7/24 Sidney

We had a luxury breakfast this morning – waffles with eggs over easy and a slice of ham, compliments of the resident chef, Erin.  We followed this with a walk into town later in the morning.  Barb accompanied us as we did some exploring into town.  We walked along the shore between the marina and the public docks, and had a great view of Sidney Spit, and across Haro Strait to the U.S., where we could plainly see Spieden Island.  Mount Baker was looming in the distance.  As we walked further along the shore we came upon a group of seniors doing Tai Chi exercises on the lawn adjacent to the walkway.

 

We headed on into town on Beacon Street, the main drag – at least here next to the marina.  We poked in and out of a few gift shops and galleries, and came upon the Sidney Bakery, in the same place it was when I was first here nearly 30 years ago.  We returned there on the way back and picked up a few items – a couple butter horns, a couple apple donuts and a fresh strawberry rhubarb pie.  Oh yeah, and a few of one of our favorite items up here in Canada, sausage rolls.  Barb picked up a few treats to take to Trav, who was back on the boat minding the store.

 

As we walked along the streets we'd come to bronze sculptures of various figures sitting on park benches.  There was always room for a person or two as well.  We saw a sea captain, an old lady with her purse and shopping bags, an old man and his dog, and maybe a couple others I can't recall now.  They added a nice touch to an already well laid out pedestrian walkway.

 

Once back at the boat, Erin did some work on her paintings, using some of the new paint she bought at one of the galleries – our only purchase on the walk.  I worked on a crossword puzzle, which turned into a nap.  A little later in the afternoon we went out and walked a couple docks, then went back into town to the grocery store.  On our last two grocery trips, we'd forgotten to get the sour cream we'd set out to get, so we were focused on finally accomplishing that.  We did, but not before another $30 worth of stuff found its way into our basket.  We headed back with our booty so we could rest up before going to the Thursday Market.

 

We got a radio call from Trav just before six that Rubber Ducky, their dinghy, was leaving their moorage so we walked down to meet them at the head of the dock.  From there we walked up to the foot of Beacon Street, which was now closed to vehicular traffic and lined with arts, crafts and food booths.  It stretched out for about 4 city blocks, with the booths on either side and a somewhat orderly progression of people heading west on one side of the street and east on the other.  We joined in the crowd and perused the various wares on display.  Spaced far enough apart so that they didn't interfere with each other were street musicians, or buskers, as they're called here.  There were two marimba bands, and we particularly enjoyed a performance by one that was all women performers.  They played with a lot of energy and were obviously having a good time.  They had a bin of musical toys for children, and several kids were helping themselves and shaking tambourines to the beat of the music.

 

We stopped at one of the street vendors for dinner, and Erin and I both got an Italian sausage sandwich with caramelized onions.  It sounded better than it was, but it suited its purpose of sating our hunger.  Trav and Barb split a hamburger from the same stand.

 

As we headed back towards the marina, we invited Trav and Barb to swing by the Potentate and share some of our strawberry rhubarb pie we'd purchased earlier at the bakery.  They parked their dinghy behind us and came aboard for dessert and conversation.

 

Tomorrow we have somewhat loosely made plans to head out to Sidney Spit, and Provincial Park, to stay at anchor for a couple days.  The spit is within sight of the marina, so it won't be a very long cruise.  We've been fortunate to find an Internet connection at almost every harbor we've visited, but I'm pretty sure we'll be out of touch if at anchor out there.  If that's the case, the next time you'll see an update on the blog will probably be when we find our way into the port of Victoria, where we'd like to spend a few days.  In the meantime, photos may or may not appear within these last couple of posts.  Our connection is weak, and sometimes it will choke when trying to upload a picture.  I did manage to get out a series of photos Erin took via an email to the blog, so I may use that method again where the connection is tenuous.