sam's rad summer: vancouver island

So this summer, well, has been less than summery for me. I'm finishing my diploma (next week!) so I've been in school full-time and working on top of that. Any break I can take is divine. A couple of weekends ago my sister and I headed to Vancouver Island to visit with my Aunt who was house sitting for my parents (as they were touring Europe - I'm jealous, are you?).

Most of my adventure involved food as I spent most of my time doing homework and scanning 100+ family photos for a special project I was working on. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into my rad summer (and don't get too hungry!).



We started our trip in Horseshoe Bay. I'd been wanting to go to this cute new restaurant, Olive and Anchor, and now was the perfect time. We decided to share the Crispy Cod Po'boy Sandwich. It was delicious (and look at that salad!).



Because their dessert menu looked irresistible we also decided to share their Brandy-raisin bread pudding. It was DELICIOUS, as you can probably see.



When we arrived, we did some grocery shopping at the local Safeway. My sister didn't put her produce into plastic bags (as is our habit) even though I told her that it probably isn't common practice over there. Sure enough, at the checkout, they bagged each of the fruits individually. Oh well!



The next day we went to the Comox Valley Farmer's Market. They had a sweet little band playing while we were there. It was a great market!



At the market I found the most amazing gingerbread cookie. A neon squid! How could I resist. He was tasty, too.



We also bought this enormous tomato. It was so big that it cost $3!



On our way home, I spotted this guy. I can't decide if this is the best or worst summer job.



Finally back in Vancouver after a great trip that was much too short, my sister and I indulged in a summer favourite, rocket popsicles and a walk to Kits Beach.

Hopefully Vancouver will continue to have blissful summer weather!

Thank you so much for sharing, Sam. I'm glad you showed us so much food! That's my idea of an awesome vacation. Be sure to stop by Sam's blog and say hi and check out her great Etsy shop, too! I've featured one of her items in my Friday Favourites before and can't wait to get my hands on one of her awesome leather pouches!

fresh air: hornby island part one

lola, jeff, sarah, jamie

The first full day of our island getaway we went to Hornby Island (from Denman, which is where we were staying). These photos are taken at Tribune Bay. The beach is really all sandstone rock formations, which we explored for a long while on this gorgeous sunny day. The tide pools were full of anemones, crabs, and starfish. We all touched some of the starfish, which was sort of thrilling for this East Coast born girl. Highlights of this part of the trip were basically all based around Lola, who scared me when she fell backwards (and in slow motion) down a crack between some of the rocks. What I couldn't see from my angle is that it was totally open on one side and she just walked right out. A few minutes later she had a live crab completely in her mouth and was going to eat it whole, I guess, until it either pinched her or all of us yelling made her drop it. Wait until you see what she did the next day! Dogs are crazy travel mates. Jamie made a great call on taking us to this place. We did so much on Hornby that I'm splitting the day into two posts, the next part will be published later today.

fresh air: vancouver island

jamie and I looking for whales, coast mountains in the background

jamie and jeff

One thing that I love is getting out of the city. Visiting other cities is fun, too, and I've shared some photos with you trips to New York, Seattle, and Portland, but I really like spending time outside and in more remote places, too. In fact, every time I go away on an outdoors-y kind of vacation I remember that I probably like that kind of trip more. I like sleeping in, making delicious breakfasts, reading all day, going on hikes, and spending zero money on junk and zero time with technology. It just feels really refreshing, and that's absolutely what I needed right about now.

Luckily, Jeff and I have a very good friend who invited us to come along with him on an island adventure. These photos (and one video) are from our first part of the trip, the ferry from Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. The last three photos are from the second ferry terminal and I'll share more of island number two tomorrow. It was so great getting away from the city for a few days that I know I'll be trying to do so again really soon. Please excuse all of my sunset photos, it was just so freakin' beautiful. For real, it really felt like a summer night on that ferry...windy though it was.

Do you have any camping trips or hikes planned this summer? Where do you go to get away from it all?

come to my island, everybody come to my island

I just got home after a four day, three island vacation with Jeff, Lola, and our very good friend Jamie. Perhaps you had no idea I was gone. At the end of last week I found the time to schedule some blog posts before Blogger went crazy and wouldn't let anyone post/comment/get on with their lives. Here's a teaser photo from our trip. This one was taken as our ferry approached Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I'll share a lot more through the week. Check back tomorrow for an awesome Day in the Life guest post by Jihee from The Soaktree. Can't wait to share it with you! Hope you all had a great, relaxing weekend, too. Being computer free was soooo nice, but now I'm excited to be back, setting up new posts, looking at my photos and catching up with all of you. Have a great week!