Here’s part 2 of our BC trip at the end of October and first few days of November. Taking our rental car across the ferry, we headed to stay with wonderful friends by Coombs. We got to know their family when we stayed at Sproat Lake last January so it was great to reconnect! Heading out to Sproat Lake was on our list and we went for a walk at Stamp Falls but it was raining heavily so I didn’t take my camera. We were hoping to see salmon spawning but were a couple weeks too late. However we got to watch two bears wandering along across the riverbank!! That was really cool to see!
After our weekend at Coombs we cruised down the Malahat to spend a few days in Victoria. We stayed at the funky, colorful Zed Hotel which we’ve noticed other times but never stayed at. It’s easy to enjoy spending time in Victoria! We like wandering around the harbourfront, downtown streets, Fisherman’s Wharf – we even found a spot that serves gluten free fish + chips there! – and driving to parks at the points along the coast to enjoy ocean views and the sound of waves crashing. Then we enjoyed our first visit to the Sooke area and celebrated our 15th anniversary on November 2nd there.
We really enjoyed our BC trip! It was mostly places we’d been before and spending time with family and friends along the way was wonderful. There are so many scenic and interesting places to enjoy and explore. Plus we lucked out with really great weather and more sunshine than usual for that time of year too. So that made it easy to be outdoors lots, walking around and taking photos. It’s a really beautiful part of our country!!
With my last order of film I was sent a free roll of expired film. I put it in fridge like I do to store film until I’m ready to use it and was saving this particular roll for when I wanted to shoot for myself. I loaded it in Victoria to take photos around the harbourfront. Not familiar with this type of film I shot it at box speed. However I didn’t realize until I took it out after shooting the last frame that I’d just used a roll of black + white. A little disappointing when I was visualizing my shots in color. It was a surprise but I love the outcome and intrigue of monochromatic images too.
From Victoria we headed west to Sooke. Our first time to visit this area and we really liked it! We stopped at the Sooke potholes then at some beaches in and near the town of Sooke before checking in at the Prestige Resort. They treated us to a nice anniversary gift basket in our room and the meal we had at their on-site restaurant, West Coast Grill, was very delicious!
We stopped on our way to the airport at Hatley Castle (more to come from that!!) and at a beach to enjoy the ocean for a few more minutes before heading back to the prairies.
Here is Part 1 of our BC trip (Okanagan to the coast) if you missed it.
Medium format film images were processed and scanned by Canadian Film Lab.
