The California of Canada

The revered Bald Eagle. Plentiful on Vancouver Island.

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We had been back from Nevada for exactly one month when I began writing this new blog. Most of that time was spent packing, unpacking, moving hotels and in general, living out of suitcases once again. For anyone who has endured this on a longer term basis we can tell you the novelty has begun to wear on us. There's no doubt, this has become an expensive undertaking as we see ourselves doling out money on furnished accommodation right left and centre in order to stay comfortable. 

Finding suitable furnished accommodation on the Island is not easy. Yes, you can look around on the Internet and there are some places to be found but much of that accommodation seem to be targeted at someone prepared to "make-do" with the bare essentials. We were aware that landlords spend the bare minimum in order to stay profitable. Certainly, what we saw was not what we would describe as living in relative comfort and nowhere near comparable with what we have become accustomed to in our own home.  

This has led to us resorting to short-term Hotel or Motel rooms and some resort locations which can be expensive over the long term. We now enjoy a reasonable comfort level but it is not extravagant by any means. In the end we swallowed hard, took a deep breath and went with the flow accepting the sticker shock that came with affording reasonable places to live temporarily while we wait for possession on our home.  

We resigned ourselves to doling out $2300 a month or more for anything that closely resembles an acceptable level of comfort. We suspected we would have to bite the bullet as two and a half months is a long time to wait for our home in Courtenay, British Columbia. We can't do anything about it so we just needed to suck it up and get on with it. 

What has  been fun is finding out what's around in the area we have chosen to settle in.  Courtenay is not a large city by any means, but walking and driving through the city centre we began to catch the flavour of the area.  Not too big, not too small..... in fact, just right, around 40,000 inhabitants.

We were surprised by how many shops, boutiques, restaurants and stores of all types and sizes that exist in Courtenay - more than I would ever have imagined in a city of this size so that was a good start and of course, we are still learning.

One of the nicest things about where we will be living is that although we are in a very quiet exclusive neighbourhood and location generally, Crown Isle (our subdivision) is just a two minute walk to Costco, Home Depot, a three minute drive to Superstore and a one minute walk to a small but very well equipped local shopping mall that houses a Thrifty Foods grocery store, a well equipped liquor store, a wonderful oil store where you can sample many different types of olive oils to have with pastas and salads etc. Downtown Courtenay is just a four or five minute drive away, so we have everything here we could ever want here.  

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What We Will Really Enjoy

We have also been looking around for Salmon fishing opportunities. There are many charter's offered here which I have not even tried to investigate yet but most seem to offer up charter fishing trips for around $500 for five hours. That's based on one to four people in the boat. It includes all the fishing tackle as well. 

As beginners to Salmon fishing, I am sure we have a lot to learn but I am looking forward to our first venture into the Strait of Georgia, to do some crabbing, shrimping and fishing.

This is an example of what can be caught up here.  I took this off a charter companies site.

For the fly fishermen among you, there are lots of lakes well stocked with rainbow and other species of trout. I have already obtained my fishing license for tidal waters and with the Salmon Conservation charge and sticker on the license, the total was $17.85. for a whole year for someone over the age of 65.  

One bonus break is that for residents of Canada, the licensing fee is substantially lower than it is for non residents as you can see below. I have detailed the cost of the licenses below because we have friends coming up from the US to visit this year who are definitely "going fishing" as they say. 

Licence Type & Duration	Fee: Non-Resident	Fee: Resident
Annual Licence, Adult (16-64 years of age)	$106.05	$22.05
Annual Licence, Senior (65 years of age and over)	$106.05	$11.55
Annual Licence, Juvenile (Under 16 years of age)	Free	Free
5-Day Licence	$32.55	$16.80
3-Day Licence	$19.95	$11.55
1-Day Licence	$7.35	$5.51
Salmon Conservation Stamp	$6.30	$6.30

Obtaining a license is easy but it must be done on line. It takes just five minutes and you print out the license and keep it with you at all times.

There are lots of choices for fishing charters. Prices are around the same so it's whoever you feel comfortable with and the type of boats they have that will be the deciding factor as to who you choose to go fishing with.

Ladies may want a boat with a cabin below with a head (toilet). Liane and Donna understand from our foray off the coast of Panama how important it is to have a boat with a head - (in house joke as ours did not). Having said that, many do not have this facility and what happens is that the men turn their backs and the ladies use a bucket. It's OK if you aren't shy, but for some - I am sure it could be an issue on occasion. 

You cannot fish for Salmon with barbed hooks here. The Wildlife and Fisheries authorities have the right to ask you to pull in your line and woe betide you if you are fishing with a barbed hook or without a license.  All barbs must be removed or filed right down before the hooks can be used as they are typically sold with barbs although I am told you can now buy hooks without barbs now.  

There's more about this later but take a look at what can be caught in this Salmon Highway. Salmon Fishing Charter 

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Obtaining the Basics

We have ordered some furniture - a sofa, love seat and two chairs, a TV, speakers and some gorgeous Amish furniture consisting of a dining room table plus six chairs. The rest will have to come slowly when we see the deals appear. 

We would both really like to buy another Induction stove with double ovens which has the bread proofing feature but they are very elusive and costly.  The closest we have come is at Sears but the price tag is up there at almost $4,000 so "patience is a virtue" as they say and on a fixed income one has to be careful with ones funds.

Eventually we were able to find a place to hunker down close to where we will be living that offered monthly rates. They could only handle us for one month as the rest of the time they were fully booked. We managed (only just) to get a one bedroom villa suite which had covered parking for two for $2300 for the month. 

We enjoyed our month in Courtenay. It gave us time to have the customary walk past our home each day to ensure it had not moved. A side benefit of this was that inevitably we would meet some of the neighbours, so we could introduce ourselves. It makes it so much easier if you already know someone in the area on move-in day. We now know about 20 people close by now.

Moving On

We departed Courtenay Apr 22nd for a resort in Parksville called Beach Acres. It's about an hours drive south of Courtenay. It's also a nice town - a little too small for us at around 17,000 people and missing some of the big box stores such as Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes etc. 

We are staying in an attached unit overlooking the Strait of Georgia. We have access to the hot tub, swimming pool, sauna and a restaurant. The cost of the new place was a little over $2000 a month. Again it was OK, not super-comfortable furniture but certainly bearable.  

This second move was good for two reasons.  First it gave us a change for a month. Second, it gave us an opportunity to catch up with Donna's cousin Barbara and her husband Earl who live in Parksville.

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Birthday Time

Celebrating Donna's cousin Barbara's husband Earl's 81st. Birthday

While we were there, Earl had his 81st birthday so we could not let that go without at least having supper together. We enjoyed having them over and schmoozing about the past and the future. We learned lots about what goes on in and around the area and hopefully short-circuited the learning curve on Parksville.  

Birds Alive

We are inundated with Hummingbirds. The lady next door who owns her unit has a feeder out and the birds come and go all day long until the last realms of light disappear. For small birds, they drink a lot of nectar. We have been filling the feeder every day as she only comes occasionally.   

These gorgeous birds buzz around us all day long from dawn to dusk

We have had deer right outside the patio door, maybe ten or 15 feet away from the patio which is nice.

We Miss Our Barbie

One thing we were missing was a BBQ.  We saw a very well put together Stainless steel table top version at Costco. It was reasonably priced so we purchased one. Now we can enjoy BBQ dishes on our patio watching the tide flow and ebb twice daily.

A Costco purchase - $129

It sometimes gets difficult to stay occupied when one does not have somewhere to potter about like you would in your own home but we have settled in now, and will take some drives out of town.

Last week we drove up to Tofino on the Pacific Rim in Pacific Rim National Park. Tofino is a fishing village out on the west coast of Vancouver Island accessed via Sproat Lake and the Pacific Rim Highway. 

Bamfield is another place we were advised to go to. Accessed via a couple of logging roads so we may leave Bamfield for another day. The locals say the charters from this small community are numerous. 

One can go out on a local fishing charter from either Tofino or Bamfield for the larger Halibut, caught a fair distance off shore (30 - 80 kms offshore). Maybe we will attempt that at a later date once we have our sea legs.  

At the time of writing this piece, it is May 12 - 7 days after Albertans went to the polls. This is not a political blog so I won't comment on the outcome. Good luck with your choice Albertans. Just four more years before you decide if you made a mistake or chose wisely. We will have to wait and see.  

Two days ago, it was Mother's Day in North America.  Donna very unselfishly suggested I take a Salmon Fishing Charter. She did not have to say it twice. I had hooked up with a fellow by the name of Steve through Facebook. There was a link to his charter service Island Pursuits Fishing Charters earlier on in this blog.

I left the house in Parksville at 7:am.  Steve charters out of Comox Marina right where we will live eventually and a one hour drive from Parksville.  

On the way to Comox, I passed by some road-kill, small deer on the side of the road.  The first one was covered in Bald Eagles each ripping at the fresh meat constantly taunted by Ravens and Seagulls as they devoured their new find. As I drove up, the Eagles all flew off. I waited for them to return but I was on a time constraint so I left before they came back.  

No sooner had I driven a half kilometre down the road, another Bald Eagle was hacking at another dead animal by the side of the road. This one also flew away, but I stopped for a couple of minutes. Not long after I had switched off the engine, a huge red headed Vulture appeared.

I clicked away and then placed the truck into drive and off I went to meet up with Steve at the Comox Marina.

Steve was there preparing his boat.  I introduced myself and we loaded up. Another fellow Lee was told by his wife to go fishing. He also jumped at the chance and booked a spot so, after brief introductions at the boat we jumped in and Steve navigated it out of the slipway.

It took us about 20 minutes to reach the fishing grounds. All of a sudden Steve throttled back on the powerful outboard and we drifted to a stop. There were other boats around too.

It was a cool and windy ride out - made cooler with the speed of the boat but now Steve jumped into action and within a couple of minutes, the down-riggers were rigged and the Cannonballs were taking our lines down to around 260 ft below us.  We would trawl slowly along until we found the fish.

It was a little slow at first because a whole school of Orca's (Killer Wales) swam by and presumably spooked the Salmon.  It was almost 2 hours of watching the rods then wham! one was on. I reeled in the first fish which was a really nice Chinook or Spring Salmon weighing I guess around 13 lb.  We caught several more fish measuring just under the twenty four and a half inch minimum size limit so we put them back and they all swam away unharmed by the barbless hooks. 

Salmon are a fun fish to catch.  Below is my first ever Salmon..... Truly a great feeling.

The Thrill of My First Catch of Salmon

We Caught Our Limit On This Trip

Yours Truly Very Happy With My First Day Out With Steve.
We will Definitely Do This Again.

Limit - 2 per person Must be over 24.5 inches long minimum.
Most of These Exceeded That By Far

All I can say to all our friends and relatives who may come to visit, You must let me take you to Steve at Island Pursuit Sport Fishing. He's a nice guy who is very patient with beginners like me. I would highly recommend him. If you want to go out and you are visiting us, I can book him with advanced warning subject to the weather, tides (both of which are critical factors) and of course Steve's availability.

Time is now moving right along. One week on Friday we depart Parksville and head back to Calgary to pick up some of our last possessions. Then we take the final drive for a while back to the island to take possession of our home - just 22 days from now.  

We are trying to make the most of our time here so as we don't get bored sitting around waiting. We have had Donna's cousin over for supper and visited back and forth. 

Yesterday, we took both of the Salmon over to their home, filleted one and cut the second into steaks for the freezer. We will pick them up upon our return to the island.

We all enjoyed a great supper last night.  I baked some fresh bread. Donna baked some cinnamon buns. We roasted Corn in the oven and Earl cooked one of the fillets on his BBQ.  We had a fresh salad with it all and Barbara, baked plumb crisp which I was too full to eat.      

We will have a very busy six days back in Calgary, shredding some of our company documents we no longer have to keep (those older than seven years) and pack the rest of them into the truck for the journey back out to the Island. 

We have arranged to have supper with some of our friends Dave Murray and Graham Mayne and his wife Heather while we are back there. We also have some shopping errands to run while we are in Calgary so it will be a busy time.

We will depart Calgary on May 30, arriving back on the Island and in Courtenay the following day - two days before we take possession of our home. That will also be a busy time as I have the Cargo trailer (still packed from when we left Mesquite over two months ago) which has been stored in a secure storage area. We did go and check on it a few days ago and everything seemed just fine.  

I will have to unpack the trailer then drive it 90 kms back to Nanaimo where I will go to a second storage facility to pick up a second run of stuff, re-pack the trailer and then head back to Courtenay.  

All this would not be possible without some sort of help. That having been said, we are lucky to have a helping hand in the form of Marty and Linda Douglas - also retirees we know well who also moved from Calgary to the Island. 

Marty and Linda live in Nanaimo so it's really convenient. Donna has known these guys for around 40+ years. They kindly offered to assist us in the move as there is no way Donna could lift some of the items we have to move.  

Do We Or Do We Not? - That Is The Question

After much consideration we have decided to re-instate our Real Estate Broker's Licenses. This would be done in Alberta. We will then immediately transfer our licenses to British Columbia which we can do without having to re-qualify or re-sit all the exams as they are very involved.  

It was a decision made easier by what is called the Reciprocity Agreement - This agreement takes the viewpoint that if you are a Realtor in one Province, you are a Realtor® in other Provinces across Canada (except Quebec and maybe couple of other Provinces). 

We have worked too long and hard to earn the Broker Qualification to give it up. As an example, In Calgary, there are only around 260 Brokers licensed at the Calgary Real Estate Board but there are over 5000 Realtor® members of the Board. 

Many Realtors attempt the Broker's courses and the exams and a lot fail. The cost of the course modules runs into the thousands of dollars which would be wasted if we let our licenses go right now so we are planning to keep the qualification for another couple of years at least to provide us with more time to consider whether to let our Broker licenses finally go or keep them.

Another reason is that we have friends that may be moving out to the Island so just in case, we will be ready to service their needs and the needs of other Realtors who would like to refer clients to someone out on the Island. 

Make no mistake, hundreds if not thousands of Calgary couples are relocating to the Island. We have met many since we arrived doing the same thing as us. Some are still working but buying up properties now for later on when they do retire.   

All this does not mean we are giving up retirement. It just means that by doing it this way, we have a couple more years in which to make the decision of cancelling our Broker's Licenses without rushing into it.       

Well, it is time to draw a close on this blog so that's it for now.  The next months are going to be for moving in, familiarising ourselves with the area and making the most of our new found home.

We know that many fun times are ahead and we both look forward to sending out our next blog when the time is right. 

.............../ And the Adventure continues.