Playing catch up

Wow, where has the time gone! It's Thursday already??? It seems like just yesterday we landed on the Island. Boy do we have a lot to catch you all up on!
Monday.

Arrived on the Island after all those km! We felt alive, happy, & so glad to finally be here. We took a look and walked around Sidney first. Such a cute town. It was nice to finally be at the Ocean, to smell it & touch it. The boys found their very first shells. I must admit (tho I don't feel so ignorant, this being my first time on the Island), I was totally shocked of the topography here. Everywhere we went it felt like we were actually in the mountains! I know for a lot of you that may sound funny, but I thought it would be a flat sort of Island with a mountain off in the distance. I had no idea!!! (in my head I always thought it would be sweet  to live in the mountains surrounded by the Ocean, but I never thought it would happen). Driving around it made us think of Costa Rica (again). We drove thru clouds, past huge moss covered trees & rocks, up mountain passes & down again. It was gorgeous (one lady told us not to tell anyone how gorgeous it is here because then everyone would move here).
Chris found us a great hotel up in a beautiful golf resort at the Westin Bear Mountain. It's like it's own little village. Twinkle again looked like a spoilt little kitten laying on big beds & eating out of pretty new bowls (& she should be with all the driving & being couped up in car's & hotels). The views would have been better if it wasn't so misty, but I'm really not complaining ~ how can I? We hung out & relaxed Monday night at the hotel, doing a bit of swimming, hot tubing & tv. It was really nice after such a long day. We are here after all, & if all goes our way we will be here indefinitely!

Tuesday.
My first run on the Island was Sweet! The air, the view, the hills (ugggh!) After that Chris treated me to an amazing massage at the spa & we had a quick breakfast (Chris went out to the grocery to get some fresh fruit, almond milk, orange juice, cereal  & frozen berries), we took off for our first scouting trip! Mill Bay, Cowichan Bay, Crofton, & Cobble Hill were the first on our list. All are up the east side of the mountain between 20-80 minutes out of Victoria. Before we got to the first 'village' we turned off of Malahat Drive to see the Salmon Run. It was the first time I've ever seen such a thing. It was pretty cool. There were a lot of Salmon jumping up the river as well as a lot of Sea Gulls feasting on Salmon who couldn't swim anymore :(

On to the towns.... A lot of them are actually areas where people just live & commute to Victoria for work. A bit sucky seeing as we wanted to live & work in the same area, but we're still hopeful. Beautiful windy roads hugging both mountain sides & the oceans edge. Hidden driveways leading to amazing Ocean side homes & high hedges hiding cute B&B's. Small cafes filled with locals on a break & local markets still selling organic veggies. It reminded me of the quaint villages in Europe I always wanted to move to.
Mill Bay was the first stop & I'm sure I don't have to tell you that it stole our hearts. We stopped for a coffee & to talk with some locals & as we left I eagerly looked for 'for sale' signs....
Cobble Hill was next & although it was off the Ocean & more into the mountains, Chris was picturing his Brewery in a few gorgeous open meadow like areas. It could be so picture perfect!
Cowichan Bay was cute as a button, the Bakery is hiring & we saw all the kids running out of school playing soccer. It was perfect (there was even a house we could rent near by!)
Maple Bay was more of a community up a steep hill instead of a town & Crofton was not at all what we were looking for. All in all it was an extremely productive day. We ventured further north then we anticipated for the day, but it was ok. Better then ok, it was glorious!
On our way home we stopped in at a local Fish n Chips place for a bite. I know, I know, we're veggies ~ but when in Rome i guess.... (Chris didn't have any & Oz was asleep from the long day of driving, so it was only Callym & I). Yum tho!
Anyways, we got back to the hotel & relaxed some more. Hot tubing & swimming.
Here's a photo of Callym with a big tree we saw

Wednesday.
I woke up thinking that we were going to head up to LadySmith (the town that kept popping up in my research, the one that I kept deleting). But Chris had other plans. We packed up the car (again), packed up poor Twinkle (again)

& off to Sooke we were! SookeSooke is kinda going thru a rough time right now. People are selling because there are no jobs & they can't afford to stay (at least 70% drive into Victoria to work as it is). If we were to settle here, our business' would be what would keep us going (& the town hopefully). The people we talked with were very supportive of Chris starting a brewery here ~ such great news! One thing that Sooke had that no other town did, was the ability to walk around & know everyone. It really is a town away from it all. One road in & one road out (if there is an accident, you're stuck!) The western part of the Island is much quieter & less populated then the east.
After Sooke we had just enough time & day~light to make it to our hotel in Chemanius. Once there we headed to town to see what we could see. Ah SO CUTE!!! I'm glad we kept this one till close to the end. Chemanius is known for having their own currency, we haven't collected any yet but it's legal tender in Canada & it sounds pretty cool. Chemanius is also known for their murals. Being a bit dark we didn't really get to see any, but I'm sure we will soon. We did a quick tour of town but most of the stores were already closed & the rest were closing within minutes. We found a Christmas store that was still open & popped in. The lady working was from Manitoba & the lady who owned the store was from SK. It was nice meeting people who had travelled like us to make a new life ~ but I must admit that the lady from Sk was a real dream squasher. She kept saying things like "oh it's such a nice dream but....." & "you know it's much harder work" & oh so much more. I wanted to squash her (I'm being really nice here), anyways needless to say we were all pretty down after that :(
We made it back to the hotel hoping to grab a bite to eat in the restaurant ~ but there was no restaurant.... ah, anyways, to end off this day I ordered us pizza & the boys went out for a swim. Bed time for us, such a long day only to have it end sour because of that lady.

Here's a cute house we saw for sale