A Feast for the Eyes

I love markets.

It's a fierce attack on all my senses, but especially the eyes and the nose. My belly usually starts to grumble and I feel my mouth watering. I can hardly pass by a good market. I grew up with markets and I do miss the colorful noisy markets in Europe.

When we were in Vancouver, BC a couple years ago there was no way I would miss the Granville Public Market. It's situated on Granville Island (hence the name of course) and it's easy to get there from downtown Vancouver with the excellent public transportation.

Of course there are vegetables and fruits, and lots of them. Since I love color I was attracted to these displays. My photographer's heart was doing summersaults!

But since this is Vancouver and Granville Public Market is right where the marina is, a lot of fish and seafood is offered as well. My favorite food anyway!

Salmon as fillets and whole fish...

... but also in many versions of smoked salmon - this is so darn yummy!!!

Did you ever taste candied salmon? It is delicious and a rare treat.

Lots of shrimp and scallops, of course...

... and oysters...

... but also a great selection of cold cuts - almost like in Germany! That country style liverwurst looks extremely tasty to me (I bet there's majoram in it).

Then there was the bakery - oh my oh my oh my....

Eclairs anyone?

Or do you prefer cake pops?

Perhaps you need a glass of honey - if you can decide which one you'd like.

Oh, and the deli... Are you hungry by now?

Rock Cairns by the Side of the Road

When I got out of the car to take a photo of the Route 66 sign I noticed there were several rock cairns by the side of the road.

It was quite a surprise for me because up to then I've only known rock cairns as a help to find your way on hiking trails through rough and wild country. There wasn't a hiking trail here and I wondered why they were here. Obviously someone or several people had set them up, but for what reason? Were they some kind of alternative trail markers? Or are they used as some kind of communication?

When I googled "rock cairns" I found that there is even a poll whether one should knock over rock cairns or not. The short article also held some interesting information about legal and illegal rock cairns. There was a reference to the book "Cairns: Messengers in Stone" by David Williams. Here I learned that they can mark a grave, serve as an altar or shrine, reveal property boundaries or sacred hunting grounds, and even predict astronomical activity.

They seem to come from the Himalaya and can be found in different terrain (even in the moors of Scotland). The book sounds quite interesting to me and I've put it on my Amazon wish list. This seems to be too good to pass up.

The Inuit of the Arctic are said to have more than two dozen terms to describe cairns and their uses. That reminds me of the inukshuk in Canada - one even was the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC. When we went up the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia two years ago, we found a small inukshuk on a driftwood log at the beach.

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The inukshuk is available in my Etsy store

as a photo greeting card.

Check it out if you like!

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A Tiny Place on the Water

Today I am taking you back to Vancouver Island - to be more precise to the North of Vancouver Island. "North" begins at Campbell River, the "end of civilization" at it is often called. Beyond here, "there's nothing up there worth seeing" as anyone below Campbell River will tell you. Nothing could be further from the truth.

After you have passed Campbell River, you enter the extensive wilderness of Vancouver Island. Here, you can find small primitive campgrounds where you can be on your own - our first night here was spent in a campground just north of Campbell River and we were the only people there. It was a bit unusual, especially when we heard someone walking around the campground in the middle of the night - someone with four legs! We never found out what animal it was - a bear? an elk? - but it didn't bother us and we eventually returned to sleep.

This part of Vancouver Island is mainly used by the lumber industry which you are aware of by the many lumber truck signs along the road. This sign below means that lumber trucks enter the road from the right. There are also signs with the front of the truck on the right side (just flip the image horizontally in your mind) which means the lumber trucks enter from the left. At least this is what I figured out after observing this for several (many) kilometers.

The lumber floats on the water, something I had only seen in Scandinavia before, and it is also worked by little boats here.

The North Island has some quirky outback communities, one of them is Telegraph Cove. It is a tiny funky place on the water and is a complete boardwalk "town" with wooden buildings built on stilts.

Right at the beginning of the boardwalk you can see what this place is all about and why you find quite some tourists here:

Some of the best whale watching and grizzly bear tours start here in any kind of weather. These tours are not cheap, but I do think they would be a wonderful thing to do.

One of the whale watching boats

It's a dangerous place!

Unfortunately we didn't... but we visited the Whale Interpretive Center at the end of the boardwalk. It has some fantastic exhibitions and give you a lot of food for thought. This exhibit is the skeleton of a fin whale, the second longest animal in the world.

The busiest place in this small community is the marina with all its little and bigger boats and fisher boats as well.

Another great place to visit is the Killer Whale Cafe almost at the end of the boardwalk, right across from the small office of the Grizzly Bear Adventure Tours.

We ended up here twice during our stay on the North Island. Not only does it have a fantastic Killer Whale Pale Ale (try to say that very fast!) but it also serves the most delicious fish and chips we ever had.

You could choose between cod, salmon and halibut. While the Geek and Kaefer had cod I opted for halibut and a glass of Killer Whale Pale Ale - oh yummy!!!

Along the Sunshine Coast

Let's travel along the Sunshine Coast - we can take the Water Taxi if you like!

The Sunshine Coast - somehow sunshine is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of British Columbia. In some areas, though, they have more sunshine than in others, and the Sunshine Coast is one of those areas. Since it is on the mainland it is rather protected from all the bad weather by the many islands that you find in the straits, especially Vancouver Island that separates this part of British Columbia from the open ocean.

We took the ferry from Horseshoe Bay (West Vancouver) to Gibsons which is the first small town you get into when you have left the ferry. They greet you really nicely here:

It's mainly a fisher town with its own marina (more on that in a later post). I especially loved the signs in this town - signs of direction and the name of one of their fish and chips places.

The view over the strait from here is beautiful. It's pretty quiet as well, just add the sound of the ever hungry seagulls.

We spent the night in a campground nearby and went to the beach the next morning. It's a rocky beach here and rather "rustic".

Driving up the Sunshine Coast, you pass several inlets, all of them beautiful with a big sense of calm - quite what I like.

And watch out for those turtles!!!

When you're half way up the Sunshine Coast, the road ends in Earl Cove and you have to take the next ferry for a 75 minutes ride to Saltery Bay. While waiting for the ferry, you can take in the fabulous view - I would have liked to take the canoe and paddle out onto the water.

Instead, we boarded the ferry and enjoyed one of these peaceful, quiet boat rides that you get up here. It's a little bit like being in a different world - it smells of salty water and old forests.

We passed several smaller islands where people live in wonderful solitude while we listened to some violin music.

We arrived in Saltery Bay in the evening and immediately went to the campground nearby. It was a beautiful campground right in the woods. Unfortunately it was also infested with annoying mosquitoes, so we took our cooking stuff down to the strait's water to cook dinner. We had the place almost to ourselves.

This place was called Mermaid Cove. From here we could see the fisher boats come home and enjoy a beautiful sunset.

There were signs warning us that recently a bear was seen here, but on this evening the bear didn't "lust" for the mermaids.