Canada gulf island day 9 - Galiano day 2 and Campervan thoughts

 Galiano Day 2

Foggy summit

Did a hike to Mt galiano today and it's foggy at the summit! 

Mt Galiano hike

Waited for 10 mins and saw partial Mayne Island!

We end up bailing and went to check out the japanese charcoal kiln

Japanese Charcoal Kiln

We had lunch this time with Meg, Bob, their neighbour Jan and Martin at the Galiano Inn restaurant Lena which has great pizza. 

Lena pizza

We also saw a studio show that has a few paintings that reminded me of our trip

Exhibit

Our trips through the islands is summarized by these 2 pictures

Today is our last day of the van rental

A little sad packing up the van after it's been our home for 10 days. And a little relieved that we are not handling such a big vehicle anymore

I want to put some of my thoughts and learnings in campervan for my own future reference.

I would do a van trip again especially in a low population area. I don't want to drive it in a freeway getting to campground. The mileage is also top off at 18mpg so I won't want to drive a long way to go camping. It's fun and great to have your home with you where you go. 

Learnings

Safety and tools

Important to have a reputable company with reliable van. They also provided flares,  heat gloves and a simple first aid kit. We brought some basic tools like a Swiss army knife, a sharp tool knife, masking tape and strings. Essential are flash lights and a simple camping light, insect repellent and need basic long sleeves shirt and pants for buggy places. 

It would be nice that the van can provide an indoor space to escape the outdoor if needed. 

Access to driver side without going outside is safer. 

Bring a long cable power plug with usb connections as inverter can be at awkward places. But keep an eye on battery level when using it, especially for heating appliances. 

Solar panels is essential to avoid plug in. 

Eat shit shower  

I like the idea of not having open flame or food smells in the van as the bedding is so near. but the propane is a simple answer which means you need a way to cook outside the van. A electrical kettle to boil water efficiently indoors is ideal. 

Electric fridge is superior to a soggy ice box but that depends on availability. 

Bathroom is the toughest. The bucket is not a bad solution and potentially setting up a bucket indoors might be unavoidable in cold weather. 

Outdoor showers using sun showers  is impossible if campground does not get sun or it's too cold. Indoor showers with heater waters is almost unavoidable 

Organization

Packing cubes is crucial for this trip in order to keep our clothes organized. We also have a hanging organizer to keep things handy and visible without stuffing drawers. It's very similar to boat organization that we are familiar with. 

Put the trash can and coolers in places that you can access from outside the van. 

We need a way to keep dirt out of the van that really just include constant sweeping and not wearing shoes in the van. 

Also during showers we need flip flops that gets all muddy and wet that we had to dry and clean

After getting to Vancouver and returning the van, we stayed a night at the accent hotel which is a hoot.

We picked them as they are 30 mins walking from the van place and has a free shuttle to bring us to the airport in 10 mins. But they had the cutest things ever! 

Cute captain Ducky

Good dinner at Fogg N Suds that's walking distance from the hotel

Canada gulf islands day 8 - Galiano day 1

 Galiano Day 1

Back to Bob and Meg house in Galiano!

View from Bob and Meg's house

It's nice to sleep in a real bed after a week and even better with warm showers and indoor plumbing 😁

So we went for some chores with Meg before getting some souvenirs in some of my favorite shops. 

They have really good jigsaw puzzle in Canada!

I can't carry all of them back... nooo....

 

And there's a tea shop in Galiano that has the best peach rooibus tea. 

We had lunch at the Hummingbird Pub and met their neighbor Martin that we missed the last time we came. 

Hummingbird Pub with the best fish & chips

After lunch, we had a hike around Montague park bay and it's equally as lovely as I remember. It is also slightly less smoggy so I can start to see blue waters again 

Blue sky and Blue waters back again

Hiking around the Montague Harbor Bay

Bob also made a lovely Irish stew with homemade bread for dinner. Yum 

Bistro Bob Irish stew with fresh baked baguette

After that we went for a concert at the Yellow house by 3 local kids that's quite interesting

Concert by 3 local kids

Canada gulf islands day 7 - Pender day 2

 Pender Island Day 2

South Pender Gowlland Beach

Getting ready to do south Pender today. We are realizing a few places on the island don't open on mon-wed as mentioned before. So today was an opportunity to see some places that's not open as it's Thursday. 

We decide to pack a picnic breakfast at Hamilton beach. Got a  salmon eggs Benedict from otter copper, a Jamaican beef patty and a mushroom brie croissant from vanilla Leaf Bakery and went to the beach with our chairs. Yum

Our picnic breakfast (do note the smoggy sky)

Our picnic breakfast

After that we went to hike Mt Norman which is a steep hike but has great views of the island

Mt Norman

After that we went to Gowlland and saw the zigzag international line through the islands that's quite funny

Gowllands Beach

The Zigzag international line looking across to San Juan Island

We went back to north Pender to go to the cider place but unfortunately it's closed. But the locals told us the ports mouth restaurant carry their cider on tap so we are off to drink more cider! Their cider is also wild yeast and great tasting too. Unfortunately we didn't get to taste all of their different flavours. https://www.twinislandcider.com/

Portsmouth bar for more cider from Twin Island Cider

We went to hub at hope Bay to get some Pender island chocolates. Way better quality than Rogers and very interesting flavors

Pender chocolate

selection of 9 chocolates. Very pretty!

After that we decide to take an earlier ferry to Galiano as the restaurant we want to try only opens at 4pm which is too late for the 425pm ferry. It's great as usual to see Bob and Meg. Bob made dinner for us. Yum! 

Pork stew with bok chop and rice from Bistro Bob =)

Canada Gulf islands day 6 - Pender day 1

 Pender Island Day 1 

Smog is obvious in this picture on top of Mt Menzies

Pender island is back to the wilderness after Victoria city

Here comes our ride!

View from the ferry on the way out

On the way out of Swartz bay, there is this little sign store at the ferry terminal that has the most amount of hilarious signs.  It provided a lot of entertainment before the crossing

Little sign shop at Swartz Bay

Funny signs

It's not clear how much we can do on the island as after labor day things are starting to shutdown

We end up enjoying this island a lot as it's similar to Salt spring Island but smaller

Hike Mt Menzies 

Pretty sign at Menzies

The most useless hiking map =)

We got up there and got another breath taking view of the islands. We are also starting to see the smog that clouded the islands and Vancouver for 2 days too. But still pretty! 

More views

The islands at the crooked tree views

After the hike we went driftwood center which is the local town center. 

Drift wood center: The center of civilization on Pender Island

Had to check out the book store and saw they have some puzzles too. Canada has some of the best puzzles.I bought a Charles dickens story in Galiano that's not easily found in states. This time I got a Sherlock Holmes one

My new puzzle!

We went to sea star vineyard as the cider place is not open on Wed. But it's what we feared after the Russian river experience. The wine are not full bodied enough without the heat to build that flavor. While the bubbly style isn't bad, it's just not special enough to justify the $31 price tag. 

Seastar Vineyard

View of the pretty cove from Seastar vineyard

Unfortunately Amy bread shed is empty twice that we tried to pick up something there. 

Bummer.. end of season for the bread shed

We also have limited selection at truss Farm Food on Wed and with the season winding down. End up we picked up a pre-made noodles from truss Farm Food and added some zucchini and rotisserie chicken leftover and it's very tasty. 

Dinner with stir fry vegetables noodles and added zucchini and leftover chicken

The prior Centennial Campground is run by BC parks too and have facilities like pit toilets and potable water. Enjoyed going back to the 5pm happy hour kicking back at the campground. 

Back to campground

Canada Gulf island day 5 - Vancouver Island day 3

 Vancouver Island day 3

Today is food tour and downtown Victoria day

Victoria parliament building 

First thing first is to solve the transportation to Victoria downtown

Since it's not possible to find parking easily in a regular car, let alone a 22 ft campervan, we decide to find a 24 hours parking place in Sidney and took the bus down

Bus 70 from Sidney to Victoria

We were able to get to downtown and walk around for about an hour before the food tour starts. 

The first thing we noticed is sea planes are landing in the Harbor every 15 mins! It's slightly crazy to see how busy the harbor is, with ferries, cruise ships, water taxis and recreational boats. We also heard they will shutdown the marina if a whale comes into it. It is usually a migration whale as the local pods know not to come into the marina lol. 

Sea plane landing and taking off in Victoria Harbor

Piling of tourists into a whale watching boat! amazing that they fit! =) 

This area is Victoria Spanish step. Nice square with buskers singing and you can watch a sunset on the steps. So it's a popular spot. We saw some filming going on that day. 

Spanish steps equivalent in Victoria for good sunset

Market square that got popular as an open space during Covid

At that point we met for the food tour. Andy is the operator and it's an interesting tour. I learned that Victoria does not snow and has temperate weather. 

First step Philips brewing Company 

The first tasting is a meat ball that you can procure as a lunch sandwich. It is beef and pork mix with a pesto to tone down the spicy tomato sauce. Very yummy 

Meat ball tasting in Philips Brewery

After that we walked around the china town and went into a few alleys like Fan Tan and Dragon alley. The generic red bricks used in a lot of Victoria building allows them to have a lot of filming as they can pass for new York etc. Fan Tan Alley is an example of Chinese settlements using alleys for gambling and getting the crime off the streets. They also have half number in address for the upstairs units as they become popular for business and art studios

Dragon Alley

Fan Tan Alley

China town gate with a time capsule at the side

But with gentrification, truthfully all the local restaurants has been replaced as Victoria has become a cruise ship town to cater for thousands of tourists that land for 4 hours before leaving. 

But a lot of buildings are getting restored in historical building as long as they keep the facade but upgrade the interior to be earthquake code ready. 

Friends & Family Bakery

Next stop was a surprise. It's a filipino bakery that has very good ube bread. 

Friends & Family Bakey with their ube bread

Next stop is a Matcha shop that they made some traditional matcha with lemonade. I can smell how good the matcha is, before they ruined it mixing into the lemonade. cry.. 

Matcha lemonade

Shanzees

It's surprising to get a Lousiana grits and biscuits place in Victoria. But they are award winning and we got a small tasting of the savoury and sweet biscuits. Shanzee is also one of the first shop house in Chinatown and there's a picture of them during the old times.

Shanzee's

They also have great signs in the resturants

Chimac is Korean fried chicken which is easily one of the better fried chicken I have tasted. Would go back in a heartbeat. We tasted the original and soy garlic and both are good!

Chimac korean fried chicken

At that point we walked to a historical building Bard & Banker which is a nice pub. It is orignally a bank until 1988 and famous for live music. 

Bard & Banker

Rogers chocolate

We chanced into this chocolatier in Sidney but the main first shop is in Victoria. There's a broken glass at the window to remind them to listen to their customers as apparently it was broken by a customer rapping it with her cane. We got a Victorian creme but they are too sweet for my taste. 

Victorian cream in Rogers

We are also given Andy's card to go into the pub to grab a cider or beer as the 7th tasting. It's quite funny as Andy say this pub is a new pub meant to look old while they are modernizing Garrick's head pub which is an old pub they trying to make new =) 

Pub next to Garrick's head Pub

After the food tour, We took a water taxi to the floating home and walked back to Victoria. It's just such a cheeky and cute coloring that I had to do it 😂

Victoria water taxi

We took the taxi to the floating homes and walked back from there

Floating homes

At this point we are pretty tired and ready to go home. Dinner is a bit of a dilemma. The Victoria downtown is really been gentrified and it's tough to find a place that's not a tourist trap or a place with an ocean view as an excuse for charging exorbitant prices for mediocre food. 

We end up going to red fish blue fish shack that turns out to have really fresh fish for fish and chips. Bill has his on a hot dog bun that's different too

Red fish , Blue fish which is really good

We also had a good view of tourists kayakers that's entertaining. Tough to imagine what they are thinking wearing a long sleeve shirt and dress shoes and getting into a kayak =) 

Fun fact: the empress was built on reclaimed land. And they put in wood foundation that was discovered to be sinking.that is all fixed five years ago. They also remove the ivy outside that was damaging the bricks. And discovered jewelry in the hedges stolen by raccoons who went into open guests windows

Cool statue in Victoria