I was quite surprised to see that I had not done a post for almost a month! Time flies. We were lucky enough to have Mom come out for a visit over the Labour Day long weekend. We spent a short time in Vancouver before heading over to Galiano for a nice, relaxing stay. We ended up doing and seeing quite a bit, so this one might be a long post!
The timing was a bit off, as the weekend before she arrived there was a Dutch Street market on Granville Street. It was set-up over two days and it would have been fun if we could have gone done. Justine was on Galiano with her friends, so I headed down myself and checked it out. It was stretched out over a bout 4 blocks of Granville Street, and unfortunately was a bit too big for the amount of attractions that they had set up. If they had compressed it to two blocks, it would have been a lot better. I heard that the organizers wanted t keep it smaller but the city forced them to spread it out. Still, there were some fun exhibits, a few interesting vendors and some Dutch food. I enjoyed it, had a bite and a beer and bought some bulbs for us to plant.
Looking north up Granville Street through part of the festival.
It was busy, but it felt a bit spread too thin
Mom arrived on Wednesday morning at a very reasonable time. We were taking the ferry to Galiano on Thursday, so we didn’t have a ton of time to spend exploring Vancouver. After picking her up at the airport we ran a few errands before heading home to see Justine. We had a pretty chill afternoon - Justine and I were sadly still working before making dinner and having a nice night catching up.
Thursday I had some early calls, and then Mom and I headed out for a bit to explore and do some running around. We started by heading over to Granville Island to pick up a few things that we wanted to take for meals on the weekend. And to do some wandering and to check out the shops. It was a nice start to the day.
After picking up everything that we needed, we headed up to UBC to check out the Museum of Anthropology. It had been years since I had been there, and Mom had never been, so it seemed like a great thing to check out. The museum is perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and is a world-renowned landmark famous for its striking Arthur Erickson architecture. The museum was closed for a couple of years and reopened in 2024 following a major seismic upgrade. It showcases and focuses on breathtaking Northwest Coast First Nations carvings, soaring totem poles, and global cultural treasures with a focus on different human cultures from around the world.
The main totem pole gallery is the heart of the space, but strangely I did not take any photos while we were inside. My one exception was my favorite piece in the whole place, The Raven and the First Men.
The Raven and the First Men by Bill Reid
Bill Reid’s monumental yellow-cedar carving, The Raven and the First Men, stands at the heart of the museum's rotunda. It dramatically illustrates the Haida creation myth, capturing the mischievous Raven coaxing the first human beings out of a partially opened clamshell.
But my favorite part of the gallery is not in the gallery, but outside it. Just outside the main gallery sits the museum’s outdoor Haida village, featuring two full-scale cedar longhouses framed by towering memorial poles. Modeled after traditional 19th-century Haida Gwaii settlements, the structures—including Bill Reid’s iconic Haida House—blend seamlessly into the surrounding forest and coastal landscape. The forest surrounding the gallery helps transport you as you walk the paths that lead to the exhibit. It’s been there for years, but strangely, this was my first time spending any real time walking through it.
Thursday we headed over to Galiano on the evening ferry. It was (mostly) on time, and we got into the cottage at a decent time. Sadly, we’re now in the time of year when it’s dark when we’re arriving off the late ferry. So that didn’t give us a lot to do that first evening. We got everything put away and organized and soon it was time to call it a night.
Friday Justine and I needed to work for at least part of the day. We had the deck set-up properly, so Mom had a chance to wander and explore and to sit and enjoy the scenery. In the early afternoon we called it a day and headed out to explore. We drove north up to the top of the island and checked out the swamp at the top. We’ve had good luck there, but this time of year is pretty quite.
As we headed back south we made a stop at the dock at Spanish Hills, but sadly there was not a lot to see.
Before heading homes we made a short stop at Retreat Cover to walk down to the water to see what we might see. There is a house on the public access path and their dog decided to come along for the walk down to the water and keep us company. The tide was quite high, so we couldn’t do much on the beach, but we did sit for a while. We were rewarded by a family of otters that swam by and checked out the dock across the way.
After hanging out at the water for a while, we headed home to make dinner. We had bought pasta at Granville Island to make for dinner and had a nice evening on the deck. Games were played (Justine may have won) and a good time was had by all!
Saturday we had to get some work done around the property. Water the gardens, things like that. But since Mom was visiting, we wanted to get out and do somethings as well. So we decided on lunch at Crane and Robin and then a walk around the loop at Montague.
Crane and Robin typically closes in early September, so it seemed like it would be the last chance we’d have this year to get some of our favorites. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lovely lunch on the patio.
After lunch we drove over to Montague and went for the walka round the loop. We were hoping for lots of things to see, but again, it was pretty quiet. We saw more kingfishers, but that was about it. In a few months we’ll have lots of the winter birds (ducks, mostly), but that’s still a ways away. Still, it’s a lovely walk and we enjoyed the lovely afternoon.
After spending a few hours out exploring, we headed back home and spent the rest of the day on the patio. Saturday night we went over to our neighbor Dana’s place and hung out. It was nice to catch up and hang out.
Sunday we had a leisurely morning before heading down to check out the Galiano Museum. They just recently (in the last year or so) opened the new museum, but as they are only open for a few hours on Sunday’s, Justine and I had never had a chance to go check it out. So with Mom being here, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.
The museum was better than I expected. They had quite the assortment of interesting artifacts from the history of the island. They also had some great video from events over the years - it was really interesting to see life in the 60s and 70s on the island. Plus they had great footage from an infamous ship/ferry accident that happened in Active Pass. It was the first time that I had seen that, and it was fascinating.
After spending almost a full hour in the museum, Mom wanted to get back some to the ocean so we headed to one of our favorite beach access points. The tide was again high, so we couldn’t explore as much as we wanted, but there was still lots to see!
There were actually a couple of kingfishers around, and I got this fun sequence of the two of them chasing and fighting with each other.
After hanging out at the beach for a while, we headed back home. I had just settled into the hammock for a short nap when Justine got a notification on her whale app that there were some going through Trincolmie Channel. Which meant that we had a good opportunity to see them. The afternoon turned into an impromptu whale chase!
We started by driving up to “Lover’s Leap”, an overloop of the channel that we hoped would give us a good view. It turned out to be a pretty good choice. While it was high up, it did allow for a wide view over the ocean. We ended up having to wait a good hour or two (whales are pretty slow), but eventually we hit paydirt!
There was quite a size difference between the big male and the rest of the pod.
After they passed by, and after quite a good viewing experience, we thought we’d drive north and see if we could see them again from the dock at Spanish Hills. As they were not moving all that fast, we ended up with another wait. After a while, the humpback made an appearance, but sadly the orcas took a left turn and headed out towards the other islands rather than continuing north past our location. Still, it had been an excellent whale day!
Monday evening we were headed back to Vancouver. So that meant we had some things to do around the propoerty. We wanted to harvest some of our remain root vegetables, and to see if the potatoes were ready.
Monday after lunch we did a walk out to the big fir tree, so Mom could see it in person. It a nice walk - just under 3 km through a lovely stretch of the forest.
Justine’s flowers have done well this year. Again, a lot were planted late and didn’t get enough water. Still, there’s been enough to pick and make some nice bouquets from.
As it was the long weekend and the actual holiday, we needed to be down at the ferry a little earlier than usual. So we got everything packed up early and headed south. We had some time, so we went out to Bellhouse and wandered for a little bit. We didn’t see anything super interesting, but it was still nice to explore along the shoreline for a little while.
The trip home was pretty uneventful and went as planned. The ferry was a little bit late, but not too bad. It was starting to get dark by the time we got home, but Mom had not been up on the roof yet this trip. So we did that quickly and enjoyed the last bit of the evening.
We had a lovely visit with Mom. It was a bit too short, but we crammed in a lot again (as usual!). We had some pretty great whale sightings, lots of relaxing and hopefully enough exploring. I hope Mom had a good trip, and hopefully we’ll do it again soon.