Sombrio Beach

Sombrio Beach, in the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, has day use and night time campsites. Although it does not have extensive walking trails, and is a bumpy gravel road, it is pleasant. No wonder many families and folks like to come her to get away from the city life on weekends and vacations.

No sure what this structure was.

Bridgeman's in Port Renfrew

Bridgeman's in Port Renfrew has one of the best views for a pub I've ever seen. The food is pretty good too.

We both had the codfather which is lightly breaded cod with coleslaw and for a bit extra I had a beet and greens salad.

lkj

Botanical Beach

Botanical Beach is a well graded trail to several beaches with a good hike through the woods. It was a pleasant walk.

Mystic Beach (almost)

Mystic Beach is one of the first Southern places you can visit in the Juan de Fuca provincial park and is the start of its trail which goes 47 km.

It starts well marked by the passage of people but starts to thin out over a short period of time.

We did not do any research so we didn't know to stay more inland and missed the rest of the trail to the beach. Instead we veered towards the shore and saw this lovely waterfall. Unfortunately it was down a steep ravine so we decided to save our energy and head back to the car to explore other trails. We will come back here again some day to finish it.

Pointe No Pointe Trails

The trails at Pointe No Pointe are pleasant, do not take much time to walk around, and available to people eating at the restaurant.

This beach area is also available to people staying here and has a fire pit.

Also caught a glimpse of daffodils with multiple bees happily getting energy.

Sheringham Lighthouse

The Sheringham Lighthouse was a pleasant place to spend an hour tootling around, seeing the daffodils in bloom, and just relaxing. It was built in 1912 to deal with the many ships that crashed on the nearby shores of Vancouver Island and is being taken care of by a historical society..

Shirley Delicious

Shirley Delicious is a fantastic cafe beyond Sooke and before Pointe No Pointe in the community of Shirley. Twice we stopped here for drinks and once for pastry desserts, which were all tasty. The music is quite good too.

Pointe No Pointe Resort Restaurant

The restaurant at Pointe No Pointe is very good. We had lunch and supper here. The anteroom is also the resort lobby, is the only place in the resort with wifi, has a decent bar, and contains comfy chairs with a fireplace.

Lunch for me was crispy confit of chicken leg, preserved lemon Israeli couscous, roasted root vegetables, Moroccan curry, almonds, and cilantro.

 My wife had the grilled Marinated Wild Salmon with herbed goat cheese phyllo, roasted beets, pickled apple, and apricot.

For supper I had as an appetizer the Rockefeller soup, crispy fried oysters, and creamed spinach.

 For my main I had the Cured pork tenderloin, five spice spring roll, plum, pork belly, and almond vinaigrette.

My wife had the Grilled beef tenderloin (blue) with tartiflette, beef bacon, and remoulade.

 We would eat here again when in the area.

Pointe No Pointe Resort

Pointe No Point is about 35km West of Sooke that offers cottage rental and a restaurant to eat lunch or supper. There are 25 cabins to choose from and every one has a view of the Straights of Juan de Fuca. We rented one side of a duplex cottage for our first stay.

 It was a one bedroom with optional bed for a third person in the living room. Kitchen is stocked with basic objects for making a meal.

 There is also a fireplace, for cold nights or the winter time. Each cottage also comes with a hot tub for all year round enjoyment.

 Bathroom was basic but good.

 The bed was comfy with great views out the bench window.

 The views were fantastic with great sunsets and the structures were built so that none can look into your place or hottub.

 Hmmmm...hottub.

We would stay here again any time of the year.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

After having several days off, I finished another non-fiction book and what a book it was: "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.

It tells the history of two extremes, Daniel Burnham and others involvement in the incredible World Colombian Exhibition in Chicago 1892 as well as America's first known serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett aka H.H. Holmes.

The writing style was exceptionally done with teases and parceled out knowledge to lead the reader in a journey about these two separate but linked events. What also struck me are the reciprocal things and moments from the exhibition that led to innovations and ideas which changed history, some for the better and some for the worse. It had me wanting to read the next chapter after each one was finished. The exhibition itself would be a wondrous place to be...as long as one did not stay at Mr Holmes' hotel. Highly recommended.

Two books on Acadian Life and their Explusion

In the first three months of this year, I finished two books on the history of the Acadians, who were the French colonists and their descendants in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. These were “History of Port Royal/Annapolis Royal: 1605-1800” by Brenda Dunn and “A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland” by John Mack Faragher.

Both books look at the settlement of the Maritime Provinces by French settlers in the early 1600’s to the mid 1700’s and beyond. I enjoyed the descriptions of notable persons, events, and life in particular the research done for factual documents that were made during their lifetimes. The close relations the Acadians had with the Micmaq peoples made this group a valuable resource and ally during the conflicts between the Britain and New England Colonists vs the French governments. The thing that was poignant for me was the Acadians’ desire to be neutral in these frequent conflicts which made these outsider countries afraid of the Acadian presence or frustrated at their lack of support. Unfortunately their desire to be left alone was not to be and the British and American colonists forced them out of their multi-generational new homeland causing many thousands of deaths.

Brenda Dunn’s book focuses on the region around Port Royal/Annapolis Royal and is a shorter work at around 200 pages. John Faragher’s work goes into more detail, with 480 pages, into the overall picture of the historical events as well as making a strong case for British and American colonists’ ethnic cleansing of the Acadian people. A short brief of his book is available here.

I would recommend the second book for its detail. If you do not have a long time to read I would go with the first one, which may be available at cover price in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, where I bought it.