Last week, back home from the Road Trip, the weather was gray and foggy and chilly so I was happily spending my time indoors, sorting photos and music and starting to pen some tales. Then all of a sudden, that all changed as the clouds took off leaving behind 3 gorgeous days of sunshine. And a problem.

A couple of garden mail order places still send me a hard copy catalogue, Botanus among them. It seems that a couple of months ago I went power shopping from their catalogue and ordered hundreds of bulbs which had since been delivered and were now sitting in a box on my kitchen island counter. I had NO idea what most of these were – no tulips or daffodils – things like Chionodoxa and Ipheon and Leucojum and Ornithogalum plus obscure Alliums, Iris reticulata and Anemone– what on earth were all these and why did I think I wanted them? So I spent an entire morning looking them all up, then figuring out where I had thought these various bulbs would go, call it a forensic investigation of my shopping habit.  Then outside planting, hundreds of these things, with one eye on the weather forecast of November monsoons approaching – hurry up and dig that dirt.

Speaking of weather, for the entire 10 days of the Pacific Northwest Road Trip, the sun was shining wherever we went. On sunny Day One, we drove to Victoria where we were going to take the ferry across the Strait of Juan da Fuca to Port Angeles in Washington State. On the way we took the coast road past the Oak Bay Marina and noticed that the new Oak Bay Beach Hotel was finished and open for business. (It’s been over a year since we were last in Victoria).

The old Oak Bay Beach Hotel and its pub called The Snug was a fixture in Victoria for many years and it had a particular significance for me as well as for many others I’m sure. The very first time I set foot on Vancouver Island, I was driven into the city of Victoria along this same coastal route. I remember taking in the sights of this geography of ocean and mountains and forests, the city with its architecture and beautiful gardens and falling madly in love with the place. So began the very long story of how we have ended up living here, later in life. On that particular first visit we stopped at the slightly dated, a little bit shabby, Oak Bay Beach Hotel for lunch in its oceanside restaurant with those dynamite west coast ocean views. I was enchanted.

When they tore it down some years ago, I figured that the property, a prime piece of real estate, would go to condos for sure, so I was quite delighted to see that after all these years in the making, it was once again a hotel. Again, on this bright sunny day, we stopped in for lunch and views. From our spot in the new Snug we could look up the coastline towards the place on the ocean I often stay in Victoria and out to the small, rocky islands where we once watched transient Orcas feasting on seals who hang out on the rocks, up close from George our landlord’s boat. Across the Strait is San Juan Island on the U.S. side and looming behind over it all, (and visible on clear days) Mt Baker. Lots of memories of warm summer days.

The new hotel is gorgeous so we decided to make a reservation to stay there, for old times sake or something, for one night on our return trip from Portland 10 days hence., before heading up island and home.  The question is how much premium would you pay for the panoramic ocean view rooms? Oh what the hell, who cares. The view is worth it.

Right.

Here’s the view from our window the afternoon we checked in.

Here’s the view from our window the next morning, check out day.