Our Trip to Victoria: The FInal Chapter.

Now the continuation of our Victoria saga. About this time Jenn acquired a knee brace as walking was getting too painful for her, even at the reduced pace typical in Victoria, who use walkers, canes, or powered scooters to travel. We took a day for her to recover, and watched the world cup, cheering for whoever had cooler uniforms. That night we hit the Med Grill, a fabulous place in Sannich serving modern Italian at a four course prix fixé that can’t be beat. We started with Antipasti, followed by a choice of salads, (Caesar for me, Walnut Spinach Vinaigrette for Jenn) we skipped the soup of the day, reasoning that it was too hot for corn chowder, even after dusk. We moved on to the Main course, (Ron- Mediterranean chicken, Jenn- Smoked Chicken pasta, Owen – Gorgonzola Sirloin Ravioli) which were all fabulous, and rounded it out with dessert, tiramisu, Crème Brulee, and some other assorted stuff I can’t recall. All this was accompanied by a reasonable Argentine Malbec. Thanks to Ron who took us out there for a lovely dinner.

The next day, we caught a ride to Oak Bay where we dawdled around eating Pain au Chocolate and poking into shops like Science Works and 10,000 villages. The Italian supermarket was having a cultural day, and to celebrate, a half dozen perfectly preserved Ferraris were parked out front attended by the perfectly preserved trophy wives who went with them. Then we headed downtown one more time to enjoy a touch of IMAX, www.imax.com where we saw “Mystic India” which was cool looking, and then went to Hugo’s, http://www.hugoslounge.com/comingsoon/ which is a cool little brew lounge near the Royal BC Museum. We had the “Super G” ginger beer and the seasonal beer, Heffeweizen that had had mandarin oranges in the serving tanks. That was good. Then we hit the foodie shops around upper Fort Street around the antique district, and bought some Salami and Cheese for our supper sandwiches. Jenn then proceeded to make the best sandwich ever.

The next morning we were up and away hitting the highway up island in our rented Ford Taurus. I didn’t think that they still made these things, actually, but I guess they still sell to fleet customers at a steep discount. It was a bit like oozing up the road on a piece of foam rubber lubricated with lard, but not in a good way. Not the most fun ride I’ve ever had. Once we got to our halfway destination, however, we were all set to enjoy a bit of agri-tourism, which, incidentally, is much heavier on the tourism than the last time I was there. Before, tasting rooms were tucked into the back corners of sheds, now, both places I went had their own 40 seat bistros, granite countertops in custom-built tasting and guest reception centres, and much more production capacity. It was a Merridale Cidery http://www.merridalecider.com/ where we first ran into the Vancouver Island Miata Owner’s Club. ttp://www.miataclubvanisle.com/ All through the valley, we were buzzed by a bunch of middle aged guys and their wives bombing around the place at high speed on backroads, guts pressing precariously on steering wheels, silver hair flashing in the sun. Anyway, Merridale was great, but at the next stop, Cherry Point Vineyards, http://www.cherrypointvineyards.com a former mink ranch turned 34 acre estate winery, and the biggest and best of the bunch on the island, the wine wasn’t up to the fancy digs. To be completely fair, I make better wine than them, with the exception of a very good Gewurtz. Definitely nothing worth $25 a bottle. I did notice, however that at some point they replaced the scaled-up versions of my own equipment with stainless tanks and a real commercial press not bought from an Italian grocer, and also replaced the cows with more vines. Their original 10 acres of plantings seem to have expanded to the entire property minus the winery proper and guest facilities.

We decided, not finding anything stunning, to travel on to what Jenn had been really looking forward to – Cheese. Hillary’s Cheese Pointe Farm is home to an artisinal cheese farm and many many goats. We tried four varieties, including a goat blue cheese that I loved but was just too much for Jenn. Blue Cheese good, goat cheese good, both together – too advanced. It was here that we encountered the Vancouver Island Cadillac Owners club http://www.cadillacclub.ca/ and the Miata Guys again. We managed to elbow our way to the front of the line for cheese and head up island fast for lunch with Ewan, Anne, and Alison at a cute little Vietnamese place in Nanaimo.

Driving home I almost wet myself due to slush intake, but held out until the Thrifty’s on Quadra and MacKenzie, where I peed in the dairy case (just kidding). Where we bought some cold cuts and bread and ice cream and headed home for our last supper on the Island. It was at this supper that Ron brought out some olives to add to the general cheesy- bready goodness. Which was fine, except for the inadequate warning associated with certain olives. Here was the description: “Anne put some of these in some pasta and it was a bit hot.” So I tried one, and my brain melted. Turns out that these olives were jumbo green olives stuffed with Habanero peppers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habanero_chile Once I got a couple of Granville Island Heffeweizens http://www.gib.ca/home.cfm down my throat and could see again, I tried them without the stuffing, and they were still hot, but not insane.

The next day we flew out and into Calgary, followed by a drive back to Edmonton which was happily uneventful. So there, that was our holiday.