Thursday, July 7

BUTTERFLIES.

Day 269 – It was raining this morning so we spent some time catching up on the blog posts. I wrote up two and Rob tried once again to post previous ones. This not-having-a-signal is getting old.

It stopped raining in the afternoon. After a light lunch in the RV, we went to Butterfly World which is located in Coombs on the way to Qualicum Beach. We had 5 p.m. reservations for dinner at Qualicum Beach Cafe (QBC), a restaurant we’d had both brunch and happy hour at a couple of weeks ago. We figured we HAD to try the dinner menu. Qualicum Beach is located on the eastern side of Vancouver Island about 45 minutes from our campground.

Butterfly World was nice, not as fancy and well-funded as the one in Victoria, but butterflies are beautiful no matter where you see them. There weren’t as many different types of butterflies here, but the ones we saw were wonderful. There was also a separate room to tour that was full of orchids. Finches flew around amongst the butterflies and people, chirping away. We could’ve stayed longer but they closed at 4 p.m.

In Qualicum Beach we searched for a post office to send something to a friend. We found one located in a Drug Store. Got to QBC ten minutes early and therefore were able to nab a patio table. The sun was going in and out of the clouds and it was in the lower 70’s. A classical guitarist was playing music near the patio. Very nice.

This restaurant was recommended to us, and consistently has had good food and good service. Our table had ocean views. To start, Rob got a Love Shack Porter – a beer he liked a lot once he tried it, and we were told that the brewery was local, just up the road – hmm, maybe we should go there so Rob can stock up? I got the drink I’d discovered when we were here for happy hour – Lady in the Camp – which has sweet and bitter flavors that kind of rotate over your taste buds. Yum. The soup of the day was a Cream of Mushroom Soup; we split a cup and it was delicious with lots of fresh herbs. Our appetizer was Korean Fried Cauliflower – cauliflower florets tempura battered, fried, and served with a garlic sweet & sour sauce – good. For entrees, we ordered the Seafood Gnocchi and the Broccolini Pistachio Pesto Gnocchi, which we split – both were very good – the Seafood Gnocchi was the best. We did not get dessert; we were full.

We got gas in the Honda on the way back to Port Alberni and our campground. The price of gas appears to be gradually dropping, penny by penny. Back at the RV, after we fed the girls dinner, we tried again to post the blogs, without any luck. It was 75 degrees inside the RV, so we left a couple of windows open when we went to bed. Not bad temperatures for July, though!