Sooke, BC // 2021

 Finally, I'm sharing just a few photos and bits about our 2021 family vacation to Sooke, BC (only 18 months later!). Sooke is on Vancouver Island; near the southern most tip. It is about an hour's drive to Victoria, the biggest city on the island, and about an hour's north-westerern drive to Port Renfrew, which touches the tip of the Carmana Walbran Provincial Park. 

We stayed at this wonderful little house (fawns! quail chicks! hummingbirds! in the morning) right outside and it had a great ocean view and was so tranquil on a bit of property. Because we found this listing last-minute and it was brand-new, they had offered it at a discount and we scored big. I think we paid roughly 100$/day. It's now quite a bit more, but if you have the budget, it's a beautiful house. 

an orca skeleton at the Royal BC Museum

Orcas: Our Shared Adventure exhibit was at the Royal BC Museum, and the first section was all about the science of the whales, and the second part was about their habitat, and finally, onto the responsibilities of humans/environmental stewardship. It was a great exhibit and kicked off Anikka's year-long science of Marine Biology. 

We did SO much fun stuff on this vacation, and most of it is outdoor/adventure related. We only did a few things that were a bit pricier- going to the Royal BC Museum (we had a coupon), and a very expensive but very worthwhile whale watch on a zodiac with the Prince of Whales.

It's a rough ride where everyone is wearing arctic dry suits and possibly still getting cold spray on them, but you are right next to the whales, when you see them, and as I told my family when my friend Emily and I had done this experience years ago - the boat ride alone is worth the money!

I'll try to touch on all the stuff we did in this blog post, if you're heading out that way. I don't have a lot of the pictures from the trip, but you can find them (look for Aug 2021) on my Instagram profile. 

the ice cream princess at Beacon Hill

We spent two days in Victoria on this trip. One of the days (Tuesday) was for the whale watch tour, and then also just some walking around town (stopped at Murchies tea for Lukka). We drove to our neighbor's old home in beautiful Esquimalt neighborhood and had dinner at a food truck and got some food from the farmer's market. We meant to hit up Cold Comforts in Fernwood and get some ice cream, but we ran out of steam from such a busy day and just headed home. Next time!

These were bike rides around a park and also along the water. Victoria is known for it's bike culture and you can realistically bike around the entire city...and take a scenic 1 hr bike ride right back into Sooke by taking the Galloping Goose (thanks Hike Bike Travel for the awesome recommendations!), though we did half of that trail a different day while Stefan was enjoying some downhill rides at Sea to Sea Park/Harbourview.

a humpback from our zodiac tour 

The second day we were there (Thursday), was specifically to go to the Royal BC Museum in the morning and also bike around town, going on a 'used book tour' of this literary city. It was so fun and the kids loved it! First we biked around Beacon Hill Park, Ogden Point and Janes Bay and then to Beacon Hill drive-in (not as good as Dick's...just sayin') for some ice cream.

We also biked to the following used book stores: Bastion Books, Sorenson Books, Camas Educational, Ivy's Bookshop, the the Greater Victoria Library. Of course, we'd be remiss if we didn't buy a few books while at some of these shops. Notable finds were: a few Farley Mowat books, Sylvia Plath's journals + letters, two James Herriot books, and a follow-up memoir of The Curve of Time. Great treasures!

Jordan Beach, potholes + streams

Our days in Sooke were either spent biking along the Galloping Goose (twice), swimming in the Potholes with a family friend, eating at Route 14, walking all of Whiffin Spit, eating at The Lazy Gecko, walking along Jordan Beach, the Lochside trail, hiking East Coast regional park (gorgeous), slamming pizza at Stoked (great atmosphere), and also watching some of the (late) Summer Olympics back at our airbnb. 

Port Renfrew mussels at Botanical Beach 

This was one of our family's favorite trips because there was just so much to do and explore. The food was good, the beaches and trails did not disappoint, and some of the unique/more expensive things (used book bike tour! Great museum! Zodian ride!) made it very memorable. Vancouver Island definitely has a slower pace than what we're used to, which also helped us adjust into vacation mode. 

When we didn't have dinner out (typically we have breakfast at our rental, pack lunch, and go out for dinner), we had steak dinners al fresco or just enjoyed a leisurely long morning watching all the hilarious baby wildlife in our yard (!) like Snow White and her forest friends. It was very peaceful. 

Port Renfrew - finding our first chitons!

Botanical beach was one of our favorite places on this vacation, because  of all the amazing tide pool viewing you can do. The views are incredible-everything is craggy, full of trees and water, and so raw. I think we stayed here for at least two hours, and when driving through tiny Port Renfrew (with hardly a soul to be found), there were hundreds of cars at this beach's parking lot just outside of town. 

the jumbo mama tree at Fairy Creek, active protests against old growth logging going on

Avatar Grove  was the final stop within the Port Renfrew area, after going to China Beach, and Botanical Beach, we wanted to see the giant trees that are approximated at 500-1,000 years old, and they are massive. This picture does not do it justice, because of course, you can't see that our entire family could not link arms around this tree (not even close), nor can you crane your neck to look up into the picture. 

I think this place may have been why Anikka chose to study Trees this year in homeschool science (2022), and it's certainly worth the visit. 

While we drove up to the site, we were surprised that there were a lot of RCMP officers (police) that stopped our car and encouraged us to walk to Avatar Grove (5km in), as 'the protestors might not let you drive out'. We parked our car and had a VERY long hike in, around, and out, and met quite a few of the lovely, non-violent, 'hippie' protestors-some of whom live in the trees and change locations every few days. While we were walking around, there were drones that followed us! Logging is a big and lucrative resources for BC, and these trees mean big money for loggers, but the tree planting that Canada does is not always the right