Shirley, You Can't be Serious?!?

Well we checked out of our apartment and are now homeless nomads... I kind of like it!

When we left on Wednesday we were planning to go to Point No Point based on many recommendations... but that didn't work out. What the King really wanted was a hot tub, so I found him one less than 2 kms away from Point No Point.

We rented a cabin for a couple of nights right on the ocean, with a private hot tub on the balcony. The place was called Fossil Bay Resort. I almost don't want to tell you about it, because I want it to be available for me whenever I would like to go. It is located in a little community north of Sooke called Shirley...a perfect retreat from Victoria, and you can't beat the view. The name "Shirley", of course, invoked many Leslie Nielsen type jokes 😀 The rooms are a bit "rustic" but extremely clean. That being said they have a kitchen, wood burning fireplace, nice sized tv with cable, free wifi, king sized bed and a beautiful private hot tub overlooking the ocean. Normally I prefer a "swishier" (I coined that term btw!) room, but in this case the view and the hot tub are what you are coming for.

This is the perfect place to go and relax. Now you might think I'm already relaxed... and you'd be right... however, I am finding that you can never have enough relaxing!

The first night we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the balcony and then later sat in the hot tub and looked at the stars.

The next day the fog started rolling in while we were sitting in the hot tub (yes we sat in the hot tub A LOT!).

There are a lot of different beaches you can visit from this location including French Beach and China Beach, but we decided to set out for Mystic Beach as we hadn't been before.

Travel tip: Make sure you know where you are going before you leave.

Soooo... we didn't actually find Mystic Beach, and the GPS couldn't find Mystic Beach... but we did have a lovely drive 😀 When we realized we weren't finding Mystic Beach we decided to go to Sombrio Beach which was the next big park area along the way. When we first pulled in with the Fiat we were faced with extremely large potholes on an unpaved road. We had seen someone else had parked at the top, so we also parked at the top and decided to walk in.

I tried to take pictures of the road to show you, but they don't make it look nearly as bad as it was.

We weren't even really sure we were at the right place as there is no sign at the top of the road, but by some magic we were actually on the right road. I do not recommend walking in... the walking in is fine... but the walking out is completely uphill (more on that later!).

When you get almost to the bottom there is a sign that lets you know you are indeed in the right spot!

The walk in was quite beautiful... especially in fall as the trees are looking gorgeous right now. Unbelievably Steve ran into someone he knew while we were walking in! For those of you who are curious, the ground is red because it is covered in pine needles. It was quite stunning to look at!

Steve's friend told us you can walk to the right at the bottom and see a suspension bridge and then take quite a hike to the left to get to a waterfall.

When we got to the bottom we went to the right first. The bridge is super close, so don't skip it 😀

Then we headed down to the beach... Steve wanted to watch the surfers. This is an amazing beach! It is the epitome of West Coast. It isn't sandy for those of you who are thinking of those type of beaches... it is very rocky. The beach is mostly like the photo below, but in some places the rocks are bigger, and in others the rocks are smaller.

I am so surprised that this is a surfing spot as there are a lot of rocks out in the water. It would have probably been a little more interesting to watch if it wasn't so foggy. As an added bonus, the surfers looked ghostly! Can you see them?

The landscape in this area is beautiful. I'm just going to include a few photos to try to show (although you know photos never do it justice!)

Okay, it ended up being more than a few... but honestly it is only a small selection of the photos we took!

It seems like kind of a west coast thing to build these little rock towers (are they Inukshuks?) when you come to this type of beach.

Steve built one on the big log with the others.

We decided not to do the long hike to the waterfall as we weren't really prepared with food and water. You know how I always like to have a reason to return to places I love, and a hike to a waterfall seems like an excellent reason to return!

Then we were faced with the walk up the hill. I was out of breath walking from the bottom to the parking lot... and that was a short, VERY SHORT part of the walk. I had resigned myself to walking up the big hill, but Steve being the gentleman that he is told me would go to the top and bring the car back down. I put up an insignificant fight and then waited at the bottom for him. Would you like to know how crazy he is? He ran 1 minute, walked 1 minute up the hill!!!! I much prefer my version where you sit at the bottom and wait for a car 😀

Anyway, he made it up... and then down... and then we had a very bumpy and what felt like a 4 wheel drive voyage up the hill. We did make it and the car seemed fine (although the tire pressure light did come on 🤷 )

We needed some sustenance so planned to stop at Shirley Delicious which is a little cafe along the way.

If you are out here, I highly recommend that you stop here. It is a cute little cafe where you order your food at the counter and then can enjoy it at a table inside or outside. They had a brunch menu, some sandwiches and soup and plenty of tasty bakery treats. They also do coffee and hot drinks. I had the most amazing turkey, cranberry and brie sandwich (it had a crazy name that I can't remember). I honestly can't think of a time when I've had a better sandwich! (Okay, okay, maybe in France, but that's different!) It was surely delicious 😉

My favourite part of lunch was when someone came in and asked about one of the muffins on the counter that didn't have a label. They laughed and said it was a "mystery muffin" as the chef had left for the day and they didn't know what he put in it!

The man who was a co-owner of the cafe was very friendly and talkative and told us how to find Mystic Beach next time. Apparently you need to go to the China Beach lot and walk in from there.

Okay, so after our lovely few days on this area of the island we headed up to Ladysmith, where Steve's parents have very kindly let us keep our stuff, and ourselves when we aren't traveling around the area.

On Saturday we were headed into Victoria for a couple of events so decided to stay the night. I found a terrific B&B right behind Craigdarroch Castle that was only $120 Canadian a night (plus tax of course). This is a tremendous deal for Victoria! I can not figure out why hotels are SO much in this town in October! Anyway, this is my new go to place!

When we arrived there was an envelope in the mailbox with our name on it, and our room key inside. That's how easy check in was! We were pleasantly surprised when we walked in to see the main living area and breakfast area which were absolutely lovely. I couldn't take a photo because there were always guests milling about and I didn't think they'd want me to take their photo... If you would like to see photos of the inside, check out their website. The place is called The Craigmyle.

We went up to our room (2 flights of stairs and no elevator so be warned if you decide to go!) and entered our beautiful room. The first thing that struck me was the beautiful furniture. I could go shopping with these people, because we like the same sort of things. Then I noticed the glorious king sized bed (you would think that would keep Steve from elbowing me in the head at night... but no such luck) which had lots of pillows and nice linens. Then I noticed the view out my window. A view of Craigdarroch Castle!

I love this castle! If you haven't been, or are not from Victoria, you should definitely go! I never get tired of it!

That evening we had a fun poker game with friends... and then I became the heavyweight champion of the world! (Not really, but I did get to wear the belt! Thanks Neil 😀 )

I believe that is supposed to be my tough guy face...

To finish off our week we headed back to Ladysmith. We stopped on the way up at Cowichan Bay again to pick up some bread, and decided to have an ice cream and sit and look at the water. I am not kidding you when I tell you this is very possibly the best cherry ice cream I have ever tasted. The shop is called Original Udder Guy's. The ice cream is homemade and absolutely amazing. I'm not sure how I've never had this ice cream before as it seems to have been around for over 15 years! They even put a little jelly bean in with your ice cream! The King was super excited, not only because he had homemade coconut ice cream, but we found him another hulk toy. I thought it was a pez dispenser, but when you press the button his head opens and a lollipop pops up 😀

That about sums up our week. We're hoping this week to hit Tofino. What are your recommendations for things to do or places to eat in Tofino area?😀