Cowichan Valley, B.C.

A friend and I recently took a drive out to the Cowichan Valley for a wine tasting expedition, à la Sideways. (We managed to refrain from making snotty comments about Pinot or dumping the contents of the spit bucket on our heads after a disappointing call from a book agent.)

Our first stop was the Merridale Estate Cidery, where we wandered through the apple orchard, learned a bit about how they make apples into cider, and lined up for the tasting. (She carded me. But not my (male) friend. Why do servers so often ID only the "ladies" in the group?)





Ok, so that wasn't exactly wine tasting. Blue Grouse had lots of grapes and wine for us to try, though, with a view of the mountains to boot.





My favourite winery was Echo Valley, because the estate was absolutely stunning. Their grapes are very young and not yet ready for wine-making, but they had horses! I bought a bottle of their Nouveau Gamay 2003.





I'm starting to learn about wine, but my tastes aren't yet that discerning. At one of our last stops I bought a bottle of French Oak Chardonnay, even though I don't normally drink white wine, because it had an aftertaste that reminded me of caramel. He said this had something to do with it being oaked in the barrels for two years instead of one.

On the way home we drove through Cowichan Bay, yet another beautiful spot on the island:

Salt Spring Island, B.C.

Earlier in the summer a friend and I took a day trip to Salt Spring Island, one of the group of Gulf Islands that are nestled between Vancouver Island and mainland Vancouver. Salt Spring is a short and inexpensive ferry ride from the Swartz Bay terminal outside of Victoria.

From what I've seen, the Gulf Islands have a really distinct culture that involves lots of organic and healthy food, good coffee, local artisans, and cute cafés. One of the things I find most interesting about the islands is the prevalence of hitchhiking as a mode of transportation.

After an unsuccessful attempt at hitchhiking on Pender Island last February, we were a bit reluctant to try again. At the ferry terminal, however, all the bikes had been rented and taking a taxi to Ganges sounded pretty expensive, so we didn't have much of a choice. The girl working at the bike shop assured us that "everyone does it here."

It took a little while, but when the first car slowed down I almost skipped to the car. Our first ride came from a Québec ex-pat and her adorable daughter. After exploring Ganges, we went to the tourist bureau to see about hiking trails. We decided to climb Mount Erskine, and when even the grandfatherly man working at the tourist bureau recommended hitchhiking, we figured we were good to go.

My digital camera was still in the shop after a rainy incident on the Juan de Fuca trail, so I had dug out my old Pentax SLR. Here are a few (not-so-great) scans:

View from Mount Erskine:


The fairies living on top of Mount Erskine:






A break at a cute bakery café before boarding the ferry back to Victoria: