Halloween House Partying In Victoria: It Got A Lot Crazier Than This!

Cookin' With Cassie: Traditional Thanksgiving Meal Done By A Chef

This fall we have been quite busy. Some of the highlights of the last month or two has been the removal of all of Matt's wisdom teeth, Aunt Eileen's Visit to Victoria, Matt's Half Marathon, and Alissa getting her school bus licence (get off the road kids!).

Thanksgiving was also a very interesting one this year. We spent it with Alissa's work pals. The meal was, sorry Grandmas and parents, the best home cooked Thanksgiving meal we've ever had!

Alissa's co-worker is a fully trained and experienced cook (not to mention a perfectionist) she was hosting us in her mother's house a few blocks away.

The meal was a week in the making. Everything was made from scratch and purchased from local farms. Alissa was the acting sous-chef so met with Cassie, the head chef, to pound out the details of this epic giving-of-much-thanks meal a few times during that week.

The pumpkin pies were probably the most tedious as they involved slow baking, pureeing, setting, curing, crust making, and baking. They turned out phenomenal though- a few traditional pumpkin pies and a few not-so-traditional pumpkin torts. The crust was perfect the filling was fluffy like a cloud but with depth. MMMmmmm...

The turkey was juicy, not a dry piece of meat on the whole bird, the stuffing a flavourful addition that also was far from being dried out, the buns were fresh out of the oven. Everything turned out perfect, that alone is something to be thankful for.

A Quadra Island Party

Matt took a weekend in September to head to Tony's cabin on Quadra Island. Jess packed the car up and we all headed down. The ferry ride from Campbell River was made nice by the colours of sunset. Matt spend a day as Tony's sidekick, preparing a clearing in the forest for the big party the next day. There were projected images on a screen, a D.J. booth, a dance floor, and, of course, a fire pit. Great times. These pics were snapped as we were leaving.

Hye Jung's Last Visit (For A Long Time)

At the end of August our good friend Hye Jung left Canada for a few month long backpacking of Europe then home to Korea. She came up at the end of August for one last visit. We went for fresh local oysters at Pescatores, then took in some live music at the Scottish pub, Bard & Banker. The next day we chilled out at the Oak Bay Marina, then had some sustainable seafood at the ultra popular, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

Have a fun, safe trip Hye Jung.

A Cougar In Our Driveway

Upon coming home from a late night run the neighbour across the street stopped Matt. She said that she just saw a cougar come out of our driveway and had phoned the police. Apparently Vancouver Island has the highest density of Cougars in North America and they commonly come into the city to find food at the end of summer. Our new place is truly a page out of Natural Geographic.

Whale Watching With A Friend: A Bunch of Orca and A Lonely Adolescent Grey Whale

Alissa and her good friend Ali went whale watching a few weeks back. A friend of a friend of a friend worked for Five Star Whale Watching so they got the family and friends (very distant friends) discount.

Alissa and Ali had a wonderful experience that foggy morning. They saw many killer whales and even a lonely teenage grey whale that was hiding behind the rocky coastline. The naturalists on board said that he is likely feeding and gaining energy for his migration out at sea where he will find his first mate. Who would have thought the odours emitted from the grey whales blow hole could be so revolting.

They enjoyed the sounds of these giant mammals taking in deep breaths, the mist from their blowholes dampening their on looking faces. Very cool.

Check out some of the pictures they saw that morning here.

Just Outside The Window

Our new place is quite scenic and purveys the feeling of being in the forest. Last month we came home to two adolescent female deer in our parking spot. Last week the old, lichen covered walnut tree outside our window was constantly busy with a variety of different coloured squirrels stripping the tree of its nuts. Our entertainment for the week was watching the gorging just feet from our big windows. With the windows framing the action. it feels like we were watching some kind of nature documentary.

Three Days And Three Nights With Hye Jung & Mike: An Early Morning Hike of Willowbrae Trail and Half-Moon Bay

With the sun rising through the trees we hiked Willowbrae Trail. We broke on through to Half-Moon Bay as the sun reached over the tree tops. This is morning in the Pacific Rim National Park.

Three Days and Three Nights With Hye Jung & Mike: Worst Hostel Experience Ever and Drinking Under the Full Moon

Ukie Days were taking place in the small unpretentious town of Ucluelet. We claimed our bunks at C&N hostel earlier that day. We were very fortunate to get beds considering it usually fills up around the busy season, and of course the traffic might have been a bit heavier for the Ukee Days Festival.

That evening we picked up some Granville Island IPA and headed to the historic Ukee lighthouse. The night was very chill as we howled at the full moon and its reflection in the sea. Our minds just kind of unravelled in the peace of the overly lit night. We chatted about this and that and tossed opinions around about the origin of the strange noises that nature supplied. After having a few beers in the nearby Wild Pacific Trail, we agreed that we should get a good nights sleep so we can get an early start the next day. So we retired to the hostel.

At 5:00AM we all awoke to the sound of projectile vomit hitting the linoleum flooring from high above us. Its origin was from a young man on the top bunk who clearly had a little bit too much fun at Ukie Days! The rain of vomit and resulting inhuman stench splattered and filled the room.
Luckily for us he was at a bunk on the other side of the dorm (I guess that's luck???).

Gagging and holding our breath, we threw everything into our packs and got out of their as fast as we could. It was an unexpectedly early start to a beautiful day!

Three Days and Three Nights With Hye Jung & Mike: Best Fish and Chips In Tofino and Sunsets From Radar Hill

We drove into Tofino looking for a good seafood restaurant, a local recommended we head a bit out of town to Wild Thing Grill. We followed the recommendation and were rewarded with some of the best fish and chips ever consumed. Alissa had the halibut and Matt had the wild salmon- the batter was flavourful and fresh, not at all oily and of course the fish was fresh... delicious!

After dinner we drove up to Radar Hill to take in the setting sun with a few bird friends. It really looked like something out of this world.

Peace

Three Days And Three Nights With Mike & Hye Jung: Pacific Rim National Park's Florencia Bay Trail, Wikinninish Trail, & South Beach Trail

A day after visiting Salt Spring Island we hauled to Pacific Rim National Park. We picked up park passes and headed to Florencia Bay Trail, the sight of an old shipwreck, it is just a short hike to the beach where we unpacked our lunches and had a picnic while taking in the waves. After lunch we hiked Wikinninish Trail which took us through an ancient bog of Labrador tea trees and miniature pines that were hundreds of years old.

We did the short South Beach Trail which dramatically ends with a clearing, a big totem pole, and then that famous Long Beach. These three trails are all connected so it made a nice route. There is something truly out of this world about Long Beach.