B.C. - Powell River, Sunshine Coast - Julie's, Willington Beach trail, Sea Lions and Otters.

 I just went through my pictures for today. After culling (out of focus, duplicates etc) there were still over 100 photos (OK, I'm a real sucker for Otters). So this post may be broken in to two, I'll see how it goes.

We woke to rain and fog. The proprietor of Salty's Lobster Shack (A while back in the blog) had recommended Nancy's bakery at Lund (well deserved!) and Julie's Airport Cafe. So we decided to try Julie's for breakfast. Turns out Salty's recommendations were better than his lobster rolls.

Julie's is next to the airport and the walls are covered in paintings, stencils, carvings and photos of aircraft.

 

The ceiling is hung with models

and there is airplane memorabilia everywhere,

including on the tables and

and at the check out.

The menu items have plane names.

 I had the Piper and Rick had the Pilot and neither of us could finish them.

 The forecast said that the rain would stop in the afternoon so I decided to do some painting in the morning. Unfortunately I discovered that the pad of paper that I had bought with me was not for watercolour paint.

I ended up doing a pen and ink sketch of the Harbour Seal at Lund.

 

As there was a container of pencil crayons on the coffee table,

I used them to add in a bit of colour.

Rick had bought a sketch pad with him so I started a watercolour on a sheet of paper from that.

By now it had stopped raining so we drove downtown, parked and walked into Willingdon Beach.

Truth and Reconciliation Day was 2 days ago

and the event had been marked here, 

and the orange shirts were still hung on the trees.

There were a couple of Harlequin Ducks in the water here. I don't think I have ever seen one of these in the wild before.

There is a camp site here, which we walked through and then set out, beside the shoreline, on the trail.

Flat and gravel, it was an easy walk though large trees,

moss and ferns

and a collection

of old

forestry equipment.

Each with an explanation

of how it had been utilized.

Douglas Squirrel, much smaller than the Ontario ones.

At this point we could have continued on the road (we came back that way) but instead

headed down to the beach.

Looking back towards Powell River

and on towards First Beach.

We could hear the barking of the Sea Lions clearly from here

and walking along the beach we could see that there were a lot of them

on the breakwall now.

The pictures of Sea Lions, Harbour Seals and River Otters will have to wait. We have to catch the early ferry to Vancouver Island tomorrow and I need to get packed tonight. So.....to be continued.