Friday morning (Sept. 11) we had an appointment to take our car back to Isherwood Body and Fender to have the final repairs completed. It only took about 10 minutes for them to install the new tail light and protection strip on the bumper.
With than done, we headed to Maple Bay and the Lion's Rampart Scottish Pub for lunch. Ray and Deb had taken us to this cute little pub right on the waterfront...
After lunch, we went to one of the most interesting museums that we have ever been to...Hand of Man Museum of Natural History, Cultural Arts and Conservation. Several years ago it was featured on an episode of the Upside on CHEK News and Steve has been wanting to visit ever since. The museum is the private collection of Jim Shockey, a Canadian outdoor writer, a professional big game outfitter and television producer and host of many hunting shows. An avid and active collector of tribal and ethnocentric folk art forms, in 2018, he created and curated the 15,500 square foot Hand of Man Museum of Natural History, Cultural Arts and Conservation in Maple Bay, British Columbia to store his collections.
And then we headed inside. The receptionist told us about the museum and explained that because it's a private collection a picture ID and phone number was required from one of us. Also photos were not to be taken in the African rooms...we never thought to ask why that was. We paid $15 each senior rate, and she gave us an iPad explaining that there are numbers on various exhibits and if we wanted to know more about them, to enter the number on the iPad. Quite a few were actual videos with Jim Shockey himself narrating...very cool!
Wow...what an incredible place! This museum is unknown to so many and a must see. Also check out his documentary series Uncharted.
We were hoping to meet Jim Shockey and get a photo with him to send to a couple of his biggest fans...Jim and Barb!
Saturday afternoon (Sept. 12) we went out to see Dan and Barbara at their cabin on the Cowichan River. They are up for the weekend from Sidney. It has been in Dan's family for years and is very rustic...no electricity, running water, etc. but is very lovely being on the river. After a beverage on the deck, we all went into Jakes at the Lake for dinner. Dan is a school buddy of Steve's...
Sunday morning (Sept. 13) we decided to go for a walk along the Trans Canada Trail, so we drove down to where we usually park to find a huge car show with cars filling the A&W parking lot and adjacent pharmacy parking lot. Apparently it was the Lake Cowichan Kraken Classic Car & Shine.
We found another parking spot, did our walk, and on the way back I left Steve to check it out while I continued walking home.
He took a 5:49 minute walking video of the cars...
Who's that sitting in the car?
Why it's Chucky and his bride!
After lunch we took the truck out for a drive around the lake. It's approximately 31km/19.5miles long.
Once you get past Caycuse it's a logging road all the way around to just before Youbou. The section from the Nixon Creek Rec site to the Heather Campground was very rough with lots of potholes...
We drove through the Nixon Creek Recreation Site to check it out. It was very nice, but our main interest was Heather Campground, at the very tip of the lake. It is where we had spent many long weekends camping before we retired, so we were looking forward to seeing how it had changed.
We parked the truck in an empty site and went for a walk...
The campsite we always stayed in is across the road from this beach...
A 34 second video...
You cannot drive the entire loop...the bridge was washed out years ago, but there is a pedestrian bridge across the creek. There are campsites on the other side of the pedestrian bridge as well. That site behind us on the right is where we used to camp, most often.
This big bull is guarding the cows and calves...
A short 13 second video of the elk...
Our final stop before going home was at the Riverside Pub for a brew (it is Sunday, after all LOL)...
Well, at least he caught something! Hopefully fishing picks up for him before we have to load the boat back on the truck at the end of the month.
Monday (Sept. 14) Steve snapped a picture of the local deer in a field below the Cowichan Lake Recreation Centre as we were out for our walk...
Tuesday morning (Sept. 15) I was up and out of the house at 6:40 on my way into Duncan to get an x-ray of my hip at the hospital. I had tried last week but there was a 2 hour wait. Not wanting to do that, the receptionist said that Medical Imaging opens at 7:00 a.m., so I thought I would be there shortly after. Well, what she neglected to say was that radiology (x-ray) doesn't open until 9:00! Ugh! So I ended up having a 2 hour wait after all!
After I was done, I did a little shopping, had a pedicure and was home just before noon. While I was gone, Steve went out fishing...he lost one and caught a small one!
