Sunshine Coast // 2022

 Although this mini-vacation for our family was near 6 months ago, I'm catching up on my blogging over Christmas break, and hope to reach back into two years (wince) of vacations as I'd like to document them here, for my own purposes. I'm setting the publishing date to the day after we returned. It'll be our little secret. 
The pictures aren't in any particular order. 

a short and easy hike: Hidden Grove in Sechelt

Day 1: After dropping off our dog at the kennel in Aldergrove, hopping on the ferry and finding our airbnb, we rode our bikes around Kinnikinnick park twice and then around the neighbourhood for the only off-road biking (the good stuff was too hard for 3 out of 4 of us). We hung out at Sechelt Pier before eating at PKLS Burgers. 

Best unique milkshakes: PKLS Burgers. The long list is a bit daunting but every single one was absolutely worth the exorbitant cost. 

view from the Soames Hill hike lookout, an easy hike with final steep incline

Day 2: One of our most enjoyable outings was renting kayaks from Pedals and Paddles (excellent customer service, highly recommend) for just 2 hours and hugging the gorgeous coast ending at Tuwanek Beach. Anikka and I were in one, where a seal kept popping his head up and spying on us, and Lukka and Stefan took the longer, harder route through little side 'alleys' between islands. 

After our paddle was done, we did the short and sweet Smuggler's Cove hike, hit up Tailwind Books (lovely owner!) and ate some of the best gluten-free pizza I've ever had ($$$) called Coastal Pizza. 

After showers and a bit of a rest, we took a short walk through Robert's Creek, slurped up the last cones of the day at Folly Artisan ice cream, and walked a bit more near the beach before heading home to relax. 

one of the gorgeous views from the Smuggler's Cove hike

Day 3: We hiked up Soames Hill, walked along the Gibson's seawalk, checked out their local art gallery, got some bubble tea, ate at Salt + Swine for lunch, found some great book treasures the next-door thrift store. 

After awhile we meandered to Cliff Gilker park, met up with some friends at Robert's Creek for a lovely ocean swim, and then finally made it down to Davis Bay that evening to meet some other friends who were visiting the same area! 

Best taco: KETO taco at Salt & Swine. Long lines and understaffed (but great customer service) this was worth the weight. A delicious and full taco with a shell made of fried cheese. Just get one and share it all around. It sits heavy but the taste was incredible!

kayaking against the coast

Day 4: Stefan and I had an early breakfast with (ocean swim-above) friends who were visiting at The Bakery (delicious GF options!), cleaned up our airbnb, walked around Gibsons and stopped in at Molly's Reach for lunch. 

Best sit down restaurant: we all loved our food at Molly's Reach in Gibsons, right on the water, and right out of a rainstorm! We ordered a bunch of random things including tomato soup, pulled pork sandwiches, poutine, a salad, and shakes and *everything* was good. 

view from the ferry via Horseshoe Bay

Day 4, continued: We got to the ferry with our reservations, but encountered terrible traffic on the way home, picked up our dog, and then cleaned up our packs from the short trip!

second view from the top of Soames Hill hike

Looking back, it was a fun little getaway, but we decided that this area - the Sunshine Coast - has so much to do for younger families, we were a bit bored. The hikes were easy and short, the small towns were cute and fun to walk around in, but aside from eating our way through all the spots (and we did enjoy that!) we found ourselves with extra hours nearly every day after all our adventuring was done.

Usually, we can't see everything we want to see, or do everything we want to do in a week when we visit a place, but we were more than happy to satisfy all our curiosity in just a few days. We had come years prior when our kids were much smaller, and made happy memories while camping with friends, but although I'd of course come back with friends for a weekend, I don't know that I could take a week out here. 3.5 days was actually plenty.