Today started with delicious pastries and Timbits. Matt foraged the former from the bakery downstairs from the airbnb, I walked over to Tim Hortons which, alas, did not have any maple offerings this morning for the latter. This should come as no surprise, but I liked the chocolate croissant from the bakery and the chocolate Timbits best. David had been talking about Timbits for quite some time and enjoyed them very much, though he acknowledged that the bakery offerings were better.
After a leisurely morning we went to the Landsharkz store where we had a lovely visit with Helen, though forgot to deliver something she had purchased and sent to my place (Chris was getting a truck to haul some items to Abbotsford). Oh well, there will be opportunities in Abbotsford and Seattle. After finding the cache near the store, we went to a nearby park where David wanted to find a cache that I’d already found (note for geocachers: he is down to 9 more months to complete his Jasmer), and found a puzzle cache nearby. There were stunning views of the water, and one of us (guilty as charged) had to go down to the beach to skip stones.
On the way north to the town of Sidney, we noticed signs for a farm stand with blueberries, though we noticed them too late to be able to turn. We made a mental note of where the farm stand was, and continued north. We had a particular restaurant in mind, and while the men went in to get our table Julie and I went to the most restful “washroom” ever — it had soothing classical guitar music. Outside of the bathroom was a pet wash, complete with aprons, and Julie and I had fun taking pictures including a selfie that was posted on FB. It turned out that the wait time for that restaurant was too long so we selected a different one. While waiting for our table, we took a nice walk (ok, found an adventure lab that highlighted some of the interesting local statues). We even passed a book store and while I went inside I resisted the urge to purchase anything.
The big plan for the day was to explore Butchart Gardens. While driving from Sidney to the gardens we saw a sign for a different farm stand that advertised all sorts of berries: blue, straw, boysen, tay, black, rasp and perhaps others. Needless to say, we detoured there and were impressed at the choices. Matt and Julie considered getting a small number of pints while I debated whether a half flat of strawberries and a half flat of blueberries would be a reasonable choice. David was waiting in the car and I brought him over to the fruit to weigh in on what to buy — being a wise man and a budding fructovore himself, he endorsed my choice.
For the Oregonians in the crowd, the strawberries weren’t Hoods, but they were very close. Bright red insides, sweet and juicy, and very satisfying. The first quart was gone before we arrived at the garden.
We enjoyed Butchart Gardens. It’s my third time there, the first as a 10-year old, the second about 15-20 years ago, and it’s definitely worth a visit every decade or so. Beautifully maintained grounds with lots of flowers, trees, grass, and other ground covers as well as nice art installations. Today was a perfect day to walk through the various gardens, warm but not hot, sunny with some clouds.
On the way back to our lodging, the first pint of blueberries magically disappeared.
Dinner was sushi, followed by some of the chocolates purchased last night.
A fantastic day shared with friends, and lots of stories about mutual friends from around the world.
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