The Best Reasons to Live Here

The opportunities. A few weekends ago on Mothers' Day, we took Soulmate's parents up to Ladysmith, BC for a picnic and Paddlefest. Soulmate and I aren't die-hard paddlers - I have just a little experience river kayaking in Ireland, Soulmate actually owns his own kayak - but we aspire to sticking our oars in the water whenever the spirit moves us. So, there we were at Paddlefest. It was a gorgeous sunny day - about 75 degrees (I still haven't managed to convert to Celsius). For a measly CAN$10, we could try out as many boats as we liked. There was just a ripple of wind on the inlet and we paddled for about an hour. So, while the floors need redoing and we seriously need a new oven, we've made buying a kayak for me a priority. The best part of all of this? There are literally hundreds of places to put in a kayak within thirty minutes of us - rugged, rocky coastline and sandy beaches.



The weather. My poor grandmother called me up one day to ask me how I manage living in such a rainy climate. She keeps track of the weather here inVictoria and they nearly always predict rain. The problem is, it's almost never true. It rained a little yesterday and quite a lot the day before that, but that is definitely not the norm. Since we arrived on March 16, I can count on one hand the number of rainy days we have had. In fact, the Smoky the Bear Fire Danger sign in a neighboring community read "High" the other day. Today, it is partly cloudy and shows every sign of warming up.

The mountains. As you have seen in some of the photos I have posted, we have a spectacular view of the Olympic Mountains in Washington. The higher you go on the island, the bigger the mountains actually look. Yesterday, there was light fog hanging low over Port Angeles, Washington, separating out the foothills from the higher peaks and offering us a new spectacular view.