Galiano

Valentines day was pretty busy at work - Andrea and I didn't have an opportunity to celebrate it properly so we decided to take a weekend out and go to the Gulf Islands instead.  A bit of web searching selected a bed and breakfast (Island Time on Galiano) so we made reservations and hoped the weather worked out.  We both took Friday off, booked a ferry trip, and were on the island by early afternoon.  After settling in and going for a short bike ride, we did a bit of driving looking for a good sunset.

After an amazing breakfast, we went out for a day of adventuring.  We didn't make it more the a kilometer before out first stop - someone's front yard at the end of Sticks Allison Road.  The ground was still moist with the morning dew.

The plan for the day was to start with a hike down Bodega Ridge.  Bodega ridge runs along the spine of the island and has great views west towards Salt Spring and Vancouver Island.  The ridge was part of a cut block and through tons of work by the locals (which is still visible at the market and other locations on the island) was turned into a park.  The hike is quite easy, but has very rewarding views.

Once we got to the end of the views Andrea sat down and did a little painting.  I poked around a little bit doing close ups and views.  The weather was warm and dry - amazing for February.

After lunch at the Market, we came back to the bed and breakfast to get ready for Kayaking.  I called the kayaking place and they wouldn't let us go out!  Being far out of season the kayak rental shop isn't normally open and being near the end of the day with questionable weather, their decision seemed sensible.  We hung out at the bed and breakfast for a while.

In our quest to maximize every sunset (and because we had a 3pm lunch and couldn't go to dinner any time soon) we drove down to Montegue harbour for a bit of a walk about.  Montegue harbour has a pretty large camp ground and the harbour itself will sometimes have 100 boats in it, but we seemed to be pretty much alone.  We hiked around the park a little but the sunset came pretty quick so we sat on a shell beach and watched the sun drop.

That evening we went back to the bed and breakfast and watched the stars go by with the telescope.  It was a clear night and we saw Jupiter and it's moons and Saturn and it's rings.  The next morning we woke up and called to get some Kayaking in.  Sure enough, the weather had improved so we went out for a paddle!

And after that (and a late lunch at the Hummingbird Pub) we were on the ferry back to Vancouver.