Aug 18th, 19th & 20th - Outfits #19, 20 & 21 - Trip Up the Coast

I'm baaaack! I took a long weekend - L and I went to visit his folks in Powell River, which is on the British Columbia west coast. It's a fair bit of travel, so I had Monday off.

Ooh, I almost forgot! It's Visible Monday at Patti's "Not Yet Dead Style"! Go!

I packed very minimally, only a cardigan, one top, one skirt, one dress and a single pair of shoes. Saturday's travel outfit:

Cardigan last worn here (2nd & 3rd outfits), top last worn here (both outfits), skirt last worn here, and sandals last worn here (2nd outfit). Layers for temperature control and length of sleeves and skirt for sun coverage.

I also only took one pair of earrings, my silver feathers.

However, we have a convertible, and the weather on Saturday was gorgeous and hot, so I knew I'd need more coverage.

Enter, the hat!

I also used the scarf to cover my chest and lower arms from the sun.

Cardgian (no label, consignment), top (Planet), skirt (Cute Options), shoes (Wild Diva, swap from Caro), hat (Delux), scarf (Chapters). 

On Sunday, we met up with our good friend Kelly, who'd moved back to PR earlier this year, for breakfast. We found the most awesome greasy spoon - I had steak and eggs! Delicious.

I wore the purple dress (last seen here), my Smoking Lily obi, and the cardgian again.

I left some of my in-laws' hideous brown velvet floral couch in. So not my style!

I wore the same shoes, but we don't wear them in the house (not even for pictures).

Dress (Lady Dutch, consignment), obi (Smoking Lily).

These are the accessory items:

Vizzini took a liking to the feather pin on the hatband. Naughty boy!

Today, we got home after a very long drive (pictures below of the travel both ways), and I changed into an outfit for going out for lunch and also to the passport office. Time to renew our passports - oh joy.

Looking away because I have no make-up on! 

My faded denim vest (last seen here), my fluttery silk maxi skirt (last worn here, last outfit), and my purple flats (last worn here). That's just a black camisole underneath - not part of the capsule.

Vest (InWear, consignment), cami (Esprit), skirt (Le Chateau, consignment), sandals (La Canadienne, consignment).

You can stop reading here if you're not interested in my travel pictures. I won't be offended.

Once we got out of town, we drove north along the highway (there is only one route), to a section called the Malahat. It starts here, at Goldstream Park, a lovely place, lots of trees, hiking and yeah, there's Goldstream River, where salmon spawn (which is quite disgusting when they start to rot).

It's very lush evergreen forest and big mountains, and the sides of the road are very steep.

This section of the highway used to be more hilly - many decades ago they blasted down through the rock to make the highway easier to drive. It's still an uphill drive - my ears always pop near the top.

We had heavy traffic until we got over the hump.

This is the Malahat lookout, at the peak.

We never stop there - that's for tourists!

Coming down off the Malahat, I can see the mountains further up-Island in the far distance. We'll skirt around those and go past them.

Lots of traffic on an August Saturday, both ways!

As we went through Duncan, I was assailed by this awful thing:

I absolutely loathe those floppy balloon people! They seriously creep me out.

Agggh!! Another one!

All the more reason to get through Duncan...fast!

As we sped past the teeny-weeny Nanaimo airport, I caught one of the small planes overhead.

It clouded up as we drove up-Island. Dang, no sunshine for us this weekend!

Once we passed Nanaimo, there's the "new highway", a lovely long straight stretch of road.

We go about 140 KM/hr here. Zoom!

And 3 hours later, we arrive at the Courtenay/Comox ferry dock (hi, Peg!). This is looking north.

The tide was way up, and the beaches were quite stinky.

We patiently waited to get our tickets.

I like this shot of L.

Looking south.

I walked along here last Christmas (go here for my travelogue in December - it's much different in the winter!).

The mighty Queen of Burnaby got us across the strait to the mainland.

Although it was cloudy, it was still very warm out, almost muggy. I went out on deck (my skirt puffed out quite majestically - very satisfying and romantic) and took some pictures.

Looking at the mainland in the far distance.

The sailing takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

And looking back at Vancouver Island.

You can go up and down the levels on the ferry. You can almost walk all the way around it.

Not up here, though.

At Christmas time, they put a tree up there with the radar thingy.

Up at the bow:

I always want to ring that brass bell, but you're not allowed that far forward.

L is in the forward lounge, reading his book and chillin'.

All of the seating areas have giant windows. Most people either plunk down for the trip (locals) or wander around the ferry (tourists).

Looking back along the top deck.

None of this deck is open to the public. I remember when I was a kid, this ferry (and others of this size/fleet) used to be on the big Victoria/Vancouver runs (they have much bigger and newer ferries now), and this top deck was open. Of course, you could also smoke indoors!

Looking down at the Zodiac boat.

People fall overboard sometimes. I guess this is the most efficient way to fish them out of the ocean.

There was an announcement of porpoises off the starboard side, but I couldn't see them. Aw...

The smokestack!

Even though I know the horn doesn't sound from here, I always think that it does. The horn is really loud.

Waiting in our little car as the ferry pulls into the docks at Powell River.

The walk-on passengers just walk off the ramp. Once they're all off, they unload the cars. We were lucky to be off 3rd!

We spent a quiet weekend, mostly just talking and reading. I finished "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan and read all of Jennifer Egan's "Look at Me". I just finished her excellent novel "A Visit from the Goon Squad" (a book club pick) and loved it. All great books. It was a real pleasure to enjoy so much reading time.

My inlaws' back yard.

We got a bit of summer rain, but it was mostly just overcast.

Yesterday, we played bocce in the front yard. L's step-dad has dementia (he doesn't know who any of us are), but bocce was okay for him to play. It's simple: just aim for the white ball!

L and his brother V, fetching balls from underneath the rhododendron bush. A lot of them went under there.

Today, L and I headed for the cafeteria on the ferry for our traditional Sunshine Breakfast.

Yo, check out my breakfast, yo!

Actually, it's not called the Sunshine Breakfast anymore. But it was good!

As we pulled out from the PR dock, the clouds started to break.

The grey streakiness is the ferry window.

Driving down-Island.

See all the hazy silhouettes in the distance. Yeah, that's where we're headed. The clouds were magnificent!

Are we there yet?

Dang. Nope, a couple hours to go.

But at least I caught a fuzzy shot of the gnome!

"I'm a gnome with the biggest hands ever."

Car for scale. It's an oxymoron: a giant gnome.

The Malahat summit heading south - it's getting sunny!

And we're home. It's good to be here.