Vancouver Island at Quarter Break

Mag, Eli, and I left for Vancouver Island the morning of Saturday, March 25. We spent the first 3 nights in Victoria at Nik's with the third evening being an impromptu salmon dinner and wine tasting - all pinot noirs from BC, with one from the island and the rest from the Okanagon valley. Richard and Justin joined us, as best we can recall. During the several days there, we mostly wandered hither and yon about Victoria on foot. We ate at Sauce the first night and also visited Rebar, Wildfire Bakery, and John's Place at various points in time. The last was not worth revisiting, but no one got sick.

On Tuesday we continued our trip northward to Nanaimo. We cancelled our reservation at the Buccaneer Inn when told the water would be turned off for possibly most of Wednesday. We luckily found the Stephenson Point Bed and Breakfast, which was really nice, with gracious hosts, and really worked out well. We had dinner at Gina's Mexican Cafe, where we had eaten before - good, dependable, and a funky decor. On Wednesday I gave a talk at the Computer Science Department of Malaspina University-College, describing Xen Virtualization. I gave another presentation in the evening to a more general audience, speculating on the effects of free/libre and open source software on academic scientific research. I'll be teaching a course at Malaspina for the Fall Semester, so it was a chance to get acquainted.

Thursday morning at 10:15 we caught the Duke Point ferry to Tsawwassen and started the drive home. We arrived in Spokane at 7:30 PM. Eli and I drove to Sandpoint the next morning.

Nanaimo is a beautiful spot, with air occasionally perfumed by the nearby pulp mill. The view to the east is the strait with the coastal mountains (think Whistler, Blackcomb) in the background. To the west Mount Benson, at a modest 1025 meters, is close enough to dominate the landscape. Nanaimo is somewhat of a retirement destination for folks across Canada. It has the attendant struggle between that growth and preservation of the 'way it was'. Of course, the environment remains threatened. Hopefully, enough people prize that to not see it degrade rapidly.

Richard
2006.04.01