After 10 minutes of driving from the beach (it probably wouldn’t take more than an hour to drive around the entire island), we reached Vesuvius. We didn’t know the name of the restaurant, but from the institutions in the “town”, Seaside Restaurant was probably the only place to grab a bite. Oysters, fish and chips (halibut), and clam chowder:



Tasted extra good, after all the fails with the clams. The chowder had huge chunks of clam, the fish was fresh and had good meat to batter ratio, and we were ready to keep going. For a little place on a tiny island, the food was better than good. If they set up shop on the mainland, I might go again, but it’s still not worth the 3 hour ferry ride.



1:00PM: Mt. Erskine

Trail is a bit steep, but the fairy doors are worth it.

More info on this trail: https://saltspringmarket.com/hiking-on-salt-spring-island/mt-erskine-from-juniper/

Side note: S8 came out today. I dropped my S7 from the seat of H’s 4Runner (now known as Big Bertha), while I was getting out of the car, and it tumbled to hard cement ground. A couple side scratches, no cracks. Faith restored in Samsung.


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Weekend getaway to Salt Spring Island with M+P and H last weekend. H recently purchased a 4runner, 2nd hand through Craigslist, so we drove down to the ferries after work on Friday. After a 3 hour ferry ride, and a 15 minute drive to St. Mary’s Lake Resort, we unpacked and just went straight to bed. The next day would be a long one, at least I hope I had instilled that expectation in everybody, because there were so many things we wanted to do!

7:27AM - I was adamant about catching the sunrise.

We made breakfast:

We tried to go to the Saturday Farmer’s Market, but they were still setting up the tents and because it was still early in the season, a lot of the vendors were not attending yet. We left shortly after that and bought groceries at the Thrifty’s instead.

10:30AM - P was adamant about digging for clams, so we set off for a beach that apparently was safe for clamming. He found the advisory online, through some government website:

We sat here for about an hour, I think… Got bored. I wandered off.



This is literally somebody’s backyard. The houses are right off the beach, and one of the neighbors actually came out to chat with his. He had recently purchased one of the properties lining the beach, and the struggles he had with bidding for it. Real estate market is still a war zone. Anyways, he recommended we find some fish and chips in Vesuvius.
 

It started to pour, but it quickly passed. We got impatient, and the boys jumped into the water. That was when we realized it’s still too early for clamming. We cleaned up, and decided to follow the friendly Islander’s advice to find lunch at Vesuvius, a bit defeated by the lack of fresh clams for dinner, but still excited for the island adventures to come.

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