Victoria ~ Outside the City

July 6 ~ 7

We bought “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” and it has turned out to be a very good travel guide.  Sooke Harbour House (sookeharbourhouse.com), about 45 minutes west and north of Victoria was mentioned and turned out to be a nice day jaunt. The Inn is lovely…not particularly fancy, but perfect for the setting, very beachy, warm and welcoming.

What we really liked, though, was where the inn sits....on Whiffen Spit…. It sounds pretty gross, but it’s  actually a piece of land jutting out into the sea providing a great couple mile walk.

Still collecting rocks to make our own inukshuk…we’re insisting all rocks must be from Canada, so we’re down to the wire on finding the perfect building blocks.

Arbutus Golf Club

We loved the Nicholas course in Whistler, so we decided to play another course, Arbutus, owned by the same management company thinking it would be great. Not so much. It’s billed as offering great views of the Olympic Mountains in Washington State and the sea. Well, there is this hilltop cross-over where you can see them.


But the course is all inland and pretty boring...except for a few visitors along the way. The most interesting thing about the area is the tree for which the course has been named....arbutus.  It's like a combination of a magnolia and a birch...only after the bark peels, the trunk is a cedar red color.  I hear it's messy just like a magnolia, so not dearly loved around this region.

Had a 44 out and was pretty pleased, but then it got excruciatingly backed-up on the inward half and I blew up. Good to get out though and the on-line tee time site (golfbc.com) offered very inexpensive rates including dinner, so not a complete bust.

We’re taking a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA tomorrow. As much as we love Canada, we’re anxious to get back to the states.