Salt Spring: more relatives, rocks, trees and water. Back to Vancouver and another visit to the barge to see how things were going. It seems they put a big machine with a claw on the barge and it was just clawing those walls down. 

We only had a few days in Vancouver before we came back to Toronto. I wonder if the barge will be completely gone by the time we get back there. 

We are preparing to sell the house. It's a slog because we have lived here for so long, we have everything we thought was interesting over the past 30 years. And more. Our Vancouver place is basically furnished by now, so we are only really taking books and art and clothing and some kitchen stuff and all those boxes of miscellaneous..., and the books and art will have to fight it out for space on our walls. More on that discouraging subject later!