The Sunshine Coast is one of those places in Canada I’d never genuinely caught wind of before visiting.
As a matter of fact, you never truly consider Canada and consider sunshine – their winters are so legendary that it seems to overshadow summer.
You’d be off-base for dismissing summers in Canada however – they get legitimate weather, not the indecisive stuff we seem to arrive in past Blighty (in London, some Summer days should be Fall and some Cold weather days could pass as Summer). In Canada, summers will more often than not be warm, winters cold… and so on, just the manner in which it should be I guess… yet I digress.
The Sunshine Coast is not too distant from Vancouver and totally worth the roadtrip. We got ourselves a vehicle from this day till the finish of our stay in Vancouver as we needed to capitalize on Vancouver as well as the more extensive British Columbia (BC) region!
To get to the Sunshine Coast from Vancouver, you drive to Horseshoe Inlet Ferry Terminal, where you catch a ferry over to the Sunshine Coast (yet not before you breakfast like a Lord or Queen at the Shangri La downtown; which is where we were staying for the week).
The ferry crossing is really scenic so take your camera with you (ideally one with a decent long range lens, seeing Orcas here on the right day is not impossible).
So here’s what about the Sunshine Coast, it’s a pretty and somewhat sleepy piece of BC so you don’t have to do too much planning before you visit. Just show up here and make those arrangements as you come.
We started off somewhere in the middle, by leaving the vehicle and investigating by walking. Lloyd got quickly distracted by the secondhand shop here almost immediately (in all honesty however, there were some astonishing items in here… )
In a little while, our thoughts went to food where we made a beeline for Gibsons Public Market for some food (Canadian portions are somewhat similar to American portions, immense and satisfying) – chicken burger for Lloyd and steak sandwich for me.
We were also prescribed the cauliflower fries which to my surprise were entirely delicious. I hate cauliflower so this says quite a ton! As, I wouldn’t fret cauliflower in roast dinners however as whatever else, I will quite often keep away from – a reality which frustrates Lloyd when he attempted to inspire me to attempt his cauliflower pizzas (bleurgh … .cauliflowers do not make great pizzas! )
We then made a beeline for the ‘fresher’ part of the market where you can get your meats, fish, flowers and general groceries.
You can also get a little taster session here which, despite having just eaten prompted us attempting some chocolates, sausages and a small platter of seafood!
Especially took care of and watered, we headed back out and about in search of a greater amount of the Sunshine Coast…
Once more, stop over where you feel necessary (however I wouldn’t suggest going into the woods all alone, BC is Bear Nation so possibly do this assuming you know how to deal with yourself around wild bears). This part we wandered into was a section that individuals set up camp in so it was fine to have somewhat nosey around this area.
We swung by a couple of pebbly beaches, stopping to soak up the sunshine (the Sunshine Coast was unquestionably following through on that promise of sunshine) prior to making a beeline for a couple of nearby miniature breweries for a midday flock! (Once more, Lloyd was driving so all the drinking was passed on to me… and you’ll get no complaints from me in this division).
We started off with Gibsons Tapworks (it’s relatively new) for a quick taster session…
…prior to making a beeline for the more established Persephone Fermenting Organization to have a go at “something special”. I say that yet I had no clue about what that something special was at the time, just that I’d understand what it was the point at which I tracked down it.
Indeed, this “special thing” I wound up finding was their passion natural product lager. It as zingy as crude passion natural product is and goes down well with a lazy wander around their gardens, where they grow a fair not many of the ingredients for blending…
…prior to tracking down a couple of seats in the sunshine to relax and soak up considerably more sunshine and passion organic product lager (lemonade for Lloyd).
In a little while, the time had come to jump on board our ferry and make a beeline for Vancouver (meanwhile paying special attention to whales as sailed back to Van city).
When we showed up back in the Vancouver, the stream lag (presumably fuelled by the sunshine, beers and that comfortable bed at the Shangri La) hit once more and No joke, I had one of those afternoon naps that transformed into an all out long rest session!
Everything being equal, this was just the second time this has at any point happened to me – the first was in this same bed in this same lodging which, to me, means I can totally blame the creature comforts at the Shangri La for setting me on the right track to sleep… correct?