Point No Point- Vancouver Island

A month doesn't go by that I find myself daydreaming of our trip to Vancouver Island, BC. It was my second trip there and Simon's first. We had flown into Seattle, WA and then drove a car rental to the island via Black Ball Ferry Line. It goes between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC.

One of the days that we were there, we decided to just get in the car and drive. The direction we picked was north along the west side of the island from Victoria. It was a chilly wet day but the gray made everything more green and romantic. It was interesting as every where we went, the locals kept apologizing for the weather as it was colder than normal for early June. We had to keep telling them not to apologize as we were really enjoying the weather.

We wanted to walk down by the ocean so we finally saw a pull off to a park at French Beach Provincial Park. We were the only ones there. I think if anyone saw us, they would think we were crazy for being out in the cold drizzle, but coming from Colorado, 56 degrees wasn't freezing. It was a beautiful walk down to the pebble beach. The park is a camping/picnic area. We saw wild berries and sweet little yellow flowers. 

 After spending some time down on the beach and getting a nice layer of mist on us, we realized that we were getting hungry. We made our way back to the car and continued north. A little way up the road we came upon a little resort, Point no Point. It's a beautiful little resort that has a little Tea House restaurant and cabins.

It was here that we stopped for lunch and have no regrets for it.  As we were getting out the car, we were greeted by a sweet old Labrador Dog. It just sniffed us and with approval it just turned and headed back into the building. When we entered the house, it felt like a home, nice and warm with a cozy fire going in the waiting area. We didn't have to wait as it wasn't busy. 

The view from our table!

Our table had a fantastic view of the ocean. We were told on good days, you could see seals playing down by the rocks, whales and bald eagles soaring above.  Every table had binoculars for you to use for viewing the wildlife. We can only imagine what the view would have been on a bright sunny day. 

Something that we learned while we were in Victoria was that the majority of restaurants participated in a program called Ocean Wise. It's a program that is dedicated to promoting sustainable seafood harvesting practices. The Vancouver Island restaurants and chefs, partner with fishers to guarantee quality, freshness and sustainability. Most chefs also get most of their food from local farmers, either it being seasonal berries or lamb meat. The quality of the food that we had was evident of this relationship between the chefs at Point no Point and the local farmers/fishers.

Simon had ordered a bowl of Seafood Chowder and the Grilled Salmon with Yam Noodles and cucumber. On top of it, there was a delicate yogurt sauce. The Grilled Salmon was nice and flaky and it didn't have that fishy taste to it. It was a marriage of flavorings that we haven't ever had.

I had ordered their hamburger that was topped with their home made Jalapeno relish/jelly, special mustard and cheese. The bun was nice and soft. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like it as I thought it would be too spicy. Our waitress ensured me that it wasn't spicy and it went perfectly with the meat. I'm glad to say that she was right and happy that I listened to her. The burger was perfectly cooked and juicy. The Jalapeno jelly and mustard added the perfect flavoring.

For desert Simon had the Chocolate Moose and I had the red velvet cake with a scoop of berry sherbert. Simon's Chocolate Moose was light and fluffy and not overly sweet. The red velvet cake was nice a moist with the berry sherbert adding just the right amount of tartness to the sweetness of the cake. It was most delicious!

 

Our little day trip ended up being one of our favorite days while we were in Canada. If we had know of this little jewel hidden on the coast of Vancouver Island, we would have spent our entire vacation here. The cabins don't have TVs or phones, so this is the ultimate romantic get-away. This would be the perfect time to catch up on that book that you started but haven't been able to finish. I highly recommend that you visit their website to see what all they have to offer. We're looking forward to when we can return to Point No Point and experience that happy bliss that we had experienced on that single day.

Point No Point 
10829 West Coast Road, Shirley, BC, Canada  V9Z 1G9
To reserve, call:
250.646.2020  
Found on Facebook.

Blackball Ferry

Port Angeles, Washington, USA

101 E. Railroad Avenue
Port Angeles, WA, 98362
Tel: (360) 457-4491
Fax: (360) 457-4493

Hearing Impaired
TTY: 711 or 1-(800) 833-6388

 

Pompano Beach- Ft Lauderdale, FL

A year ago my husband and I found ourselves on a weekend trip to Fort Lauderdale, FL. My wonderful sister and brother in-law gave us their miles as a thank you for watching their store earlier in the year. We couldn’t decide on where to go and didn’t know where their miles worked flight wise. So we told them to pick for us and not tell us until the day before. We told them that we wanted to go over a weekend, taking a Friday and Monday off.

 

My sister arranged the flight and hotel for us. She would make a great travel agent as she got us a deal at the hotel. They were in the middle of remodeling so they offered discounted prices for rooms. We didn’t have any problems since it was weekend and they weren’t working. We stayed at Beachcomber Resort. Our room was small ( It was the European Economy Room) and updated but it worked for us as we didn’t spend the whole weekend indoors. We had a semi view of the ocean from our room and we were happy with that. 

The best part of the hotel was that it was right on the beach. Their beautiful patio area and swimming pool opens onto the beach. They offer cabanas and lounge chairs on the beach at an additional price. You can rent by the hour or pay one price for the full day. It was two glorious lazy days on the beach. Beachcombers does have a onsite restaurant but the food was overpriced and the quality/quantity not very good. We only had dinner there the first night.

 

When we arrived in Florida, there was a link to Limo service off of Beachcombers website for Let's Go Limo. Since I really didn’t want to drive and we called them up. Simon got Sal on the line and he came to pick us up. You see.. Sal was a transplant from New York. His wife ran the office and he drove the car. He was very friendly and offered up local places close to the hotel to eat at. He was fun to listen to.

One place that he strongly recommend was Stingers. Stingers is right across the street from the hotel. Great food for great prices! We ate there for the rest of our trip. Our favorite appetizer was the Philly Cheese Stake Eggrolls. OMG… I’m salivating just thinking of them. I could not get enough of them! Perfectly fried to a crispy golden brown. The dipping sauce, adding just enough sweetness and spiciness. The perfect amount of meat and cheese. I would buy a plane ticket today, just to have another one of these rolls. Mmmmmm……. 

Their pizza was also delicious. There is no need to ask for extra cheese here. They layer on the toppings! Now, we didn’t just eat pizza and eggrolls, they served breakfast until noon. Their pancakes were light and fluffy and came with blue berries or chocolate chips. The Chocolate Chip pancake was like eating a soft, fluffy chocolate chip cookie. Simon couldn’t get enough of their egg dishes. If I was ever on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Channel, Stingers will be one of the places I would bring up. It's a hole in the wall dive that the locals eat at and we will again when we go back.

If you're looking for quick weekend get-away we recommend staying at Beachcombers and eat at Stingers!

 Let's Go Limo

http://www.letsgolimo.com/index.html

Telephone: 954-596-2344

Beachcomber Resort & Villas
1200 S Ocean Boulevard
Pompano Beach, FL 33062
Telephone: (877) 690-4802
Toll Free: (800) 231-2423
Fax: (954) 942-7680

Email:  reservations@beachcomberresort.com

http://www.beachcomberresort.com/

Stingers

http://www.stingerspizza.com/home.html

1201 S Ocean Blvd

Pompano Beach, FL 33062 

Telephone: 954-782-2344