Mom-Day Adventure: Primary Plaids at the Westsong Walkway

Welcome to Mom-Day Adventures, starring me and Mom! Today, we did another section of the Westsong Walkway, an easy, paved walking path along a section of Victoria's harbour. We did part of this pathway previously here in October 2021.

As it's in the low double-digits for temperature now, I risked wearing lots of layers instead of a coat. It's practically spring! 

• Blazer - Yuppie Ladies, vintage 80s, thrifted; last worn here with mustard and orange in October 2021
• Sweater - Ralph Lauren, vintage 80s, thrifted; purchased here for $18.67
• Skirt - Liz Claiborne, vintage, thrifted; last worn here in November 2020 for a shopping trip
• Shoes - Pilgrim Truths, Fluevog; last seen here in December 2021 with my Christmas tree skirt

I was really happy with my plaid-mixing in today's outfit. 

I'm smirking.

This is the inaugural wearing of this new-to-me thrifted cotton vintage sweater. 

I love the fit and the proportion of it. It's perfect! 

Good from the rear too.

I'm shocked it's been so long since I wore this skirt but I featured it early in my last fall/winter season and late this time. 

It's a perfect plaid skirt. 

With pockets!

My oversized 80s wool blazer is navy, with yellow lines and a faint orangey-red line, so it matched just right with the skirt. 

I like the pops of primary colour - yellow, blue, red - against the two plaids. 

Masked up. 

For lunch after. 

This is how I looked when Mom picked me up. 

I'm ready! 

I looked like this for most of our walk.

It was along the water, and it's always colder there. 

The long red gloves kept my hands and arms warm. 

Although after an hour, my fingers were like icicles. 

Midway through our stroll, it started raining (while simultaneously being sunny) and I quickly adapted my scarf.

Movie Star Wrap! 

Accoutrements:

In retrospect, my red beret would have been useful. Eh, not a big deal. 

• Scarf - Elaine Gold, vintage 80s
• Gloves - Echo, consignment
• Mask - by Mom

The stuff: 

My feet are always happy in these shoes - they are supremely comfy, an all-day shoe. 

Colourful bling:

I wore the anatomical heart brooch over the RLL logo on the sweater, and the flower brooch on the jacket. 

• Purse - Danier Leather, thrifted
• Blue eelskin bangle - vintage 80s, mine, donated, then thrifted again
• Multi-bangle - thrifted
• Flower brooch - vintage 60s, Mom's
• Heart brooch - Smoking Lily
• Blue ring - Kenneth J. Lane, consignment, Powell River
• Silver/red enamel ring - antique store, Sidney
• Earrings - thrifted

Mom wanted to stand in front of the azalea that's starting to bloom in our building's garden. 

All that pink is so pretty - it matches Mom's top (which you'll see below). 

We drove to a small parking lot at the walkway access, in the Municipality of Esquimalt. 

Most people can't pronounce that. It sounds like "ask why malt" with the emphasis on the "why". 

Mom and I went from the Head Street access to the point between the Robert and Maitland Street accesses, shown in red on the blue map.

It was about 2 kilometers total. Just right for a very changeable day, weatherwise. 

It was sunny. And cloudy. And windy. And rainy. All at the same time. 

We followed a short path beside moored vessels, including some permanent house-boats. See the float-plane taking off? 

Just a glimpse of downtown Victoria in the far distance. 

The pathway is wooden planks in places, and sometimes concrete or paved surfaces. It was good for walking, although a bit narrow in places. We encountered scooters, baby strollers, dogs, runners, walkers, strollers, loud chatters and an idiot with a boom box.

I admired this mural. I'm a sucker for a tall ship.

It was painted by Bill & Chris Hart of Elite Signs. 

Cute little house-boats. 

We had a lot of dramatic cloud activity. 

Checking out the edge of the water. Most of the path is slightly elevated above the surface, taking into account the tides, of course. 

I see shells. No critters or fish, though. 

Boats! 

Clouds! 

This gent was in one of the permanent metal chairs on the dock.

His dog checked us out. 

We had dark gloomy clouds above us. 

It went from dim to bright within minutes.

A ginormous arbutus tree. 

The walkway is sheltered by many of the massive trees. 

I liked the reflection of the sky in the water. 

That is the Pacific Ocean! 

As Victoria's real estate is booming, there are so many giant condo towers going up. 

I'm glad that this area is all protected, but there are still huge buildings right up to the water. 

I love walking along here. This was our path ahead.

And this was to the right/south.

Cloud Drama! The lower bunchy clouds on the horizon are all around the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, USA. 

And now it's sunny.

Mom got her hair cut - she looks so good in a pixie-cut. 

These are Gary Oaks, like what we have in our front yard.

These ones are precariously rooted in rocks and moss, growing out over the ocean. 

There was not a lot of wildlife around, mostly birds. 

Do you see the two Canada geese there? 

More Cloud Drama! 

The long low building near the middle right is our cruise ship dock. Picture here from the June 2018 Day of Indolence, showing 3 massive cruise ships docked. I guess that's coming back soon...we haven't had cruise ships here for two years.

I zoomed in to take pictures of these three huge house-boats. 

I guess they should be called mansion-boats! I spy a crew of four mergansers! 

Harbour Air planes took off and landed every 20 minutes or so. 

Another one coming in! 

The last time Mom and I did the Westsong Walkway, we made it as far as the gazebo, coming from the opposite direction as today. 

Right where that blue arrow is. Ugly buildings. 

Two more Canada geese. 

One was foraging while the other kept watch. 

A sign about the geological significance of this rock. 

It says, "These grooves were created by the basal layers of an ice sheet which flowed southwards over the Victoria area, approximately 15,000 years ago." Cool! 

This nice bridge is new! 

Very spiffy! 

There's a little bay to the left. 

There's a stairwell at the end of the bridge, so you can go down to the water's edge. 

I loved these rocks covered with a carpet of new ferns. 

The water is on the lower right. 

There were lots of clusters of mergansers everywhere. 

They dipped under the water, hunting fish. 

Here's a helpful guide to all the local flora and fauna. 

Marine snails, sea lettuce, clams, limpets, sea stars, mussels, crabs, hermit crabs, barnacles and rockweed. I know them all well! 

In addition to sea-planes, we also have a Heli-Jet helicopter service for getting off Vancouver Island. No bridges - you have to take a ferry or fly.

I've only taken Heli-Jet to Vancouver once, here in 2010 for our friend Tony's birthday. It was very loud (both the helicopter and the party!). I still have that dress!

A muddle of mergansers. 

If you squint, you can see the gazebo on the left. 

I counted 10 mergansers. 

The water was quite choppy from harbour traffic and the wind. 

At last, we have arrived! 

We enjoyed a rest for a while, which is when the rain started.

What a place. 

I'm awed by the scale. It's all so huge. 

A tree that's about to burst into blossom. 

We have a ton of blooming trees here. 

The sun sparkling on the water. 

We kept pausing and taking deep breaths. "Ahhhhhhh...."

Another plane coming in, as we cross the bridge heading back. 

You can see that the path is wet there - the rain was very fine and didn't last. "My grandmother called this a Scotch mist," scoffed Mom. 

Us west-coaters are very used to rain. 

Our watchful Canada goose spotted us. 

I love the gnarled oaks. 

Most of the environment on either side of the path is left wild. 

Sun peeking through. 

When all these trees are in leaf, I bet this is lovely. 

Mom pointed out the Captain's House (a bit about it here from our local paper - it's the 2nd one down)

I love cool houses like that. In the foreground is a sunroom on top of a house-boat. 

Hooray for blooms! Miniature daffodils. 

Mom helpfully tells me the names of everything. The white thing on the right is a hellebore! 

We went to Spinnaker's Pub for lunch. Mom had salmon and shrimp pizza. 

We both enjoyed house-brewed Butterbeer (which tastes like butterscotch Life Saver candies). I had barbecue mushroom and kale pizza. Spinnaker's grinds their own flour! These were delicious, but filling - we both had to take half home. I'm excited to have mine for lunch at work tomorrow. 

Mom wore her "Audrey" sweater - there's that pale pink. 

So chic, very Chanel-inspired. Love the asymmetrical necklace.

And wrapping up our adventure with our Mom-daughter selfie in the gazebo! 

That was such a lovely day, thank you, Mom! I love you!