The Harbour

The Nanaimo harbour is a colourful ( when in Rome ..., hence the '...our') mix of work boats, occasional monster cruise ships, sea planes, the pleasure craft of the wealthy, and humbler (human propelled) boats. The sea planes are the older teenagers - making loud noise as they attempt to tear free from home, quieting down once they're free, but always returning. The monster cruise ships spawn wee ferries that bring the monsters ashore to shop and recover from seasickness. The ocean front, as seen from the downtown, is much more immediate and impressive than that in front of Victoria's Empress (essentially a fat canal). But Victoria does have better shops, restaurants, and more aggressive panhandlers.

We had two recent notable forays from Nanaimo. The first to Victoria featured lots of walking - the Moss Street farmers' market (splendid near the harvest moon) and assorted art galleries. Lots of the art was lovely or intriguing or mind snaring. What captured me was the Emily Carr permanent exhibition interspersed with her autobiographical snippets. I was compelled to buy 4 of her wee books - she was also a talented writer, obviously. We dined at Zambri's and felt transported back to Italy as we worked our way through the 'menu'. I finished with grappa and was truly finished.

Our second trip was on Monday, with Edel (Eli's cousin) and Les (Edel's husband), who drove us up island, north from the Lantzville metroplex. We went to Coombs, a touristy place with 'goats on the roof', goodies, baddies, and all in between. My favorite stop was at a little fish shop near the ferry landing at French Creek where we got some wonderful (perhaps twoderful) smoked salmon.

Now we're back at our temporary home in Nanaimo, aging gracefully but inexorably. Thursday evening is the last class of our 5-week sea kayaking session. Drawn to the cold, dark, and wet like moths to the flame, we have signed up for the next 5-week session, as mentioned in an earlier post.

Richard
2006.10.10