Ah, September

Well, it seems I mispoke.  Summer is not over.  It may be winding down, but it is definitely not over.  Thankfully.

Tickets and a backstage pass.

Last weekend we had the great pleasure of spending time with our friends James and Eve from Vashon Island.  They'd come to spend the weekend visiting Victoria before the k.d. lang concert on Sunday evening.  James is a part of k.d.'s crew, and the Sunday concert begins a month of touring for k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang gang.

James and Eve had their road bikes with them and Peter joined them on Friday for a nice ride out through Saanich to Sidney and back.  Friday evening was spent sharing salad rolls, some wine tasting and stories and a slide show of their recent bicycle tour of New Zealand, as well as a different trip spent in France.  Nothing like some awesome photos and good stories to get the travel bug active again!  Not that it ever is very far from the surface in this home.

View from the Laurel Point Inn.

Saturday was a lazy day for me.  I'd had a hectic week with 3 days on-the-job training, meeting new people through work, and walking the picket lines for a day (Wednesday - a first for me).  I even got to fly to/from Vancouver Friday via Harbour Air!  Peter met me at the terminal and had a good laugh that it was now my turn to be getting on/off planes, and him greeting me at the terminal at the end of the day.  In any case, Saturday was my down time; time to catch up.  James and Eve, on the other hand, checked into their hotel (great view), changed into their cycling clothes, fueled up with a good cuppa joe and rode off towards Sooke for a ride.  We met them later for some great tapas and live entertainment at The Superior.

Sunday morning was a lazy one for us.  Midday was spent wandering around downtown Victoria, checking out the Eat Here Now: Victoria Harvest Fest, and popping in and out of stores we don't normally venture into.  More stimulating conversation and some of the best coffee around.  It's at Habit on Pandora.  Then more stimulating conversation, some noodles at a Thai restaurant, then off to see k.d. lang at the Royal Theatre that evening.  The show was fantastic - what a character that k.d. is;  and that voice!  Boy, I wish I could sing like that.  Actually, I wish I could sing. Period.

Saturday

We had another rather stunning day here in Victoria. After the obligatory Saturday morning Lavazza cappuccinos. :)
We put together a grocery shopping list, put on our bicycle helmets and pedaled our tandem to our favourite green grocer - The Root Cellar. It was the first time we'd ridden the tandem to grocery shop and had to be fairly careful not to purchase too many things just in case they wouldn't fit in the 2 saddle bags we carry. I think we did pretty well, balancing the weight evenly between the 2 bags.

On the way home we decided to drop by the Moss Street Market to see if we could find some fish, pea sprouts and local eggs. Well, this became a little adventure on its own! Downtown was busy, busy with cars, pedestrians and lots and lots of bicycles! We are still a little new navigating the city on a bicycle, so we managed to find a rather roundabout route to the Market. By the time we got there, no one had any eggs left, and there was no fish. But we did get fresh pea sprouts. Yay!

After some lunch at home, we got out the mountain bikes and thought we'd check out the festivities at the waterfront as this weekend is Jump Ship - dirt jumps on a barge in the harbour at Ship's Point. There were literally tons of people there! Standing, sitting, riding, watching, sunning, music blaring, crowd cheering, more people sitting, sleeping, dancing, eating, wandering, etc., etc. And a lot of bicycles, of all kinds. We stood off to the edge for a while to soak it all up. Wow.

Too bad I don't have a panoramic photo-taking-iPhone cuz you don't really get full impact of all the people at this event. As we rode around the harbour to the left in the above photo, we discovered there was also a Bike Polo Event taking place on Superior Street. It really is quite amazing what these riders can do on bikes, holding on with one hand (for steering, braking), the other hand is for the 'polo stick.' This photo doesn't adequately capture the skills these players have. There are 3 people per team, a net at each end, which is sometimes guarded by a 'goalie' when someone slips back to cover it, but they are by no means stuck there. There is a distinct culture to the whole thing.

From there, we rode on to explore more of the harbour and a quick visit to the Fish Store (no one seems to sell fish from the dock, although you can get live crab). It was amazingly quiet in comparison to the bike culture on the waterfront. Finally!

From there we stopped at Thrifty's Food to fill up the pannier, and back home. We had 2 lovely rides today and used 3 of the 5 bicycles we own. All good. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?