Beginning our day in beautiful Fanny Bay!
And ending our day in Captain’s Quarters, Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring Island.
Beautiful fire, nice Saltspring Island beeswax candle and some delicious B.C. Ex Nihilo rose wine. Perfect!
Add a little maple and fig Boursain cheese and some Saltspring raspberry and rose jam. Delightful!
What a busy day we’ve had today! We left Fanny Bay this morning around 9am and made a stop in Parksville and Nanaimo for Richard’s Trip Directing job he had to do today. I was the navigator and our goal was to get to Victoria just before noon so we could have lunch outside with my son Josh and his girlfriend Alicia. As we were driving down the main Hwy 1 near Duncan, B.C. Josh texted me and told me he had an emergency at work and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to meet us for lunch. What a disappointment! We had to go to Victoria anyway for Richard’s Trip Directing job, so we continued down the highway hoping he could resolve the emergency, and we could still meet for lunch.
As we were on the Malahat Highway Josh texted and said the crisis was over and he would be able to lunch with us. He asked if we had looked at the menu he had sent us for ‘Part and Parcel Handcrafted Cooking”, as he wanted to pre-order our meals, so they would be ready when we walked over to the restaurant from their home. Living in Quadra Village, which is a very funky part of Victoria, there are no shortage of great independent coffee shops and restaurants which Josh and Alicia frequent or order through ‘Skip the Dishes’. Richard chose the Mojo Pork Sandwich and I chose the Chicken and Rice.
We arrived around 12:15pm as it seemed we hit every traffic light on Hwy 1 in Duncan on the way down to Victoria.
We parked on the street at Josh and Alicia’s house and walked over to ‘Part and Parcel’ to pick up our lunch and proceeded to a little parkette where we had eaten outside last time we had lunch in town.
Mojo Pork SBoulder, Swiss cheese, caramelized onions, mayo, mustard, lettuce and jalapeño.
Fried Kamut Chicken, chicken fat rice, pickles, Nam Prik, peanuts and herbs. This dish was delicious!
Josh had the same sandwich as Richard and Alicia had the Grilled Cheese on sourdough with cheddar broccoli couscous, almonds, preserved lemon (I need to remember this!) olive mayo dipper. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of her sandwich but it sure looked good.
We had a really nice short visit with Josh and Alicia as they both had to get back to working from home.
Josh is looking really good in his new coat I got him for Christmas! Eddie Bauer tall size which fits him perfectly! 3 in 1 coat, just like Richard’s.
I was very surprised to see that Josh and Alicia have roses blooming at their home. It is unbelievable that roses will bloom in such low temperatures and in January in Canada!
Roses in January!
Roses about to bloom.
We finished up in Victoria completing Richard’s Trip Directing job and then we headed for the Swartz Bay Ferry north of Sidney, B.C. The Salt Spring Island ferry is not ‘bookable’ so we arrived around 2:15pm for the 3pm ferry crossing.
Making sure we are in the right lane. We didn’t want to end up in Tsawwassen, on the mainland! The ferry from Swartz Bay also goes to Tsawwasen and we were originally charged for that ferry by mistake!
We have paid for our return fare. We will leave Salt Spring on Sunday from Vesuvius and head over to Crofton, B.C. on a different ferry. From Crofton we will have 1 hour and 26 minutes drive home to Fanny Bay.
Open air ferry. The ferry ride from Swartz Bay to Fulford Harbour where we are staying was 30 minutes.
Fulford Harbour is very quaint. We saw that there was a food market, a bakery/bookstore and a coffee shop in the town as well as a womens store and a pottery store. We wanted to know where we were staying before we went back to town to look around. After a 6 minute drive around the harbour, we had arrived at:
Captain’s Quarters!
Our view from our deck back over to the ferry docks in Fulford Harbour.
The entire cottage has a nautical theme to it.
Our deck off the side door over looking the harbour.
Our view of the harbour from the front window.
Main floor queen size bedroom.
Very steep staircase up to the master bedroom and small ensuIte.
King size bed. I brought my own pillow. I have no idea how they got a king size bed up the small stair case!
A cozy couch and a nice wooden dining room table and chairs. We enjoyed reading the guest book to see where other people who have stayed here enjoyed visiting. There are lots of great magazines about the island, books and DVD movies to watch too!
A perfectly equipped little kitchen. We also have a full fridge and stove.
After turning the heat up in the ‘Captain’s Quarters’ we headed back to Fulford Harbour to visit the food market. We had brought our own cheese, wine, peanut butter, Nutella, bread and fruit, but we didn’t have any crackers or jam. The market had a wonderful selection and on Friday afternoons they make fresh pizza from 3-7pm. Many people who live on the Island were arriving to pick up their pre-ordered pizzas, greeting each other like neighbours. It sure is a small community here and people tend to know who is from ‘away’ vs who is local, on such a small island!
They had Peeper’s reading glasses, but not my strength unfortunately!
The market sells everything you could imagine including a great selection of wines locally made soaps, shampoos, hand creams and food!
We had brought our own baked goods from Cumberland, so we didn’t need to visit the local bakery. I thought this sign on the bakery was pretty funny!
After picking up our groceries, we decided to drive around the Island to try and see some of the Island, before we lost our daylight.
We saw a sign for Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park and drove there to see what we could see.
Views of Burgoyne Bay.
Burgoyne Bay, Salt Spring Island.
Enjoying the view at Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park.
There were a lot of trails which we could have hiked, but we only had about 30 more minutes of daylight, so we didn’t want to start a hike near dusk.
We decided to drive on the main road and do a loop back to Fulford Harbour. Unfortunately the navigator (that’s me) messed up and we ended up in Ganges which is the main town on the island and where the Saturday morning market will be held tomorrow. The town looked beautiful and we are glad that we stumbled upon it! We can’t wait to explore it tomorrow!
We have been told we don’t have enough time to explore the island in two days, but we are going to do our best and try! We were reading the Salt Spring Island travel guide tonight and saw that there is a 9 hole golf course here on the Island! Unfortunately we took our clubs out of Jerry, so we won’t be able to play this time. Maybe next time?!!
Now our biggest choice is which movie to watch as we continue to enjoy our wonderful bottle of B.C. Rose wine.....decisions...decisions....
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