This morning we had a nice lazy kind of morning. It’s so nice to be able to sleep in without an alarm, and today was one of those days. I think we were both pretty tired after the time change on the weekend, and the early start we had yesterday for strength training.
The sea lions have been honking up a storm at night and there are a lot of them, so it can definitely be a distraction to trying to get to sleep at night! Last night I couldn’t fall asleep because of the sea lions, so I read my Kindle for awhile until I got sleepy. I’m reading a very good book right now called “The Secret Life of Bees”. It’s an older book, but its still a good one.
We left early for our tee time at Crown Isle as we wanted to stop at Shopper’s Drug Mart and pick up some anti nausea stuff for our whale watching trip on Saturday in Tofino. The last thing both of us need is to be sea sick on my birthday and not enjoy the day, or the special birthday dinner Richard has planned for me!
We also had to stop at Scotiabank to deposit a US draft and just before I went to the Bank Richard got a text from Marc advising us that there was a frost delay and our 1:22pm tee time would now likely be 3pm - which meant we would only be playing 9 holes. Oh well, that’s ok. Sometimes 9 holes is enough, and today we were going to walk Crown Isle, so walking 9 holes was probably going to be enough for me, since I had to push my own golf cart today.
Oh to have a caddie to carry my clubs, so I could just walk without pushing the darn cart!
After visiting the Bank we decided that since our tee time was later, we would have lunch somewhere downtown Courtenay, since we were already there. Richard had parked on a side street right in front of a restaurant that said it was open today.
Very short restaurant hours, and a very limited menu!
We thought this spot looked very interesting since neither one of us had had this type of Japanese food before. We went in to order and we ended up ordering the Katsu Kare which is Japanese curry rice with fried chicken cutlet.
Emiko by Nikkei Ramen-Ya. So the story on this place we found out was that Nikkei Ramen-Ya is a Ramen restaurant on 5th street downtown Courtenay and Emiko makes all of the ramen noodles and broths for the Nikkei Ramen-Ya which doesn’t have the kitchen space to be able to make their broths or their noodles on site. We watched as they were making noodles in the back of this small restaurant to service Nikkei Ramen-Ya. EMIKO is just starting out as a restaurant on its own, serving different foods from its small menu to assist with the overhead costs of being in a separate location to Nikkei.
Our lunch being prepared. Dredging the chicken in egg, flour and panko.
Watching the ramen noodles being fed the machine.
While Richard was waiting for our lunch I headed over to a ladies shop which looked quite interesting, on 5th Street, downtown Courtenay. I had not stopped into this store before and they had a beautiful sweater and toque which I bought today.
A nice selection of casual and dressy clothing in Mercedes Lane Too.
I found my sweater on the sale rack in the back!
I bought a ‘Pook’ sock toque like the one of the left side of the table. Pook is one of a kind Canadian apparel. The Pook line of clothing was started by Tony Pook and Kevin McCotter from St. Mary’s, Ontario and they pitched their line of amusing hats, scarves, gloves that are all made from socks, on Season 4 of the Dragon’s Den. They asked for $250,000 for 10% of their company. They ended up refusing to give up 50% control of their company for $250,000, but the company has obviously done well since appearing on the Dragon’s Den 11 years ago. The ‘Princess Leia” design on this hat was what got me to buy it, and the hat is reversible too!
After finishing up at Mercedes Lane Too, I walked back to Jerry and Richard and I headed to Rotary Park, downtown Courtenay to have our picnic lunch on a bench. We couldn’t wait to try our Japanese food,as neither one of us had ever had Japanese curry before!
Pouring the warm curry sauce over the meal.
I had to wear my new hat right away!
The Katsu Kare was delicious! Such an interesting taste and it was so nice to sit out on a picnic bench in +7C sunny weather. There was a guy playing guitar over by the bandshell and singing too, so we had a concert to listen to while we ate our lunch.
We decided to drive over to Comox to check out an area we had not been to before off Lazo Road. While we were there we discovered a very beautiful beach area and had to stop to take some photos. There were lots of people out having fun on the water on such a nice sunny day.
Kayakers enjoying the beautiful calm waters and stunning views on the Salish Sea/Strait of Georgia.
Powell River and the Sunshine Coast in the background over on the mainland of B.C.
Some locals enjoying the nice day by sitting out on the beach.
The princess Leia Pook toque. I love it! While I didn’t need a jacket today, I still find my head gets cold and its nice to wear a warm toque.
We headed over to Crown Isle to give ourselves lots of time to warm up on the range and at the short game facility. Since we weren’t really sure what time our tee time was, we wanted to get there with enough time that we weren’t running to the tee.
Range balls are included in our round and everyone hits off mats before they play golf here. The range was pretty full today! People are even starting to sign up for golf lessons! I was able to wear my Ecco golf shoes today for the first time since we’ve been on the Island, instead of my Footjoy golf boots. The Ecco’s are a lot lighter to walk in than the boots!
We started on the 10th hole today since the frost delay meant we would only be playing 9 holes and the 1st hole for some reason takes longer to lose the frost.
Stunning vista’s from this golf course with most holes having views of the mountains.
Marc and me at Crown Isle today.
We came to the 16th hole - par 3 - playing 105 yards today - which was the scene of my hole in one last week, and the pin was in the middle today, tucked behind a raised bunker. Marc said “If you get a hole in one today we won’t be able to see it!” I had a good tee shot, with the same club as last week, but the wind must have been behind us today and I ran up to the top of the green and just onto the fringe. I had a very long putt which snaked around a bit and there was no way I wanted to follow up a hole in one with a bogey, so I lined the putt up and hit it perfectly to leave myself a short tap in for par. After we finished the hole Richard said to me “so you’re still 2 under on the 16th hole since you were 1 last week and 3 this week and its a par 3!” Silly game! That was about the highlight of the round today. The course is still playing quite long and it is very difficult to get the ball to roll out like it would in the summer time. Shooting 46 for 9 holes is not the best, but since score doesn’t matter, who cares? It’s just nice to be out, learning about the area, being social and getting some exercise!
After a quick bite with Mark and his wife Kerry at the Timber Room Grill at Crown Isle, we headed home to get packed up for our trip to Tofino tomorrow. We are going for 4 nights, so that is a lot to pack for! The weather will only be nice tomorrow when we arrive. The rest of our time in Tofino it is supposed to be pretty rainy. Oh well. We’ve got our rain gear and if we need it, we’ll wear it to stay dry and warm!
Playing Crown Isle again today was a bit anticlimactic, but not every day can be a hole in one day!
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