camping – Riveted

Showers, Rain, Drizzle, Cloudy with a Shower

Laura Domela — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 18:29:30 +0000

This is what our week sounds like, per Accuweather.

It rained most of the day yesterday, but we got a short break and braved our way to the beach for a walk. This is what our campsite area looked like when we left:

The beach was quiet and beautiful and we had a good walk.

There were all these weird finger-shaped (and sized) things that had washed up on the shore:

I got close and they were definitely organic (but no bones, so…not fingers).

My first thought was starfish legs, but upon closer inspection we decided they were probably small sea cucumbers.

However, once back at the Airstream (and internet) we discovered they were not in fact sea cucumbers, by pyrosomes. They are bioluminescent (when alive) and can get as large as 60 feet long. Each one is actually a colony of cloned creatures called “salps” about 1 cm long each, connected together by tissue to form what looks like a rubbery, plastic tube. Winter storms have caused many of them to wash ashore and they’re apparently all over the Oregon Coast right now. [Source]

Bird-shaped driftwood:

Same driftwood, different angle:

Not many people on the beach today:

Heading over the dunes and back to camp:

When we got back to camp, our moat had mostly disappeared, but I’m thinking we need some Xtratufs for the Airstream as well as the boat!

We went to dinner last night in Manzanita…a restaurant called Blackbird.

For starters we shared a radicchio caesar salad and some bacon-wrapped apricots (stuffed with goat cheese and marcona almond). Both starters were fantastic. For our main course we shared some Ricotta Gnocchi (with lamb bacon, shaved fennel, basil and tarragon pesto, maitake mushroom, parmesan), and a delicious prawn dish , but I don’t have all the ingredients for that one because it wasn’t on the online menu. I’m not sure which entree we liked the best. The portions were perfect, too…perfect enough that we got to share a chocolate pot du creme with sea salt on top for dessert.

It rained like crazy all night last night, and early this morning the wind really kicked up. We slept in a bit, made some late breakfast, and are having a lovely anniversary day at the coast.

Airstreamin’ in Wine Country

Laura Domela — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 14:49:27 +0000

We dusted off the Airstream on Thursday morning and headed down to the Willamette Valley wine country (only a little over an hour from our house in Portland) to meet up with some friends for the weekend.

When we got to our RV storage unit, everything was just as we'd left it and there were no big issues. Pretty good after sitting for a year in storage! The tires needed a little air, the clocks needed new batteries, and the fridge light needs a new bulb, but other than that everything was ready to go.

We are camping at the Willamette Wine Country RV Resort and so far, we have mostly remembered how to do everything. Campgrounds are definitely noisier than anchorages and mooring buoys, but it's still fun to be out in the trailer. (And there are no ferry wakes tossing you awake at 7am!)

Kevin and I had a reservation for dinner on Thursday night at the Joel Palmer House (thank you to Kevin's mom for the sweet gift card!)

The Joel Palmer House, in Dayton, Oregon:

Our table:

Because this is truffle country, we did the Mushroom Madness tasting menu, and because we're in pinot noir country, we shared a bottle of Methven Family Vineyards Pinot Noir. All was delicious and it was a nice evening.

In the morning, we met up with our friend Kathy Hardersen and her son Kyle. (Kyle just bought a new Airstream International 25' and is parked right next to us, and Kathy left her Airstream at home and is staying here in one of The Vintages.) We had breakfast at our trailer, and then went over to Sokol Blosser for some wine tasting on the patio.

Sokol Blosser has a gorgeous tasting room and patio, and we couldn't ask for better mid-October weather!

We were there for a couple hours just visiting and playing cards and tasting wine. Kathy is a wine club member at Sokol Blosser, so we got a nice complimentary charcuterie tray during our card game:

We brought back a deck of cards from the Trickster Company in Juneau, Alaska. This is the Tlingit language edition, and they're fabulous to play with!

We had some lunch at the Red Hills Market, then went to Penner-Ash Wine Cellars for another tasting (and met up with more of Kathy's family). I didn't take any photos at Penner-Ash, but they too have a gorgeous place up on the hill with a fantastic view of the valley. We really enjoyed several of their wines, and left with four bottles: a 2013 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, a 2014 Viognier (served at the White House State Dinner a few weeks ago), a 2013 Oregon Syrah, and a 2013 Rubeo (70% pinot noir, 30% syrah).

We decided to finally let Kyle have something HE wanted drink, so we stopped at Deception Brewing for a bit. (Kevin and I didn't try any of their beer though…next time!)

Dinner last night with the entire Hardersen family (table for 9) was at Ruddick/Wood in Newberg and was a blast. We always have so much fun with these guys. So. Much. Laughing!!

We started with a Honey Badger and a Whiskey Sour, and shared the duck confit hushpuppies (the winner) and a grilled octopus salad for starters, and the Fishermen's Stew and the Chicken Roulade (the winner) for entrees.

Today, we've got some more friends (Lisa and George, in their Argosy motorhome) joining us here and we'll probably visit two more wineries today…maybe ride our bikes around a bit, and just spend more time visiting and catching up.

It's definitely nice to be back in the Airstream, but I miss the boat and the water a little bit (and the rocking!). I think we're going to need to revisit the boondocking side of RV travel a bit more next time we set out for a longer trip…get away from the traffic noise and the leaf blowers and lawn mowers.

Why a Nordic Tug?

Laura Domela — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:57:14 +0000

Some of you have asked us about our boat-buying decision, and specifically about how we ended up choosing a tug. (Note that these tugs are tugs in style only…they don't actually tug stuff.) We might have written about bits of this before, but here it is, all together!

You may remember when we first spotted the cute little Ranger Tugs up in Port Townsend, WA and then again up in Comox, BC when we were on our Airstream trip up to Vancouver Island back in July.

We were working at the dinette at Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend, and we'd been eyeing these little boats for a couple days. There were four or five of them in the marina…same brand, different models and colors…and they were cute! This shot has three of them, on the left of the image:

One day we noticed they were all gearing up to leave and we decided we should run down there and find out what kind of boats they were before they were gone. We went back to the Airstream and started doing a little internet research. Ranger Tugs came in a variety of sizes (21, 25, 27, 29, and 31 foot) and hang on! They're made in Kent, WA, and they're trailerable! The more we learned, the more interested we became. We sent a note to the sales guy to find out if we could come by on our way back to Portland in a few weeks and get a factory tour to see some boats.

Several days later we got a note from the sales guy that he wouldn't be back in the office for about a month, because he was on the yearly Ranger Rendezvous up to Desolation Sound (basically, a rally on the water). They were leaving Anacortes in the morning and would be in Ladysmith, BC tomorrow. By the time he wrote back to us, we were camped out in Nanaimo, BC — only 10 miles from Ladysmith, so he invited us to come by and see some boats! We did, and then we did again on their next stop in Comox where they had about 100 Ranger Tugs now all heading for Desolation Sound. The Ranger Tug owners LOVE their boats, and they love the company and its service. A lot.

The Ranger Tug 31 (the flybridge collapses down for trailering):

There was much to like about the Ranger Tugs. Compact, stylish, clever design…a lot like an Airstream. Hey! We could really get used to life on the water. We thought about how much we love the bustle and atmosphere of marina campgrounds…how we both grew up sailing and being around boats…and the more we thought about it, the more it made sense that we should see about owning a boat. We took the Ranger Tug factory tour, talked to other Ranger owners, spent a lot of time working out finances, mocking up what color we'd get if we got one, where we'd keep it, etc.

And then we decided we should do our due diligence and actually look at a couple other kinds of boats. After all, it had only been a few weeks of Ranger-love and we'd never even considered anything else. We noticed that in a lot of reviews of Rangers (and the "pocket trawler" or "pocket yacht" category in general) the mention of American Tugs and Nordic Tugs (also built locally, in La Conner, WA and Burlington, WA, respectively). Since we seemed to be gravitating toward this tug/trawler style (it's so cute, and so livable), we made appointments to go up and see some boats!

Both the Nordics and the Americans were wider than the Ranger (and therefore, not as easily trailerable). The Ranger has a beam (width) of 10', the Nordic is 11'4" and the American is 13'3".

To be trailered/hauled the Nordics and the Americans would need a wide load permit AND a pilot car, which can get expensive. The Pacific Northwest is such a fantastic area for boating, but I doubt we'd want to keep a boat on the Columbia River all year and not take advantage of the whole Puget Sound and Gulf Islands (and, you know, Alaska!) But did we need trailerable? We decided we didn't. Twice a year (to and from) we could (1) have the boat hauled from Portland to Olympia (people do it all the time) or (2) once we had enough experience, we could take her ourselves via the Columbia River to Astoria, across the Columbia Bar, up the Washington Coast and into the Puget Sound for the summer.

And so the comparison spreadsheets began. Ranger 31. Nordic 32/34. American 34/365. We even added a few more into the mix, just to be thorough…the Beneteau Swift 34 and the Helmsman 37/38.

After being aboard these other larger boats, we ultimately decided we wanted more room than the Ranger offered. The floor space in the Ranger is basically the "walkway" running from the aft cockpit door to the helm and front stateroom, with the dinette on one side and the kitchen on the other. It's efficient, but it's tight. In the Nordics and the Americans, there's room to move around a bit more in the salon (room to do yoga, even!) The Beneteau we looked at was a sexy boat, but suffered from the Ikea fit and finish of the interior materials. It looked good, but it really didn't seem like it would age well. The Helmsman was cool, but way too "nautically styled" for our taste…too much wood (even the blinds were wood). Hard to explain, but here's a pic:

The Helmsman had something we totally loved though…another smaller dinette/settee up in the pilothouse. One person could be drivin' the boat, the other one could be publishing articles!

We pretty quickly found ourselves narrowing it down and comparing between a few used Nordic Tugs and a few used American Tugs (same size range), but kept coming back to the sleeker, lower-to-the-water hull shape of the Nordic Tug. We liked the straighter pilothouse windows (over the slanted slightly out windows on the American Tug). The Nordic Tug was more efficient. Its smaller hull lets it go faster with a 260hp engine than the American can with a 380hp engine. At sightseeing speeds, the Nordic uses about half the fuel than the American does. For us, having a boat is not about getting anywhere quickly. It's about being on the water, watching sea life, enjoying the the fresh air. If we only had weekends, I could see wanting something faster to go further in less time, but we plan to use this boat just like we use the Airstream (exploring, working, cooking, etc.)

Here's the American Tug 365 (previously called the 34) shown with and without flybridge option:

The Nordic 34 (previously called the 32):

They are both fantastic, well-made boats and I'm sure we'd have been happy with any of them (even the Ranger).

All of the previously owned American Tugs we found were older, all had carpet (which we'd definitely want to remove and replace with teak/holly or Amtico…not a minor expense), and the previously owned Nordic Tug we found had great floors, was a color we liked (both exterior and interior), and was much newer. The Nordics and the Americans both have a separate shower in the head, and not a wet bath like in the Ranger (also like we had in our first Airstream).

When we moved from a 22' Airstream to a 27' Airstream (and have now spent almost 700 nights in our 27'), the two upgrades we REALLY appreciated in the 27' were a separate shower and a larger capacity fridge (well, and a couch). The Nordic has a fridge closer to the size we had in the 22' Airstream, and the American has a larger fridge and separate freezer like we have in the 27' Airstream. This was a little problematic (because produce takes a lot of room, and the freezer on the Nordic is tiny), but we solved the issue by adding a decktop fridge/freezer to the Nordic (which will double as a bench, with a padded seat top).

Some Spec Comparison Between the Nordic 34 and the 27' Airstream

The fresh water capacity in the Airstream is 39 gallons. The Nordic 34 holds 100 gallons.

The black water tank in the Airstream is 39 gallons. The black water tank in the Nordic holds 30 gallons (but it's SO much easier to empty).

The gray water tank in the Airstream holds 37 gallons, and on the Nordic…26 gallons. Smaller, yes, but the thing that's different about gray water on the Nordic is that it automatically pumps out when it gets full enough to trip the pump. You use biodegradable products (as we normally do anyway) and you never have to fuss with it. The water from the sink drains directly overboard and never enters the tank. Sweet!

Water heater capacity on the Nordic is the same as in the Airstream: 6 gallons. The water heater in the Airstream is electric when you're on shore power, and propane when you're not. The water heater in the boat is electric when you're on shore power or running the generator, and is also heated by the engine when you're underway…no propane for the water heater on the boat.

The stove/oven on the Nordic works off of propane. There's only one propane bottle and it holds 5 gallons, but the only thing that uses that 5 gallons of propane on the boat is the stove/oven (not like in the Airstream, where it's the fridge, water heater, stove, and heater). Also, here's a pic of our new stove/oven that just went in yesterday:

The boat has three (!!!) built-in heaters. One is like a car heater that works off the engine heat when we're underway. Another is a built-in electric heater that works when we're plugged into shore power or running the generator. The third is a diesel heater that gets its diesel supply from the boat's main fuel tank (for use when we're anchored or moored somewhere without power and not running the generator).

Power

The Airstream gets its power from two places: (1) shore power when we're plugged in, and (2) solar power all the time (when there's sun), so we have a LOT of battery in the Airstream (900 amp hours total).

The boat (once the upgrades are finished) will only have about half that battery capacity (440 amp hours), but the boat batteries get charged four ways: (1) shore power when we're plugged in, (2) solar, like the Airstream (the boat will have two 140-watt solar panels on top of the pilothouse), (3) by the engine when we're under way (the Airstream does this a tiny bit too from the tow vehicle, but at such a trickle it really has no effect), and (4) the boat has a 5kw diesel generator that runs off the boat's main diesel tank that we can run pretty much any time we want. So power will not be an issue with the boat.

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Overall, the living amenities in the Nordic Tug 34 are very comparable to what we know we enjoy and can live and work comfortably in over long periods of time in the Airstream. We wanted to take what we'd learned from our experience Airstreaming and apply it to how we shopped for a boat.

The styling and design of the boat is something we thought about, as well as size. Our goal was to get the smallest boat we could live and work in for long periods of time. We wanted the boat equivalent of our Airstream, not the boat equivalent of a huge fifth wheel or motorhome with 5 slideouts…something comfortably livable yet stylish and efficient. I think we found it!

Exploring Hood Canal

Laura Domela — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:19:22 +0000

We headed out to explore Hood Canal today. We're staying right near the town of Hoodsport on Hood Canal near the Olympic National Forest in Washington. Hoodsport is apparently renowned among SCUBA divers as a staging area to view the giant Pacific octopus (cool!!!)

The shores along the canal are mostly rocks and shells (oyster, clam). Clam season is apparently over, but oyster season is not, and there were plenty of people out doing what looked like gathering shellfish as we drove past.

We were headed down toward Shelton to Taylor Shellfish Farms to pick up some of their Shigoku oysters (our favorite). Shigokus were developed by Taylor Shellfish Farms (right here!) and we were lucky enough to discover them about 1/2 mile from our house in Portland at our local market that happens to carry them most of the time. (But it's still fun to get them right from the source!)

Taylor Shellfish is quite an operation.

The seafood store had everything we wanted (Shigokus, and the tiny Olympia oysters) and we left with four dozen Shigokus and two dozen Olympias. Hey guess what we're having for dinner tonight and tomorrow night??

Shigoku oysters are grown in floating bags that are attached to stationary lines and floats that rise and fall with the tides, so the oysters are tumbled twice a day. This low-energy, low-maintenance method is a variation on British Columbia’s more labor-intensive Kusshi, and it continuously chips off the oysters’ growing edge and forces them to “cup up." The shells end up deep and scoop-shaped.

This results in a small, dense oyster with a light clean taste of cucumber and salt. (My mom does NOT like oysters, and she liked these, so if you're not an oyster fan but want to be, try the Shigokus.) Also, they're super easy to shuck compared to many other oysters.

More scenery along the canal:

The road runs right along the water in most places:

Cute little beach house:

Our next stop was the Hardware Distillery Co. in Hoodsport. I read about this place online and decided we should check it out. The owners, Chuck and Jan, started the distillery a few years ago near their vacation cabin in Hoodsport and it's become quite a little hot spot in town!

Chuck was pouring today, and started us right off the bat with their award-winning aquaivit. (It was great!) He had a special bottle from the freezer out for the folks who were finishing their tasting as we arrived, so in all the excitement we were included in that special moment, and then started at the beginning with the vodka made from peach wine (oh hey, and ended full circle with another tiny pour of cold aquavit).

We bought a bottle of the R Gin and a bottle of the Bee's Knees Plumb. For the R Gin, Chuck takes up about 100 pounds of barley to Hama Hama Oyster Co. (just up the canal a bit) and they cold smoke it in their big smoker. R Gin has a subtle smoky taste, and the name comes from the (discredited) old wives’ tale that oysters are best in months with the letter "R".

The Bee's Knees Plumb is a distilled honey mead, made from 80% honey and 20% plums from Chuck's friend's plum trees. It's good! I'm not sure what we'll do with it yet, but we'll figure it out.

The building housing the distillery used to be the Hoodsport Hardware Store, hence the name Hardware Distillery. They've got a great vibe in there, and the decor is all old hardware and cool distillery equipment. Definitely worth a stop if you're coming through and are into this kind of thing. We also tasted in sequence the white dog, and then the same spirit that had been aged for just a little while in that small barrel…interesting to taste the difference a little wood makes.

Next we headed back up the canal and decided to try the Hama Hama Oyster Bar for lunch.

There's a market where you can buy fresh oysters and clams and other stuff, and outside around the corner they've got a "snack bar" where they're serving up oysters (raw and grilled), crab cakes, steamers, etc. while you sit outside on the water, in the sun, having a totally chill day eating delicious fresh seafood.

Fun atmosphere, great service, nice people, delicious seafood! We had some grilled oysters (since tonight's meal will be mostly Shigokus and Olympias on the half shell), a crab cake, some steamer clams, and a glass of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Everything was delicious and we'd come back here in a second!

The grilled oysters with served two sauces: (1) a chipotle bourbon sauce (so good!) and a classic escargot sauce of butter and herbs (also good, but I loved the chipotle bourbon one best).

Hoodsport is a cute little town, and this whole area feels authentic and not too touristy at all. There are several state parks along here that (of course) are pretty dang crowded right now (a sunny weekend in July) but overall the place still feels pretty mellow.

We're just back hanging out at the Airstream now. The RV park here (Glen Ayr Resort) is totally fine. It's nice, right across the road from the water and we're backed up onto what I hear is a small creek (I'd have to go check to verify). We've got full hookups, but their internet is out (we're using our AT&T datacard with router and doing just fine). I'd stay here again, but I might try to see if this place had any waterfront spots first, because it looked fabulously close to the water as we drove past an hour ago.

Tofino and Ucluelet

Laura Domela — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 12:58:00 +0000

The other day we went in search of a beach Kevin remembered from his childhood. We had a great day exploring Tofino (after cramming in a bunch of work while eating breakfast and getting internet at a cafe in town). First, we headed out to Tonquin Park and hiked down to the beach.

Next we headed south toward Ucluelet. We stopped and hiked a bit out from the Amphitrite Lighthouse on the Wild Pacific Trail.

Both "Wild" and "Pacific" … check!

Gorgeous coastline, isn't it? It was nice that the sun came out yesterday, too!

We headed into Ucluelet and checked out a marina RV park where I'd thought about staying, and it's great! We'd definitely come back and stay here. There are about five spots that have great views out over the marina and the water, and a few more around to the side that have this view:

And here are some other shots of the marina and downtown (the same thing, really):

After driving around Ucluelet a bit, we did a little exploring at Chesterman Beach:

…as well as some more hiking around the rocks near our own beach:

Back in Tofino we stopped and had a few oysters and a couple pieces of sushi at Tough City Sushi and it was great! Oh, and so was the view (complete with sea plane landings):

Those are Kusshi oysters from Qualicum Beach. We're planning to stop at Qualicum Beach once more on our way to Victoria to pick up another couple dozen.

Nanaimo to Courtenay and Comox

Laura Domela — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 01:57:39 +0000

Today we drove north to check out the towns of Courtenay and Comox. We took the oceanside route and we're glad we did. We got to see some really lovely towns, including Qualicum Beach. There are a bunch of oceanside RV resorts near here and we'd definitely come back and explore some waterfront camping!

Also, we found ourselves driving right through Deep Bay and Fanny Bay, home of Kusshi nd Fanny Bay oysters. We couldn't NOT stop, right? After a little research (Mac's Oysters vs. Fanny Bay Oyster Co.) we stopped at Fanny Bay. It's a tiny little store near the ferry landing and we picked up a dozen Fanny Bay, a dozen Kusshi, and a pound of fresh Qualicum Beach scallops (and a little container of smoked salmon pâté):

With a cooler full of ice and shellfish, we continued north to Comox. We stopped to have lunch at a spot near the marina called the Blackfin Pub. The food was great. We shared a one-piece halibut fish and chips and a seafood sandwich with a side caesar salad.

View from lunch:

We wandered down to the marina after lunch and saw this boat here selling fresh halibut. Too bad we are already stocked up, or we'd have gotten some!

We met some fabulous folks here at the Comox Marina! They are all on a cruise from Anacortes to Desolation Sound with about 30 boats…all Ranger Tugs. These boats are like the Airstream of trawlers…we fell in love and they invited us aboard a few of them and even to their bbq tonight (sadly, we passed though, because…oysters in the cooler!). It was just like a group of Airstreamers though…super friendly folks with recreational vehicles they love.

We even got to go out on a short ride in the bay on one of their 31' models! They've got solar, just like us!

Kevin at the controls:

Returning to the marina:

These are awesome boats!

On the way home we stopped in Courtenay to check out their 44th Annual Saturday Market. It was pretty much what we expected. Live music, booths selling handmade items, stuff from the downtown stores, etc. I don't know why they don't do it more often, actually. Why wait a whole year?

Back at camp we shucked some oysters and smoked some scallops and had a delicious seafood dinner.

Oysters were all raw on the half shell with a champagne/vinegar/shallot/pepper mignonette (delicious) and with the smoked scallops, I made a sauce using olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, capers, fresh local zucchini, and basil and put it all over a little bit of fresh angel hair pasta. It turned out great! This fabulous iPhone photo doesn't do it justice, but still…I thought I should show you.

Tomorrow we head over to Tofino, and we're really looking forward to it!

Living Forest Waterfront Campsites

Laura Domela — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 13:55:53 +0000

This is what the campsites along the waterfront look like here at Living Forest Oceanside Campground and RV Park:

Our spot is on the terrace right above (I took this from the dinette window). The park is terraced so in additional to all the waterfront sites there are plenty of water view sites as well.

The tide is out this morning so you can see a lot of land and marsh, but when the tide is in it's all waterfront. The non waterfront sites are forested and private and gorgeous. Most of the sites are full hookup, and the park has Wi-Fi available (it cost us $10 Canadian for a week). If you don't want to pay for Wi-Fi, the little cafe/snack bar just to the right of that open campsite there has free Wi-Fi. In the mornings you'll see five or six people sitting outside in little chairs with their phones and tablets. (We actually can get free Wi-Fi from the cafe from our site here, so if you're near the cafe, your chances are good.)

This is a beautiful park and an easy bike ride away from downtown Nanaimo. We would defintely stay here again!

Downtown Nanaimo

Laura Domela — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:05:53 +0000

We rode our bikes into town late this morning and did a little sightseeing and picked up a couple Canada pins for our collection. Check out my bike bag now!

We rode all over the waterfront, and stopped and had some gelato and some fish & chips (in that order).

Great fish & chips at Troller's! We had halibut and salmon and both were great. (Not as good as the Bandon Fish House, but still quite good!)

Here's our route:

We rode just over 10 miles. Now we're headed down to Ladysmith to meet a guy about a boat.

Fishing Pedder Bay, British Columbia

Laura Domela — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:51:34 +0000

This morning we got up pretty early and did a few hours of work before we took a mid-day fishing break and went out to look for some salmon in Pedder Bay with our guide, Chris.

Those are the Olympics there in the background, and the Olympic Peninsula.

Straight out of the bay we were treated to a large pod of Orcas as they passed right by us:

We caught four fish: one baby halibut, two wild Coho, and a small Spring Chinook. None of them were keepers, but all of them were fun to catch! Here's a wiggly photo of the largest wild Coho:

Oh yeah, also, we saw two bald eagles chasing and then attacking a huge crane! The crane landed in the water and the eagles kept at him. The crane would duck into the water each time an eagle bombed him, and eventually one of the eagles flew off. The other continued to attack, but pretty soon two seagulls started attacking the eagle and while the eagle was distracted by those seagulls, the giant crane flew off. Super weird and interesting (and we were really glad we didn't have to witness the eagles killing the crane, because for a few minutes that's what it looked like was going to happen). I know, they gotta eat too, and maybe the crane was injured, but I really didn't want to see that. Pretty nice of those distractor seagulls to save the day!

We're back at camp working now, while a nice little deer munches on the bushes right outside our Airstream door:

Around Pedder Bay Marina

Laura Domela — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:25:49 +0000

Last night we went down to the marina to watch the sunset and wander around. The weather has continued to be sunny and gorgrous. The Wi-Fi here at Pedder Bay is slow and inconsistent so it's a little hard to work as efficiently as we'd like to, and we've got no cell service (AT&T) until we get out toward either Sooke or Victoria, so it's a bit isolating. But it's sure pretty!

Later today we're going to go see if we can catch some salmon! In a boat! With a guide! It should be fun. I love getting out on the water to see a place from a different perspective.