Spring in Victoria

We were supposed to leave the Yukon at the beginning of April, but Mara had a bike accident (she was a bit concussed and broke her hand) and I decided to fly down to Victoria to be her literal second hand.

I tied shoes, spread peanut butter on toasts, retyped recorded biology classes and spent two wonderful weeks with her as she showed me around her new digs.

After 5 months of snow, it felt like such a treat to be catapulted into Spring!

Waiting for the bus to go pick up our beloved Westy in Duncan.

Magnolia in bloom in the Victoria Chinatown and delicious coffee at Hey Happy.

The trees were in full bloom. If I had to pick one Canadian city where to settle down Victoria would be an easy first choice (if I could ever afford it!).

Meals outside!!

JF and Mathilde joined me at the end of March, a few days before my birthday, so we camped in the Westfalia together and went back to one of our favourite spots on the Island, Pedder Bay.

I fell in love with the Fernwood neighborhood. We went there to Stage restaurant for my birthday dinner and shared an amazing meal with natural wine and homemade vermouth.

Delicious meal at Stage for my 45th birthday.

A few days in Squamish before hitting the road to go pick up the bus.

When we left the island, we went to Squamish for a few days to drop off Mathilde at a friend (they were flying to Arkansas together with their team for a bike race), enjoyed the beautiful lush green Squamish Spring and left to pick up the bus that we had stored in Sorrento.

What to do and where to eat in and around Victoria, BC

The Parliament.

The Royal BC Museum.

The Royal BC Museum has many life size exhibits. Here: a salmon cannery and an authentic village.

Miniature World.

Miniature World.

Munro’s Books and Habit coffee shop.

Agrius and Fol Épi.

The best fish and chips are at Blue Fish Red Fish (well-worth the line!).

Jordan River Regional Park campground is only $15 June-Oct or $10 Nov-May and right on the ocean. There is no Canadian cell service (no Bell), but 3 bars 4G LTE Verizon on our American phone, however it fluctuated a bit. I posted my full review on @campendium
It's a bit out of the way but the perfect place to be far from everything and to go hiking or kayaking.

Juan De Fuca Trail

Our birthday hike tradition continues with this beautiful hike on the Juan De Fuca Trail that leads to an isolated beach for my 41st birthday.

Mystic Beach.

Discovering Victoria has been so much fun thanks to all the great recommendations many of you gave me. I'm so impressed by how green most of the restaurants and coffee shops are! No straws, all compostable containers and utensils, compost and recycling on the premises, locally sourced ingredients. 

We really fell in love hard with this city and the whole area. If we had to pick a place to settle down in Canada, it would definitely be our first choice… if lodging was affordable (which it isn’t). I can officially announce that we have decided to stay on the road at least for another year (as long as the bus doesn’t die on us…). We had said that we would not make a decision until we come to Vancouver island. Our time here has been incredible and the girls got to rub shoulders (and race with) very strong and pro riders. It has allowed them to see how our lifestyle gives them the flexibility (in terms of school schedule AND moving around) to keep progressing in the racing world - something all 3 want to do. After talking with many kids who go to school and race, our daughter who was curious about going to school changed her mind. We have a pretty exciting summer and fall ahead of us, and I can’t believe I will finally get to visit the Magdalen Island, where my dad’s side of the family comes from!

But for now, we are headed North to our beautiful Yukon!

First week in Victoria, BC, and the Hartland Island Cup

Pre-riding the Hartland Island Cup course. Quite a change from the AZ courses!

Checking out the lines.

Practice, practice, practice!

There is still snow on the ground. It’s very unusual in Victoria!

The view from our beautiful campground - Pedder Bay RV Resort and Marina.

Look at that water!

The girls were pretty excited and nervous to race the first Island Cup of the season (it’s their first time here). Mara had a great start and was keeping up with the strong girls until she got a flat, Aisha’s and Mathilde’s timing chips got mixed up, so they didn’t have their results, which wasn’t acknowledge before podiums (Aïsha was waiting for her turn on the podium and someone else got called because of the mixed results, even if she really was third…). They all acted with such maturity and positive attitudes, it was very heartwarming to see. Mathilde said she had her worst race ever (they rode a lot this week and their legs were shut), but that she had fun and was proud of herself. All in all, a success! And this community is simply amazing.

Mathilde and I when on a paddling date. It was so beautiful, seals were playing hide and seek around our kayak, a trumpeter swan landed beside us and a bald eagle took flight nearby. We could even see the snowy peaks of Olympic National Park in the US in front of us.

JF and are celebrating our 20th anniversary (well, as you know, we’re not married, but that’s 20 years from our official dating date) and it is my birthday in a few weeks as well, so he treated us to a guided tasting flight in the cellar of Bear Mountain Resort. Every Friday, there is a different theme and this week was Italy. How perfect! The sommelier led our group down to this incredible room with a huge table covered with canapés prepared with local cheeses and charcuteries, and guided us through a tasting of 8 different wines. When they brought out the lobster cakes, I looked at JF with big round eyes and asked: How much was this thing? He said: well it said from 40$ per person… So we laughed imagining cameras looking down on us to see how much food we ate from the decadent spread and charging accordingly! It turned out to be just a little over that and I kept bugging him that it was because he went for the prosciutto 3 times!
It was so fun to be with him in such a different setting. It really felt like we had traded life with another couple for an evening, in a weird but cool way.