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Today, Bob, Rafa, and I went back to the first park that the homeowners had taken us to when we first arrived for the walk through— Island View Beach Regional Park. It’s an easy 10 to 12 minute drive south down Highway 17 to the park along the shore of the Haro Strait. The park itself was as busy as we’ve seen with lots of dog walkers — townies like us but also campers at the park as well. There is a short walking path, but you can walk up and down the shore as well, depending on the tide levels. We were there at relatively high tide, so mostly stayed on the trail for ease of walking.

As you’ll see from the pics, it’s a lovely area and is also a bird habitat for resident and migratory birds.

One of the friends of our homeowners had told us about the Saanich Fair that is held over Labor Day Weekend, as I was in 4-H for 8 years and showed exhibits at the fair I am always interested in checking out other fairs. We went today after a trip to the dog park with Rafa. The fair was bigger than we were expecting with a large midway but also lots of exhibits from 4-Hers and maybe others — from animals to food to flowers and stitchery. The weather was sunning and in the mid-60s F, so a lovely day although I’m used to warmer weather for fairs.

Today, we drove about 15 minutes to Bear Hill Regional Park to summit Bear Hill with Rafa for views of the surrounding area. The description of the trail is 220 meters of glacier-scoured rock. It was definitely one of the rockiest trails we’ve done recently and required some serious attention to footing.

We did a loop trail add-on after the summit for a longer hike. We ran into quite a few dogs and their people towards the end of the hike.

Bob, Rafa, and I did a 10k walk today at Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park. This is a 1,072 acre park containing Elk Lake and Beaver Lake. We began our walk near Elk Lake.

We have been exploring a couple of new parks with Rafa, both on lead and off. Yesterday we went to Cole’s Bay Regional Park for some ball fetching. It was quiet, so Rafa got quite a bit of off-lead time in.

Today, we had a good walk around many trails at John Dean Provincial Park. From the website, the park is “situated on top of Mount Newton on Southern Vancouver Island and overlooks the pastoral Saanich Peninsula, the Gulf Islands, and the Cascade Mountains.” We headed toward a viewpoint, but t was a bit obscured with the still smoky air.

Bob had read about a 9.3 km walking/biking trail around the Victoria International Airport, which is actually located here in Sidney — less than a 10 minute drive from the condo. We thought we’d tackle it today (Saturday) as we assumed the parks might be busy. This trail was also being used but with its length was not crowded.

The path goes around the perimeter of the airport and has signs along the route highlighting some of the history of the area. We saw people walking, running, biking, and skating on it. It made for a lovely walk as we watched the airport traffic (both commercial and small planes).

Bob is officially 60 years old! His birthday was Tuesday, and we celebrated with a lovely dinner out in downtown Sidney after a trip to the dog park with Rafa. While we have done a couple of urban walks with Rafa, today we ventured out a bit to Horth Hill Régional Park at the very north part of the island. It was a quick 10 minute drive from the condo.

We enjoy watching tv at night with Rafa, as he often seems quite intent on what is happening, especially if there’s a dog involved.

Bob and I left La Conner, WA, on Saturday to drive across the Canadian border and then take a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Vancouver Island. It was then a quick drive to Sidney, and we had a great walk through with our homeowners starting at 4. We were able to go with the homeowners to a popular park/beach to walk Rafa, our cute new canine charge. They also made a great pasta dinner. On Sunday, we were able to visit another dog park and meet some of Rafa’s and the homeowner’s friends before Bob drove them to the airport for their visit with family and friends in England and Spain.

Today, for our longer walk with Rafa, we walked the 2.5k Sidney Waterfront Walkway and Sculpture Walk. This took us by a marina, restaurants, homes, city parks, and public art.

This morning Bob and I headed out early for the 25 minute drive to Deception Pass State Park to beat the crowds. We arrived a little before 9 am, and it was a brisk 58 degrees. I have since learned that Deception Pass is Washington’s most visited state park, which just shows that we are in the know even when we’re not!

Deception Pass State Park spreads over 3,854 acres across 2 islands, Fidalgo to the north and Whidbey to the south. We drove across Fidalgo Island and the Deception Pass Bridge to get to the park. We happily paid the $10 park fee and went off to explore the Goose Rock Summit and Perimeter Trails before heading down to the bay for a light breakfast as we watched the boats, fishermen, and got a proper look at the impressive bridge.

We explored a variety of sites with our first full day in La Conner, Washington. First, we walked to Pioneer Park, which had a short trail with somewhat of an overlook of La Conner.

The park trail descended close to the road across the Rainbow Bridge, so we walked across and explored some of the area in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

We returned over the Rainbow Bridge back to La Conner and walked through the La Conner Waterfront Park before heading back into the town center.

Back in the town center, we headed down 1st Street, the street that runs along the waterfront with much of the retail and restaurant business, to visit the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA). The MoNA has a permanent collection of more than 2,400 artworks that showcase the rich artistic history of the Northwest. Admission was free.

We then climbed some stairs for an overlook of 1st Street and the channel before returning to the hotel.

This afternoon, we’re headed to the small community of Mount Vernon to check out what’s on offer there.