Sonya's Blog - Day 328 - Sidney and Mount Doug Park

Sonya’s Blog - Day 328 - May 15th - Sidney and Mount Doug Park

We dropped Natasha off at the Burton’s house around 11:30 AM. Natasha was a little annoyed, because she had been ready for 45 minutes before we actually left the campground. Well, now she knows how we feel when we are waiting for her - it is super frustrating.

With Natasha dropped off, we decided to go to Sidney and have a look around. After a quick lunch at Tim Horton’s we went to the harbour. They have a nice path along the harbour, so we decided to take a stroll.

While we were looking at the water, we saw a small weasel like creature scurrying around along the shore line. We watched it for quite awhile and it actually went diving into the water a couple of time and came up with something to eat. After it’s first dive, it rolled around in some seaweed and then dove down again. I guess it was trying to mask the smell. A lady passing by told us it was a mink and that there were quite a few of them around that area. Who knew?

When we were done in Sidney, we drove to Mount Douglas Park for a look around. It’s a beautiful, temperate rain forest that ends at a lovely beach in Cordova Bay. There are many pathways to take, but we chose the one to the beach. Unfortunately, as of May 1st dogs are not allowed on the beach so we didn’t get to go there. We walked a couple of the paths instead and enjoyed the forest. We then drove to the top of Mount Douglas (called Mount Doug by the locals), we realized the name of the mountain is now Pkols (which is the name of the mountain used by the aboriginal Saanich and Songhees people), which means White Rock. There is a beautiful view at the top of Victoria and Saanich.

Just before we had arrived at Mount Doug Park, we had passed a Canadian Tire. We decided to head back there to pick up supplies for our RV. Blake ran in to get the items we needed and I stayed in the truck with Isaac and Kizmet. Right across from me were two ladies that had bought a small chest freezer (maybe the size of a bar fridge). They were standing there with the Canadian Tire worker trying to figure out how to fit said freezer into the trunk of a small Honda Accord. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the freezer was never going to fit and it wouldn’t fit inside the car either. I walked over and asked if they wanted to put it in the back of my truck and I would follow them to it’s destination. The ladies accepted, the Canadian Tire employee was happy to have the ordeal over with and plopped it in the back of my truck. Blake got out the tie-down straps and we secured it and we were on our way. The freezer was for the younger lady, who had just moved into a house with some room-mates. Her Mum was with her, helping her out. The young ladies place was only about 10 minutes away, on the way back into Victoria and we were heading that way anyhow, so it really wasn’t a huge sacrifice for us. We dropped off the freezer and headed on our way.

The Burton’s had generously offered to drop Natasha off later in the day, so we were able to just head back to camp. I started to prep some appetizers and food for supper. The Burton’s showed up just after 6 and we had a little visit. We had to sit outside, since our slide doesn’t work and the main area is pretty tight if there is more than 1 person in there. Unfortunately the breeze had come up and it was pretty cool. We all enjoyed a glass of wine and some appetizers. The kids all played Apples to Apples and then the Burton’s had to return home to get ready for the week ahead. Isaac was sad, but some kids have to get up and get to school in the morning, not all of them have his lackadaisical school schedule. I think Isaac will have a bit of a shock when he joins the school system again next year.

Sonya