Bigass Travel Weekend Wrap-Up: Christmas Re-Done; Local PR Shops

Hello, and welcome back, my friends! I've been away traveling this past weekend, as L and I attempted - and succeeded! - to visit his mom and brother in Powell River. I have a couple of travel outfits (I'm a minimalist traveler), loads of pictures of our drive up- and down-Island, and I spent a day trawling the boutiques (both secondhand and new) in PR. I may have bought a few things...

So get yourself a big mug of whatever your libation and settle in! 

L and I were up early on Friday morning - I did my pictures while he walked to town to pick up our rental car. 

A stair picture! As you can tell, I went full-on Clothing As Armour for my visit with my in-laws. I also find travel incredibly stressful, so wearing all my studs, grommets and rock & roll armour felt like I was fully insulated from the world. 

• Vest - Chiqle, thrifted; last seen here in September 2021 for a Mental Health Shop
• Iron Maiden tour shirt - Portland, OR, 2019 Tour, not tracked
• Jeans - Smashed Lemon (part of a suit); last worn here with the matching jacket in November 2021
• Boots - Ash; last seen here (2nd outfit) in December 2021 for another shop
• Coat (below) - Danier Leather, consignment; last worn here (2nd outfit) last weekend
• Poncho - Ralph Lauren, thrifted; last seen here in December 2021 on the previous attempt to visit PR

We attempted to go up-Island/to Powell River on Christmas Eve (here - we had to turn around due to finding out we'd been exposed to Covid). This time, we had the weather in our favour (no snow, no rain), and both L and I have been isolating from any close contact with people. 

I took changes of socks, underwear and a t-shirt for sleeping in each night. I wore this exact outfit on the way home, only wearing my Corey Hart tour shirt instead. 

You can see all our stuff piled up in the hall, ready to be loaded into the SUV.

Lots of drinks and snacks, plus our Christmas presents for the fam. 

I carried/wore my "computer poncho" and used it as a blanket, shawl and generally as an extra piece to keep me warm, as needed.

I'm ready to go! 

Of course, I wore my insulated leather coat as well. 

I need to stay warm. 

Done up with a scarf. 

Poncho over top. 

I also wore gloves as needed. 

Accoutrements: 

I wore the silk scarf and the mask every day.

• Scarf - Elaine Gold, vintage, Lazy Susan's
• Gloves - Danier Leather
• Mask - by Mom

The stuff: 

Same boots and accessories the whole weekend. 

• Belt - gift from Ruth
• Leather cuff - Guess, thrifted
• Earrings - Glee
• Silver/onyx ring - Toccara, vintage fair
• Silver ring - Mexico, Charmaine's; purchased here for $18.00

L and I picked five albums apiece to listen to on our drives, alternately picking from each other's selection:

Sheila:

• The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
• Tom Waits - Frank's Wild Years
• Wooden Sky - When Lost at Sea
• Jason Isbell - The Nashville Sound
• Leonard Cohen - Various Positions

L: 

• Joe Jackson - Look Sharp! 
• Eric B & Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique
• Shaggy - Hotshot
• Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
• London Grammar - Californian Soil

I enjoy singing with music as we cruise along the highway. It's a 3-hour drive each way, and we made it through 8 of the albums (missed Springsteen and Tom Waits). 

Here we are at the start of the Malahat Drive, just north of Victoria.

As you can see, we had lovely weather, with flashes of blue sky amid the streaky clouds. 

There was a fair bit of traffic for a Friday morning. 

That's Mt. Finlayson, off Goldstream Park (the sign points to Finlayson Arm - an arm is a skinny long inlet). 

As we climb - the Malahat goes to ~1100+ feet above sea level - the highway goes down to one lane. 

The trees are all furred in green moss. 

At the summit, looking back to Victoria. 

One of those bumps is Mt. Finlayson. Check it out, this is the same view as in Mom's oil painting from the 70s here. 

We never do the lookout stop (we only pause in Courtenay briefly to pick up lunch), but it's a great view. 

That's the Saanich Peninsula across there. 

Looking across Finlayson Arm to North Saanich and Sidney. 

Love the clouds. 

More exciting cloud action as we came into Mill Bay.

Zoom, through we went. 

We got a glimpses of snowy mountains further north. 

We'll be there soon enough. 

My trusty driver, L, as we pass a dairy farm just past Cobble Hill. 

I don't have a drivers' license, so L does all the driving. Thank you, love! 

Entering Duncan via Silver Bridge. 

City of Totems! 

I love this type of bridge. 

Not stopping, through Duncan we go. 

I liked this decal.

A quote from Yoda! 

Near the Nanaimo airport. 

Twin props! 

Horses. 

The light grey one has a blanket on while she snoozes. 

These big trucks make me nervous. 

At least two by fours don't slide off! 

This is nearing Nanaimo.

The mountains in the far distance poking up above the clouds are across the water on the mainland of BC. 

Remember the first snowy mountains we saw? 

Here they are. 

Eep, a logging truck with logs! 

Those are very skinny ones, though. 

Passing the mountains. 

These are actually on Vancouver Island (where we are now). 

More mountains as we come into the Comox Valley. 

I waved to my brother's house as we drove past it on the way to the Comox ferry. 

A close-up of our ferry route back to the mainland. 

It's about an hour and 15 minutes to go from Comox to Powell River. 

We ate our Subway sandwiches in the car, and then I went for a walk along the shore while L had a nap. 

There were a few people walking dogs or just stretching their legs along the beach. 

I walked slowly, enjoying the shush of the pebbles, looking for treasures. 

A lovely white shell.

The inhabitant probably came to a gruesome end. 

That round hole was made by a starfish. Slurp! 

The ferry arrived while I was poking around. 

No rush, though - I had about an hour before departure. 

Looking across the water. 

It's very shallow at the water's edge (you can see the pebbles on the sand), but gets deep really quickly. 

I found a purple shell to match my hair. 

That's typical west coast beach. Sand and pebbles. 

Another shell.

This one's more amber but was also vacant. 

This shell was even teenier. 

Lots of shell bits and seaweed/seagrass. 

I like walking on driftwood logs. 

That one's cedar. You can tell by the "hairy" wood fibres. 

The levels of beach. 

There is some nice soft sand further away from the water. The tide was quite far out. 

Time to go!

We were the fourth car to load - one of the reasons we like to be at the terminal early. 

The inside of the Salish Orca. 

This is a fancy new ferry - it's only been in service for a few years. 

We're right near the front, so we'll be off quick. 

If you're in a car that is in the "open" you're allowed to stay in your car, but we decided to go upstairs and keep warm. 

Ferry selfie! 

We read and listened to music for the sailing (masks on the whole time). There were very few people on this sailing. 

Looking back at Vancouver Island as the sun starts to go down. 

It's around 4:15pm. I watched for orcas and seals, but didn't see any. 

Oh, I can almost see PR as we get closer to the mainland (on the far left). 

The strip of island there is Texada Island - that's the Texada Island ferry on the right. 

Wow, what a gorgeous sunset. 

But we're nearly at the dock, so time to go back to the car. 

I spotted an Escape Hatch as we went down the stairs to the car deck. 

You know, just in case the ferry tips upside down like in The Poseidon Adventure! (that's never happened with a BC Ferry, so don't worry). 

The front "guard" section lifts pneumatically, revealing the setting sun on PR. 

It's such a picturesque little town. 

I spy the docks - the big square with the rusty marks on it is one side of the ferry slip. 

This is the main "downtown" of Powell River - over the hill (straight ahead) is the mall and our hotel. 

On Friday night, we had dinner and hung out with L's mom, Louise, his brother Virgil and Louise's beau Dave. I worked on my Peacock Jacket (getting close to finishing!), then we walked back to the hotel and collapsed. Travel (and family) is exhausting. 

On Saturday, I changed into my alternate outfit - this is one of my "at home" dresses. 

And I took my new fleece-lined leggings with me, sneaking in a wearing of them. I'm layering my Wonder Woman tee underneath, which I slept in that night. 

• Wool dress - Club Monaco, thrifted; not tracked 
• Vest - as above
• Leggings - Chloe Angus; purchased here for $31.60
• Boots - as above
• Coat - as above

Along with my mask, this is what I looked like for most of the day, and with various stages of being done up/undone, masked/unmasked.

One of my favourite things to do while in Powell River is to check out their second-hand shops. For a tiny town, they have a surprisingly good variety. Louise tipped me off that the Economy Shop (thrift) was closed due to the pandemic, but that everything else was open. All links below 'cause I love! 

As I want to support businesses I shop in - and with $120 Christmas cash from Louise burning a hole in my pocket - I spent lavishly, putting money back into local businesses. L came along and bought a couple of hoodies at Taws Cycle and Sports (which used to be Taws Guns back in the day), and Louise joined us, and shopped with me a bit longer. 

Our first stop was Willow Rose Boutique (link here), down the stairs off Willingdon Avenue. I've found things here before and was not disappointed. 

Hi, Karen! 

I spotted these boots right away and gasped! Oh yes!

They are primarily cloth ankle boots, with the fronts woven brocade with lame (lah-MAY, darlings!), and the sides in black with scrolly brocade. 

Three of the four sides of the boots match exactly...

And one side looks like this. The insides are black woolly fabric. There is no brand name anywhere on them. 

I'm not totally enamoured of the cream laces, but they have metal aglets, which is a nice detail. 

Note the "skate lacing" hooks above the shoelace holes. 

A tiny bit of wear on the soles. I am not a size 41 (close to a US size 10.5 or 11). 

Based on the lack of wear and the fact that these fit closer to a size 9, I am assuming these were purchased from an online-only shop, and not returned. These were $60.00. 

When I plonked the boots down on the counter, Karen said, "Oh, that's the same consignee as this vest," and hauled this out for me to swoon over. 

Oh, my gosh. That is one gorgeous massive faux-fur trimmed vest! 

It's covered in embroidery, front and back. 

With a little furry band at the waist. The main fabric feels like suede, but it's not.

Those are fake pockets, grrr...insert my rant about Why-bother-sewing-that-and-not-making-a-real-pocket-if-you're-going-to-go-to-that-trouble! 

The "leather" trim is fake too. 

Toggle switches for the clasps down the front. 

The backsides are fully metal. 

You don't see screws on clothing very often. 

The inside is all a lovely amber plush. 

Speaking of plush, I found a "stuffed articles" warning tag on the inside, which led me to the content tag. 

Nylon, polyester, yup...expecting that...but DUCK DOWN? Feathers? WTF? No wonder it's so warm! 

I also found a tag that says "Tsarina."

This does have a Russian vibe, doesn't it? 

It's by Buffalo David Bitton

I found a sold one on Poshmark for $200, marked down to $40, but no other images of this, so I suspect it's pre-internet. I recall this heavy embellishment being a very popular look in the late 90s/early 00s, so it's likely from that era. Karen offered it to me for $59.99, which I felt was fair. 

And that took care of my Christmas money - thanks, Louise! She was happy to see me spending it right away ("It's like I bought it for you!" she chortled. "You did!" I grinned). 

I also bought this skirt, but am having purchase regrets, as it's not great quality, and I know I have similar skirts that are nicer. 

It's a high-low swoosh-tastic skirt, and you know rose florals are my jam. 

It was new with tags, by Mia Joy of Joy Folie. 

It fits great, and I love the colours and patterns. 

But the fabric is a synthetic mesh and is staticky. Ah well, it was only $20.00. 

I know it's from 2017 because it's right there on the tag. 

It's the Juliana Skirt and would have been around $88.00 new. 

I love the colours in this striped sweater. 

We have pink, brick red, mint green, cream and tan. 

It's a mohair blend, and we know it's got some age on it. 

How? 

Because it's made in Hong Kong, 

And Hong Kong went back to China in 1997, so this is mid- to late-90s, most likely. It was $23.00. 

I used to have a nearly identical sweater in 100% cashmere, but the moths got it. 

I'm thrilled to find its match in 100% wool. 

The moths will probably still get it, but for $20.00, I was happy. Their merino wool sweaters are $89.00 and up! 

This is from May 2019, and it's by Talbots. 

Talbots sizing is large, so the XS fits me perfectly. 

I knew this long jacket was a gem just from looking at it on the hanger. It has Major Shoulders which are very Gaga-esque when it's on. 

I love this deep red and the long cut. I feel like long jackets are going to have their day in the sun again - it's been 20 years, time for them to come back in style. 

The button is marked. 

Zara Woman, so no surprise there. What did surprise me was the lovely woven fabric, which you can see better in detail there. It's very thick and feels like quality.

Someone cut the content tag out, so although I think this is wool or a wool blend, I don't know for sure. 

I checked carefully to see if the pockets were real - and they are! I carefully cut the stitches when I got home - even the breast pocket is real. 

And although this is Zara, it's incredible quality - it's even fully-lined. I couldn't find this jacket online at all so I think it's an early Zara (likely from the late 90s/early 00s).

It's made in Spain - how many decades since Zara manufactured in Spain? Two? More? This was $65.00 and worth every penny. It feels like quality - and it's very Boss Lady! 

The last thing I bought was this pair of earrings for $10.00.

They are light to wear, and I like the colour mix, as well as the little row of clear crystals against the black ones. 

From there, L headed off to hang out with his brother Virgil for the day, and Louise and I continued along Willingdon. Fits To A Tee (link here) is a retail store that carries good quality simple garments. It's a popular boutique but not really my bag, although much of their stock was made in Canada, yay! 

I bought these "llama balls" for $10.00 each. They are dryer balls, used instead of dryer sheets for doing laundry. They absorb water, cutting drying time in half (saving energy), and last forever. As they are made from real llama wool, they are fully biodegradable. They have adorable sets of bees and ladybug balls here, but our laundry loads are small, so we don't need that many. No more dryer sheets going into landfill! 

Louise bought a beautiful made in Canada black dress there and was thrilled with it, modeling it for us later that evening. I didn't take any pictures of all of us the entire trip - I was tired and frankly, forgot. 

I'm a marathon shopper, and by this time, Louise was worn out and headed off home, so I continued on my own, enjoying a bit of quiet time to myself. My next stop was Blue Sky Consignment (FB link here)

I had a good poke through their accessories, and found a ring and a cuff bracelet. 

The cuff is gorgeous, and was $20.00, which felt like a good deal.

I don't think that's real turquoise, but it's a good imitation. The design is a squash blossom. 

The sides are decorated with stamps. 

And there's a small mark inside. 

"Solid copper" and a bell logo. After a bit of digging, I discovered that this is by Bell Trading Post, started in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1932 (a great history post here). They marketed "Native" designs along Route 66 to tourists, so it's likely that this was picked up in the 1950s-60s.

Even more digging, and I discovered, that this is the same company that made my/Vix's matching necklace/pendant (this one), my unknown brooch (this one) and even my Grandma J's ring (this one). Wow, mysteries solved! 

The blue ring was $15.00.

It's marked inside "KJL China". 

KJL stands for Kenneth Jay Lane - they had a bunch of amazing rings at Blue Sky, but I can't buy 'em all. This is likely gold-plated and would have retailed for between $50-95.00. 

I spotted these camo beauties on a display (I always scope out displays, thoroughly). 

They are leather, with the hairy part left on - aka "ponyhair" (but it's cow). 

This is a classic lace-up. 

Zero wear on the soles. 

In fact, you can still see the brand logo on the sole - these were barely worn. 

Vince Camuto. There is a similar pair on Walmart's (gag) website for $29.00, but they look very cheaply made. 

I did find a blogger post from 2014 here featuring these shoes, and they looked like better quality than the current ones. 

These were $50 marked down from $70. I was fine with that - these are equal in quality to my Miista shoes, which retail for around $200.

Cabi is one of those brands I'll always take a second look at - their clothes are good quality and well-made. 

Roses and snakeskin? Um, yes, please. 

Check out the sleeves. The shoulder has some extra structure for maximum pouffage. 

And the cuff has a long stretchy insert. 

I found this blouse on a blog noting it's from 2019 (here). 

It's called the Snake Charmer blouse, and retailed for $109 Canadian. Finding it for $17.00? Priceless! 

I briefly popped into another thrift shop that hadn't been open when we arrived in the morning, but it was gross and some creepy guy kept lingering near me, so I left and went over to The Knack, a retail boutique. I've bought a few things here over the years (this Miami blouse was from there), but as I rarely shop retail, it has to be a good deal for me to bite. 

I've been looking for a vest to layer over my blouses/dresses that isn't one of those fitted ones from 2003-5. 

I really liked the colour and the nice crochet texture of this one. 

It's by Active USA and was $12.00 on sale. 

Regular $38.00. It will be cute over a blouse and belted, etc. 

I slogged back to the hotel with all my goodies, and showed them off to L, who duly admired them (he likes about half of what I buy).

We spent the rest of Saturday watching NFL playoffs (some crazy-exciting games), and hanging out with Louise and Dave, but we were back to the hotel to crash and head to bed. We were up early to check out and make the 8am ferry sailing back to Vancouver Island. 

It was a dark and foggy morning, as L loaded up our car. 

The sun was just coming up as we drove onto the ferry . 

It's 7:47am by the car clock, and we were the second car on board. 

We headed straight for the café for our traditional breakfast (aka the Sunshine Breakfast) of eggs, ham (for me, bacon for L), toast and potatoes, and enough coffee to make me civil. 

Delicious! 

We gassed up in Courtenay and headed into the fog. 

That glowy thing in the sky is the sun. 

We had hardly any traffic until we hit Nanaimo. 

Two ravens chillin' out atop a tree, as fingers of fog laced their way through the landscape. 

The sun really tried to come out. It was bright! 

But short-lived. 

I've never seen an elk. 

But there are signs all along the highway. I was on high Elk and Deer Alert in the fog, as a collision with either animal could kill us all! 

This sign bothers me. Just a little bit of punctuation is needed to make it clear! One period! 

I know they mean, "No hitch-hiking! Pick up is illegal" but that's not what that sign says. As it stands, it's totally fine - go ahead and give a ride to a hitch-hiker. No pickups are illegal, you're totally safe! 

The gorilla is still at the Duncan Nissan dealership. 

Big inflatable balloons creep me out. 

Especially these things. *shudder*

"GAH!" I yelled when I spotted it. 

"Look away!" hollered L. 

"AH! I can't! It's so f**king creepy!"

Thank goodness we were back on the Malahat shortly afterwards. 

It's a dangerous road at the best of times (it's very twisty and turny and it's down the side of a mountain), but in the fog? 

At times, we could only see the car in front of us. 

I'm half-expecting a monster to jump out of it. Rar!

I read too much horror...heh.

Finally, a bit of blue sky.

But then we plunged back into the fog. 

And...we're over the peak, and half an hour later, we were home again. 

All safe and sound, our little guy had abandoned all hope of our return. 

"Uncle Ross is my new friend now."

Oh, come on, Vizzini, give us some love. 

"Did you bring me treats? I'll consider it."

He did miss us, and has been alternating laps for the past day/evening. L got his 3rd shot/booster today, so we are laying low and enjoying our extra day off before work tomorrow.

I hope you enjoyed our journey - I'm glad to be home and I'm excited to wear all my new-to-me goodies - so many new things to play with! Do you have a favourite? What do you want to see in an outfit right away?