Month: August 2024

Bob and I continue to enjoy the Sidney area and are current canine charge. Our routine, as is typical for a housesit, is that I get up early for my run/ workout, and Bob does the early feeding and walk. I get up about 5 am, and Bob is out the door here between 5:30 and 6:00. Bob has been blessed with some beautiful sunrises over the Salish Sea during their early morning walks.

We walk Rafa 4 times a day, 2 of which are about 30 minutes, one quick one right before bed, and then a longer one, usually some time between 8 am and noon. The longer one, might be anything from a 40 minute ball catching/play session at the dog park to hour long hikes around Sidney or other island parks to longer walks on the 9k Flight Path around the airport or the 10k trail around Elk Lake.

Usually, when we go to the dog park, we try to go at a quieter time to be able to throw the ball more easily without having to worry about other dogs getting it. However, last week, we joined a regular 8:00 am group that our home owner usually meets up with, so that Rafa could get some play time with his canine pals.

We haven’t tried any new parks this year, as we hit most of them last year, but we have tried a couple new (for us) restaurants, took in a movie at the local cinema a block from the condo, and even went to an open house for a new condominium complex that is just opening.

Today, Bob and I attended the 11th annual Salish Sea Lantern Festival held in Beacon Park, literally 4 blocks from where we are housesitting. The festival is put on by the ArtSea Community Arts Council and has food trucks, face painting, music, and lots of handmade lanterns. Lanterns have been displayed around the downtown area prior to today to promote today’s event.

After a convention-al past few days and a lovely birthday celebration dinner for Bob last night (We both forgot to photo our very yummy Italian dinners), I finally made it out this afternoon to go into the Sidney/North Saanich Branch Library, which I have run by, and we have walked Rafa by a number of times this year and last year.

It is one of the most beautifully landscaped libraries I have seen and has a community wellness park beside it. Bob and I still need to try the equipment out. I do appreciate a good free exercise park.

The Sidney branch library has been open since 1967, but has only been at its current location since 1982 and was recently renovated in 2019.

This has been a festive weekend in Sidney. Yesterday, was an all-day sidewalk sale downtown (where we the current sit is located) as well as the first day of the North Saanich Flavour Trails Festival, a festival that offers a number of activities to celebrate local farmers, fishers, food producers, etc. Today, was the second day of that festival as well as an open house (donations appreciated) at the BC Aviation Museum.

After walking the 9k Flight Path Trail with Rafa yesterday morning, we chose to stay in Sidney and walk through the Sidewalk Sale and down near the seaside on a lovely, warm summer day. We didn’t photo the sales items, but here are some pics of the active town yesterday.

Today has been rainy, but after a mid-morning walk with Rafa through some Sidney neighborhoods, we went out to check out a bit of the other events that were going on. First, we headed to the Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture to watch a sheep herding demonstration. This is something that we had seen on TV at a housesit in Scotland but had not yet seen in person.

Today’s sheep herding demonstration was a pretty low-key affair, as the sheep were not familiar with dogs, but the human part of the sheep herding demonstration was very informative and is on his way to the Canadian national competition with his border collies.

From the sheep herding, we drove not even 10 minutes to the British Columbia Aviation Museum to check that out. We entered by giving a donation of a five Canadian dollar bill that we still had from last year’s BC housesits.

The museum is on the grounds of the Victoria International Airport and consists of two hangars, a classroom, a restoration workshop, and a gift shop. It was established in 1985.

On Wednesday morning, Bob and I arrived at the downtown condo in Sidney to meet up with our homeowner for a walkthrough and cafe visit before his departure for Europe. We were joined by the sweet Rafa and a local friend. It was great to catch up, as there has been some changes from last year. Happily, Rafa is still healthy and happy and always up for a walk or food, not necessarily in that order.

I likely won’t blog as much since it’s a repeat sit unless we do new things but wanted to remind everyone of Rafa and the beautiful beachfront in Sidney.

Bob and I began our day by driving about 10 to 12 minutes out of the city center to Westwood Lake Park, which we had seen as a thing to do/see here, and we were pretty sure we hadn’t been there on our last trip. Westwood Lake Park is nestled in the foothills of Mt Benson and has a 6.1 km trail around the lake that is definitely popular with runners and walkers. It was a very scenic place for a hike.

After our hike at the lake, we came back to the hotel and then walked near the harbor and poked around the shops in the Old Quarter.

Bob and I had a leisurely morning before heading out of our hotel at 10:00 am to drive just over an hour to Port Angeles, Washington, to catch the Black Ball Ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island. After arriving at the ferry embarkation point, we waited in the parking lot until about 12:45 when we were able to drive on for the 90 minute sailing.

Since the ferry left about 15 minutes late, we arrived in Victoria about 15 minutes late and had to do customs there. That went well, and we headed to Nanaimo at about 2:50 pm for the 1.5 hour drive from Victoria. We’ll be in Nanaimo for two nights before leaving Wednesday morning for our housesit in Sidney.

We had a fairly easy drive up to Nanaimo and have checked into our very roomy room at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Nanaimo.

Nanaimo is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We were here for a few days after a housesit in Victoria in January 2017, so we’re looking forward to seeing it again and exploring some new areas tomorrow.

Today, we had a great tour of the Blue Origin headquarters in Kent from my cousin before driving to Port Townsend, Washington, for the night. Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, that makes rockets for ULA and their own company as well as lunar lander services for NASA’s Artemis program.

Port Townsend, Washington, (population of about 11,000) is the only incorporated city in Jefferson County, on the Olympic Peninsula. It is known for many Victorian buildings in its town center, numerous annual cultural events, and as a maritime center for independent boatbuilders and related industries and crafts.

Below are photos from our walk from our hotel to the town center along Water Street, the main thoroughfare through town.

Yesterday, Bob and I left Baker City, Oregon, to drive 6 hours to Kent, Washington, to spend the evening with my cousin Kris and his wife Jen. We had visited them last year, and they said the next time we visited Jen would show Bob how to make paella, as she had learned when Kris and the family were stationed in Spain. So, we were looking forward to seeing them again as well as having paella.

It’s been a busy couple of days, so playing catch-up on the blogs. On Friday, we left our friend’s house in Logan to drive to Baker City, Oregon. This would be our second stay, as we stopped for a night there last year on our way east after having left Vancouver Island. We didn’t see or do much last time, so we tried to explore a bit more this time since we arrived earlier in the day.

What to know about Baker City. It is the seat of Baker County, Oregon, and has a population of about 11,000. It was named after Edward Dickinson Baker, the only US Senator ever killed in military combat. He died in 1861 during the US Civil War.

Perhaps one of the most interesting finds downtown was an agri sculpture that our friends in Logan had found listed in their Atlas Obscura app. This is a scale model of a salt block licked into this shape by cattle, horses, and sheep. Since the region is deficient in trace minerals, blocks of salt are placed out to supplement livestock’s diet. In Baker County, these blocks are then collected annually and auctioned off to support research for Parkinson’s Disease.