My mornings all seem to be about the same thing: me getting up and eating. I do stay up a bit later than most of the family, especially the grandkids, and well they are the first ones up, so by the time I get down stairs there has usually been a fair amount of activity. This morning’s activity was fixing “Hootnanny Pancakes”. Hootnannies are just a real eggy German Pancake. We’ve had em around the Burbidge house for years. Needless to say they didn’t last long.

The sun was shinning and Dennis and Rosie took Cameron for a walk. The rest of the four of us decided to go for a boat ride around the island. We checked the nautical chart for any sleeper reefs and then headed out. On our way around we saw Biscoe Beach, and guess who was skipping stones? Sure enough, Dennis and Rosie with Cameron. We stopped and waved, and then headed along the way. We also found a house that needed some concrete work too, but after viewing the site we decided to pass on the job. We finished the circumnavigation, and Rosie and Dennis were already back from the beach.

After our respective tours we had some lunch. I took Dennis over to the dock so that he could head over the Cordova Bay Golf Course. He went with a grocery list and a return pickup time. When I returned from dropping of Chichi McBurbidge, the rest of us decided to test out the crab pots and see if there were any pinchers in the big blue. We found some fish parts in the freezer, fixed up the traps, and dropped them off the end of the pier. We came back in and waited for an hour, then went back out and pulled up the pots. There are crabs after all. (Read more)

Today we finally decided to do some touring around. We are tourists after all, though our digs belie our dark kneehighs and mid-belly Madras. We had heard that the Butchards Gardens were a don’t miss! So we all saddled up and headed over.

Just a hop skip and a jump away from Canoe Cove we arrived without incident. I had heard it was spectacular but oh was I in for a surprise. With Disneyland like efficiency we were paid, parked and even led to a closer lot since we had chillin’s. That however was where the similarities to D-ville stopped, well other than the multitude of languages heard and the cameras clicking. I thought, at one time, I actually heard ‘It’s a Small World After All’, but it was just some guy whistling in the sunken garden. The gardens were amazing! Put that down on your list of things to do before you die. I didn’t get many flower shots. The trees, layout and logistics were a thing of beauty to me as much as the flowers themselves so my pictures certainly don’t do it justice.

After we had become numb with natural awe and wonder, we decided that we had seen enough. We were all famished, so I asked some gardeners working around the yard where we could get some grub. All of them mentioned Just Joey’s next to some Butterfly Gardens at the turn off to Butchards. Apparently they have the best ‘Eggs Bennies’ in town, but Ben said Ruth’s Diner’s are better.

After Lunch we parted ways. The Jacobsens went back to the Sag to get so me rest while the Burbidges went south to drop Dennis off at Olympic View Golf Course and to find the Fisgard Lighthouse. We did a half hearted attempt at finding the OVGC, and made it without any wrong turns, except we never found ourselves on the map. Luckily there were signs at all the critical exits and turns. We found out later that the road we were on was new and not on the map. Dennis got to do some serious practicing, while Rosie and I went to the Lighthouse. (Read more)

This morning after a late night of a photo gallery install on the website, I was a bit groggy. The internal alarm came a bit too early for my liking, but the french toast and eggs made up for it.

For the first time of our northwest trip the sun was not shining. I had always thought that it was rainy up here, but had been fooled so far. Since it was a bit overcast we decided that it would be a great day to finish the project. Dennis, Ben, Allison and I went over to the Sidney to grocery shop and get the 25 bags of concrete that we expected to use. The pickup was a piece of cake, but the logistics of getting it to the dock, onto the Apex and over to Piers was a bit a stretch, but we managed. 3 trips later, and all the bodies, groceries and concrete were docked.

By the time I arrived, much had gone up the ramp and up to the house. Each bag weighs 55 lbs., and its a hundred yards or so to the house, but the rub is that it was low tide. That meant the ramp had a fair amount of slope. We figured 3 bags was about as good as we could manage. We were right because the three of us were all but done but the time we got all the bags to the business end of their journey. (Read more)