Old Town Bakery, Ladysmith, BC: The most amazing cinnamon buns on the west coast, I'm sure - in a cute little town and bargain priced at something like $2.25.
Ladysmith Transfer Beach Park: A town park complete with a full-on water play area! And an awesome playground - Two local service organizations seem to have built the play structures, and it's almost like they were trying to see who could out-do the other. Kids win! We were just lucky to get there BEFORE the local day camp vans brought every kid in BC to play and have lunch by the water. (But even the kids were pretty well-behaved, and with Mags liking to watch boys as she does, God help us, the camp kids actually added to the fun.)
Lady Marmalade, Victoria, BC: Awesome, kid-friendly breakfast. Mags and I had left the hotel searching for coffee EARLY on Sunday morning when it was just us, the birds and some sketchy stoop-sleeping panhandlers wandering Johnson Street. We found an open Starbucks and on the way home smelled BACON. We followed our noses to Lady Marmalade, went back and roused the others and had a great breakfast, complete with porridge before heading toward the ferry terminal. The prices were reasonable, too - In fact, they had a review hanging in the window that was titled, "Eat Cheap, Not Crap" - and I'd say that's right on target.
Luciano's, Victoria, BC: Outside seating, good food, and as kid-friendly as a nice restaurant gets. The girls split an order of spaghetti and meatbals, and we only broke one glass on the sidewalk.
Chemainus, BC: "Just an hour's drive from Victoria, but a world away in time." Although the "world famous murals" are a little creepy - I swear the one guy's eyes followed me wherever I went (see above)... the town is friendly and quiet and a perfect place to spend a fireworks-free July 4.
Renaissance Books, Chemainus, BC: Peter Gray has a used book shop in an old house in Chemainus. He clearly LOVES his books - When I browsed around while the family was back in the hotel napping one afternoon, I scored some finds. When I brought a copy of Peggy Guggenheim's autobiography to the counter, he said, "Where did you FIND that? I totally forgot we had that book!" And he said it in such a way that led me to believe he does not forget many individual books. I don't know if he has a human family, but if he does, they must be very understanding. My grand total came to $43 Canadian, and as he wrote down each book title in his ledger, I found as I counted my loonies that I only had $40, and he was fine with that. I hope that somebody somewhere reads this and goes to see this store someday.
Willow Street Cafe, Chemainus, BC: There are NOT alot of places to eat in Chemainus - In fact, you can kind of wander up and down the deserted street wondering how all of the stores (which seem to be perpetually closed) can possibly be in business, but when we came into the range of Willow Street Cafe, the proprietor welcomed us to the porch out front and got us settled in for a good dinner. The menu for dinner is small, but there were two specials - Jay had the meat lasagna and I had a chicken curry over jasmine rice that was really very good.
Doctor's Medical Clinic, Yates St., Victoria, BC: In and out fast, not too spendy for an out-of-pocket transaction, prescription granted and filled across the parking lot. Bada-bing, bada-boom, bye-bye strep throat.
The People - The guy on the pedal cab who hooked us up with dinner recommendations, the girl who drove Mags and me around on our carriage ride, various wait staff, hotel cleaning people, etc. etc. - What a nice bunch of folks! Seriously. Except for the one lady at Market Day in Chemainus who sold me the duck casserole dish. If it hadn't been so cute, I would've given you the stink eye for sure, Lady.
Just one thing... Whoever the hell designed the fences in Victoria obviously was not the parent of a young child. Look at the photo with Jay and Ellie - It's almost like they intentionally left out the most important part of the fence, just tempting 3 1/2 year olds to flop over the lower rung and fling themselves headfirst 20 feet down onto the hood of some unsuspecting car. In the picture of Maggie, I have given her specific instructions to STAND RIGHT THERE AND DON'T MOVE AT ALL WHILE I TAKE THIS PICTURE TO SHOW THE WORLD HOW STUPID THAT FENCE IS.
1 comment:
we went to Vancouver and Victoria on our honeymoon and had a great time.
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