Day 6

After breakfast we set out for Sooke, it’s 30 mi. from Victoria. Our hotel was not accepting check in so we went for a drive. The next village was Shirley and we stopped at Shirley Delicious for coffee and cake. The next stop was French beach. The beach is quite different from beaches we are used to. It is cold and no swimmers. The brave people on the beach are all behind driftwood for protection from the wind. We collected several small oddly-shaped pieces of drift wood. The pretty large ones ended up in the camera. The next stop was China beach. We were actually looking for Mystic beach and drove quite a ways north in search of a sign, but finally we gave up and turned around. After parking by China beach, we found out that there is 40-minute trail from there that leads to Mystic beach and that’s the closest you can get to it by car. By then it was too late to get started…We have been to China beach in Vietnam, hot – now China beach Vancouver island, in the 60s mid-July. On the drive back we stopped at Shirley Delicious an had a great snack in their outdoor garden. Our room was ready for check in and then we went for a walk on the spit. Beautiful views, warm weather, and lots of dogs. Our hotel (Sooke Harbor House) is well known for its food – all locally grown (they have a garden on their premises) and beautifully prepared so we had dinner in the hotel restaurant and were not disappointed.