Craigdarroch

We finished kayaking just after 3 and we were hungry! We felt we had earned a stop at Red Fish Blue Fish, so we walked around the harbour and were happy to see a very short line. Evan has Pacific cod and I had halibut, and it was just as good as I remembered!

Feeling refuelled, we began our 2.5 km walk to Craigdarroch Castle. The walk was largely uphill, and Evan’s legs hadn’t totally recovered from our kayaking, but we made it. Craigdarroch is a huge mansion built by a coal baron and was completed in 1890. The woodwork was incredible. They had to use six train cars to bring the wood in from Chicago! The house was fascinating and many rooms had original furniture despite it being use as a military hospital in WWI, to a conservatory to the College of Victoria (before UVic was established). The castle had an entire floor devoted to being a dance floor where an orchestra would play; a huge games floor featuring a billiards table from England; and a 14 seat dining room table. The castle is surrounded by other houses now, but originally it sat on 28 acres. Anyway, it was quite the sight!

The walk back to our condo was mostly downhill, which pleased Evan.

After some R&R and quick showers to wash off all the salt, we walked over to Tacofino for a quick bite. Evan had a pork taco and a steak taco while I had a cod taco and bean taco. They hit the spot after a busy day!Read more