cowichan valley

After our tour of the Butchart Gardens, we hopped back in the car and drove up to the Cowichan Valley. 

Cowichan Bay is so small you could blink and miss it but we stopped there for lunch before heading to Ambraden Pond, the b&b I'd found for us.

Ambraden Pond is heaven.

There's a trout pond. Daniel caught two rainbow trout.

There's also a dairy farm that abuts the property and I walked out to visit the cows. Seems like they have a pretty nice life. There were farms all around- I've never seen so many signs for fresh eggs. 

We walked out to Manley Creek Park and checked out the waterfall. We got caught in a torrential downpour and I was extremely happy to have my new red raincoat with me (thanks mom!).

We walked down to the beach and looked out on Salt Spring Island. 

We'd hoped to go wine tasting, but the handful of wineries we stopped at were all closed, so instead  we bought cheese and prosciutto at Hilary's Cheese and bread at True Grain in Cowichan Bay and some local wine from Rocky Creek  and had ourselves an indoor picnic back at Ambraden Pond. 

It started snowing late in the evening and when we woke up, it looked like this: 

This was, to my mind, the most relaxing part of our trip. I spent hours sitting by the fire reading and just enjoying the quiet and the calm.