Road Trips – Riveted

A Week in Texas

Laura Domela — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 22:40:07 +0000

By now it’s probably become apparent that we’ve moved all our boat-related updates and travel to our other site, Slowboat, and since most of the travel we do during the summer is by boat, there hasn’t been much news here on Riveted. But we spent last week on business in Texas and visited a few cool spots while we were there, so I thought I’d share!

We started in San Antonio and had a quick visit with Kevin’s mom. We usually try to take her out to dinner someplace cool when we’re in town, and since we’d gone to Cured the last two times we visited, we opted to try a new place this time — Clementine. It’s small and bright, the food was creative and delicious, and the service was spot on. I took no photos, but we’d definitely go back.

In the morning, we headed back to the airport to pick up our rental car and drove into Austin for our first set of meetings. Road Trip!!! I’d found us a little boutique hotel (which turned out to be absolutely lovely) called Austin’s Inn at Pearl.

Austin’s Inn at Pearl

The inn is actually several small buildings that each contain a few rooms, each distinct in their decoration. We were early, but were told our room was ready and directed to this room below, which turned out not to be our room, but was very cute. (It’s called the Library Room and is located on the ground floor of the main yellow building. Our room was actually the Bombay Room, and was on the second floor of the blue building behind, and was wonderful, but I took no photos of it.)

The Library Room at Inn at Pearl

For dinner, we returned to one of our longtime favorites in Austin, Uchiko. We had the chef’s tasting omakase, and again, took no photos, but it was incredible, as usual. Just check out some of the gorgeous food photos (from their website) and you’ll get the idea:

While in Austin, we also tried a new taco place, just down the street from where we stayed, called Keso’s Tacos. We shared a handful of tacos so we could try more than two. Along with the usual carnitas (great), barbacoa, and fish, they have fried avocado tacos, brisket tacos, and one of our favorites, the “Fire Chick” which has hand-battered fried chicken (fried in their Fire Red salsa), lettuce, pico de gallo, and is topped with cilantro ranch & queso, served on a flour tortilla. Delicious!

Next, it was on to Dallas on Thursday. Dallas is about a 3.5 hour drive from Austin, but we had no meetings on Thursday so we took our time and decided to stop in Waco for a little exploring. If you ever watch HGTV you probably know who Chip and Joanna Gaines are. If you don’t, they’re a couple with an extremely popular show called Fixer Upper, which has morphed into a gigantic successful brand that now has its own television network called Magnolia Network. They specialize in turning what starts out as kind of a crappy house into a farmhouse chic, magazine-photo-shoot-ready abode, and they do it well with a fairly specific aesthetic. (Shiplap!!!)

Anyway, we stopped in Waco and decided to check out the Magnolia Market at the Silos (because old silos! turned into a market!), which as it turns out, is a boutique home decor market that is also part of the Chip and Joanna Gaines thing). However, there was a big event going on there on this day and all the roads adjacent to the market were blocked off for event parking and tour buses and such. We googled and learned the event was called Silobration, which was basically an expanded home decor fair with local artisans in matching white booths lining the street out in front of the Market at the Silos, plus a handful of food trucks, and a stage with live music. We parked a few blocks away and made our way to the entrance, through security (yep, security, with scanners and everything). We walked the street/aisle flanked by several dozen booths where artisans displayed their clothing, leather bags, candles, jewelry, etc., most of them with the same color palette as everything else in the Magnolia Market. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice aesthetic, it’s just strange to see almost everything in the same place, from different designers, all with the same muted palette. Even the attendees had a themed similarity to them! Mostly young 30-something women, often with kids, many with long hair all curled with the same curling iron tecnique, all carrying stylish little bags with perfect little goodies inside. It was pretty great, actually.

Magnolia Market at the Silos, during Silobration 2019

Silobration, with people taking photos out front with Chip’s parents (yes, really)

Silos Baking Company, Waco TX

Silos!

We walked around for a bit, went in and out of the market, and then headed the several blocks back to our rental car and moved on.

Mural near the silos

We parked down by the river and took a walk along the waterfront, and then across the Brazos River and back via the Waco Suspension Bridge. Here’s some info on the plaque at the base:

Waco Suspension Bridge with several of the (many) bronze cattle sculptures leading up to it

The Waco Suspension Bridge was built as a way to get cattle across the Brazos River. It was part of the Chisolm Trail, used during the post-Civil War era to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads.

View from the suspension bridge

The Brazos River appears to be home to some cool-looking water birds, some biggish fish we didn’t get more than a quick glance at as they briefly splashed the surface, as well as a whole lot of red-eared sliders (turtles!)

Red-eared sliders and birds in the Brazos River

After our walk along the river, we continued on to Dallas. We checked into our hotel and did some work for a bit, and then we headed off to another restaurant I found that sounded interesting, this one in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas. It’s called the Purepeche Room, and is in the back room of a spot called Revolver Taco Lounge.

Revolver Taco Lounge wall paintings

Revolver Taco Lounge, bathroom graffiti

The Purepecha Room has two seatings per night, holds 14 people max, and the menu is a fixed price tasting menu prepared by the chef and his mom in the kitchen that opens right into the seating area. (On this night, it was the chef’s aunt filling in for his mom while she was out of town.)

Kitchen, from our table

The place is small and quaint and feels a little like you’re hanging out in someone’s home while they cook for you. We had the early seating (6:00pm) and as it turned out we were the only ones there. The food was fantastic and I actually did manage to take some photos this time.

Chef Regino Rojas puts the final touches on what turned out to be my favorite dish of the night (ceviche, pictured below)

Ceviche with spot prawn, grapefruit, cucumber, leaves and flowers, salmon roe, fresh fish (I forgot what kind) and a little bit of puffed rice for texture. The flavors in this dish were amazing!

This was a braised lamb dish with rice and potatoes and homemade tortillas, with a delicious broth

I think this was pheasant mole, with rice and a grilled fig

Pork carnitas and quail with salsas

Everything was wonderful, and we’d definitely come back, but I’d like to see them slow down a bit. There was so much food and we were completely finished by 7:30pm. We could definitely have benefitted from a little more time to breathe between courses. Since the second seating isn’t until 8:30pm, seems like there would be enough time to spread things out a little better. Also, the waitress was exceptionally sweet, but seemed very new. She recommended we have white wine with the first four courses and red with the second four, but then recommended a bottle that was $105, which didn’t come by the glass. What would we have done with a whole bottle of wine for the first four courses that came out so rapidly? Anyway, we did some by-the-glass wines that worked out great. Dessert was wonderful (traditional flan and a small slice of local pecan pie), but the coffee!!! Oh my goodness the coffee was fabulous. Café de olla is a traditional Mexican coffee with panela (whole cane sugar) and cinnamon, cooked on the stovetop and served in an earthen clay pot. Super yum!

We walked around the neighborhood a bit after dinner, gave the guy who promised to “watch our car” a few bucks, then headed back to our hotel.

Friday after the rest of our meetings, we caught our evening flight back to Portland. We’re now home and in the middle of a gigantic purging push, which consists of cleaning out the garage, closets, and other hidey-holes, getting rid of stuff we don’t use anymore, and many, many, many trips to Goodwill. We seem to do this every time we get back from a summer on that boat (just not as well as we’re doing it now), when we are once again reminded just how little we need to be happy — in fact, it’s the opposite. The “stuff” eventually becomes the boss, and gets in the way of so many things. It feels good to be getting rid of more. I’d like to be able to relax and breathe at home as well as we are able to do on the boat!

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.

Last Day in Victoria

Laura Domela — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:46:24 +0000

We had some breakfast and did some work this morning before it was checkout time at Westbay Marine Village in Victoria. Since we're on the 7:30pm ferry tonight to Port Angeles, we had a bit of time to kill. (Long story, but the basic deal is: make reservations more than a day ahead of time for the ferry when you are 48.1 feet long and it's the middle of summer.)

We headed over to Thetis Lake Provincial Park because they had a day use area and we figured we'd be able to park there for the rest of the day and hike or ride bikes out from there if we wanted. We paid for the two parking spaces we were taking up and headed off to hike around the lake.

It turned out to be a beautiful hike, with some fun signage along the way:

We decided to head over to the ferry terminal early to see if there was any chance of getting on the 3pm ferry. There wasn't. So we parked and walked over to grab some lunch and sightsee a bit more. The ferry was just arriving as we walked past and we noticed the different configuration of the Coho (compared to the other more recent ferries we'd been on) so we stopped to see how the side door loading and unloading worked.

So they must load them from the other side, or the back? They got these guys on somehow, so I think we're fine.

We walked up the road a bit and grabbed some lunch and did a bit more sightseeing. Here's our view from lunch today:

Which way should we go? Oh I guess we'll head back toward home.

We're in line for the ferry now, with about an hour and half to go. We're working back in the Airstream with free ferry internet (well, "free" meaning it came with our $250 fare to get ourselves, our truck, and our Airstream back to the US). Next stop: Hood Canal!

Boppin’ Around Victoria

Laura Domela — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 18:41:16 +0000

This morning we got up and worked, did some work, and then worked some more. For our lunch break, we headed down to the docks and caught an adorable little water taxi across the harbour. It was still pretty dark and windy, but the rain had stopped for a bit.

Our ride's here!

Leaving the West Bay Marine Village:

Dark sky with purple martin house silhouette:

We got off the harbour ferry at Miner's Landing and headed straight for Red Fish Blue Fish for some lunch (well, or breakfast…brunch? We have an early dinner reservation tonight so we just did a late breakfast/early lunch combo today and this place was it!) Their website said they opened at 11:30am. We arrived at 11:15am, and there was already a line of about a dozen people (we knew this would probably be the case). Red Fish Blue Fish is on the pier right by Miner's Landing, inside of an upcycled cargo container. It's cool, and has a great reputation for their food.

We had a 1-piece halibut fish & chips, a grilled, seared albacore tuna tacone (a cone-shaped taco), a half order of grilled Fanny Bay oysters, and a couple of Pellegrinos. Our halibut arrived first:

Everything was great! I'd say this is the second best fish & chips (next to Bandon Fish House in Bandon, Oregon). The other creative items on the menu help quite a bit, but the batter on the halibut was crunchy, the fish was great, and you gotta love their 100% sustainable policy.

After lunch we walked around Victoria a bit just sightseeing. Harbour, with BC Legislature Building:

Totem art:

Empress Hotel:

Cute little water taxi in the harbour:

There are flowers everywhere in Victoria!

Look at the line at Red Fish Blue Fish when we came back to our taxi stop:

We hopped on a boat and headed back to West Bay Marine Village. Looking back from the boat:

More purple martin houses:

Westbay Marine Village from the little ferry:

You can't beat the location of this marina and RV park. It's so close to town (would be an easy–and cheaper–bike ride into town, but we weren't sure what the weather was going to do and we kinda wanted to ride the boat) and the exterior spots all have marina or harbour views. Two of the shorter, marina view spots:

Remember when we were over in Pedder Bay and we had made reservations for the Sooke Harbour House for dinner (the whole reason we even went to Pedder Bay/Sooke in the first place)? And remember how we had the day wrong and we missed our reservation and had no chance to go again while we were nearby? Well, guess what? We figured out that the Sooke Harbour House is a 45 minute drive from where we're staying in Victoria, they are open tonight, and we got ourselves an early dinner reservation. Woohoo!

And now, a bit more work!

Tofino to Qualicum to Victoria

Laura Domela — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:11:00 +0000

This morning we left our gray rainy campsite (wow! things changed overnight!) in Tofino and headed back across the island on our way to Victoria. But first, here's one more shot from yesterday at Bella Pacifica Campground while it was still sunny:

Oh wait, there are a few more things I want to mention that we did before we left Tofino. Yesterday afternoon we went into town to grab some oysters, and right as we got back to the car I looked up in response to some intense bird sounds and said to Kevin quickly "lookuplookuplookup!!!"

There were about eight bald eagles flying overhead, and two of them were in dramatic combat. As we watched them RIGHT above us, two of them went careening into each other, locking talons (you could HEAR them hit each other, that's how close they were) and spiraling through the air. After a couple rounds of that, the loser retreated to the top of a nearby tree while the others went on their fish-hunting way over the bay. It was so cool to see this so close!

Here are two of them — already much higher than before — after the drama was over (when I could finally stop watching for a second to get my camera out):

Also, yesterday we stopped for lunch at Tacofino, a taco truck right off the main highway near our campground (in the parking lot behind "Live to Surf" surf shop). This place has seriously great tacos. We each had a regular Baja-style cod fish taco, and the Tuna Ta-Taco (seared sesame albacore with wasabi mayo, cabbage, salsa, and seaweed salad). So good!!

Also, check out their fabulous t-shirts! The skull is made of flowers and in the middle of his forehead there's a Tacofino logo (praying hands holding a taco), and the skull has a big fish in its mouth. (Kevin's wearing his right now!)

Okay, back to today! We left early (for us…8:30am). The drive was soggy but beautiful and looked mostly like this:

We made a stop at Qualicum Beach to pick up a bit more seafood (still not tired of fresh seafood). I did a little research while Kevin was driving and found a highly-rated spot called French Creek Seafood. We parked in the nice big marina parking lot and walked around the marina to the seafood store (it's the large clump of buildings you can see in the distance, across all the boats):

The entrance to the fish store was completely nondescript and working-harbor awesome, and had the nicest fish ladies inside helping customers. We highly recommend a stop here if you're up this way. Enter through the brown door with the little red neon "open" sign:

We picked up some clams for dinner tonight, some fresh crabcakes, more frozen calamari (I love putting this in risotto or pasta!) and some more smoked salmon pate.

We drove the rest of the way to Victoria (about 4.5-5 hours total from Tofino) and now we're at the Westbay Marine Village. It's still gray and rainy, but we're close to town and we'll have a great time here exploring (and working of course) until we catch the ferry over to Port Angeles on Friday morning.

Here's Victoria, just across the harbor from our spot at Westbay:

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.

Tofino, British Columbia

Laura Domela — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 16:22:29 +0000

We're now in Tofino, BC (above photo from Mackenzie Beach). Tofino is across Vancouver Island from where we were last (Nanaimo), on the west coast. It's rugged and lovely. It feels like a California surf town plopped down somewhere in Alaska.

The drive over here was not even close to as tough as we'd heard, but then we've driven some pretty tough roads. This is just before the 18% grade:

The drive was beautiful…

…and just a tiny bit hairy at times (we were on the outside going this direction so we just had to watch for large vehicles moving over into our lane…and there weren't any). I drove the first half of the drive and Kevin drove the last half. I got the better deal, for sure.

We're camped at Mackenzie Beach Resort for two nights and we'll move over to Bella Pacifca for the last night. So far the $4/day internet at Mackenzie Beach has been, um, basically like not having internet, so we're at a cafe in town right now having breakfast, doing some work, and soaking up the connectivity. The campground is full hookups, not too far from the beach, but that's about it. It's very "no frills" in terms of view and campsite quality for $56 dollars Canadian per night.

Here's our spot when we first arrived and it was still sunny:

And here's our spot after many more Sunday arrivals came in. Our site (#38) is strangely much larger than anyone else's site.

Okay, back to Tofino. Yesterday afternoon after we got settled we went and explored town a bit. We stopped at the Tofino Brewing Co. on a whim ("Hey, what's down that street?") and decided to stay for a tasting flight.

The brewery/tasting room:

Great logo:

The beer was great and the atmosphere was fun and casual, full of tourists and locals. The tasting room has a license for one tasting flight or one pint per person, and you can buy bottles to go in 4-pint-packs or growlers (a single growler, or a double "growlinator". We brought home some Blonde Ale, some Tuff Session Ale, and some Spruce Tree Ale. I really wanted to try this one, but they were completely out (and they wouldn't sell us the two display bottles they had): Kelp Stout — a dark, rich, full-bodied ale brewed with locally harvested Kelp, giving a unique, umami-type quality to this complex beer. Great label too:

We did more wandering in town and picked up this really cool Northwest Coast eagle…oh, I mean cheese/pate spreader. We try to get things we'll use, and we definitely will use this! This is the handle (pewter). Love it!

We used it right away too! In town we picked up some smoked salmon pate and some crackers and cracked one of the Spruce Tree Ales for an afternoon snack. The whole Tofino Kit:

Dinner last night was smoked fish tacos (again, I know, yawn, can't we think of something else to make?)

This morning it's cool and gray. We got up and made a couple of cappuccinos to go and walked on the beach out in front for a bit.

Our breakfast sandwiches, espresso drinks, (and internet!) here at Caffe Vincente this morning were great!

After some more work, we'll head out to explore more of Tofino, and probably drive down to Ucluelet!

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!

Newcastle Island, British Columbia

Laura Domela — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 22:36:48 +0000

This afternoon after finishing up most of a work day, we headed by bike back into downtown Nanaimo and took the little ferry over to Newcastle Island. That's Newcastle on the left, and Protection Island on the right.

Newcastle Island is a marine provincial park just across the harbor, and has 22km of hiking and biking trails, a pavillion with a snack bar, and a tent campground. You can bring your camping gear over on the ferry and use one of their wheeled carts to tow it over to the campground. Pretty sweet! Here's the ferry we took on the way over:

The ferry ride costs $9 Canadian per adult round trip, and the bikes are an extra buck.

Here are the bikes bungeed to the upper deck:

The Newcastle Island ferry landing:

Looking back across the harbor to Nanaimo:

From the Newcastle Island website, this'll give you a bit more info about the island:

A significant place utilized by the Snuneymuxw people for thousands of years and traditionally known as Saysutshun, Newcastle Island is a wondrous escape from the bustling urban center of Nanaimo just across the harbour. Alongside the strong First Nations presence and culture on the island, it is also home to many rich histories which include coal mining, a sandstone quarry, and herring salteries, all of which make Newcastle Island a must-see eco-tourism destination for those visiting Nanaimo.

There was a sailboat regatta happening out past the island:

The bike path is much more of a mountain bike style path than a road bike style path, but our bikes handled it just fine:

This is Mallard Lake, in the middle of the island:

Bike Fridays are such great travel bikes!!

Back to the ferry landing:

This is the cute little tiny ferry we took back across the harbor, with 5 bikes and 12 passengers!!

And here are some of the bikes strapped onto the port side and stern, for scale:

Here's a map of our route from the campground and back:

We're doing laundry now and grilling some tuna for fish tacos. I think we're going to do a little day trip up to Courtenay tomorrow. There's an annual (annual! not weekly!) (the 44th annual) Saturday market going on that sounds interesting. Then on Sunday we'll head over to Tofino! We're having a blast up here.

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.