That’s the expression Richard uses when we get to do something we didn’t think we would be able to do!
Last night after dinner I was checking online to see if we could get a round of golf in over the next few days at Qualicum Memorial Golf Club. Sure enough! I was able to find us a time for today. After 2 days of on and off again rain, its the only place on the island we would want to golf because of the amazing drainage!
The time I got for us was 9:44am. Given its still a good 20 minute drive to the club, its a wee bit earlier than we like to play, but I grabbed it anyway. It meant setting an alarm, which we don’t like to do!
On the way to the golf course, on the main Hwy 19, we could see the brine trucks laying down brine on the roads. The roads didn’t look slippery, but they must know something we don’t know. The sun was even trying to come out as we drove to golf.
Brine truck with the Vancouver Island Mountain ranges in the background.
This is as much sun as we saw today, as we drove down to the golf club.
We saw that someone hadn’t been paying attention to the road conditions though!
The traffic was slow on the highway, because someone had jumped the guardrail into the forest. The good thing is, there is never very much traffic here!
Quite a wreck! We hope they are ok. The ambulance had already left by the time we arrived.
We arrived at the golf club in a cloud of dust and were able to play for the first time at this course as a twosome. The weather was +4C when we started and reached a very pleasant +6C during our round. Around the 7th hole we noticed the clouds rolling in and it started to spit very lightly. It was a bit of a frustrating round, with no pars until the 9th hole! The ball still doesn’t roll very far, so on some of these longer holes its a killer to try and get the ball onto the green in regulation! I know, stop complaining, we’re golfing in December in Canada...and not freezing and as a former colleague of mine and former island resident told me today “Its the silly season” for golf in B.C. and the score really doesn’t matter at this point, as no one is keeping track of their golf handicap, in these conditions!
7th hole, Qualicum Memorial Golf Club. Par 5, 462 yards.
Bundled up on the first tee.
We tried to go to Home Hardware to get a light bulb replaced for our pot light above the kitchen sink in Newman, but the store was closed on a Sunday. It seems like a lot of businesses have either closed for the entire holidays, or are closed on Sundays. At least we aren’t in lockdown here though!
We realized that Qualicum Beach has 3 golf courses and we had only checked out 2 of the courses, so we drove over to the third course - Eaglecrest Golf Club, to see what it was like and how well it drained! Eaglecrest was built in 1971 and charges $30 for 18 holes this time of year, with $5 for a cart. The course if very walkable up to the 13th hole, and then it gets hilly, so they have a 5 hole cart rate for $8. The 12th hole goes back to the club house, so its easy to grab a cart and head to the 13th tee. We looked at the beautiful homes in this subdivision, some of which were on the ocean and really liked the community. We will have to find a few dry days before we check this golf course out for 18 holes!
Next up today was a visit Parkesville. Richard felt like thai food and I felt like pizza. We compromised on Thai bowls at Lefty’s in Parkesville.
Lefty’s had a patio which was covered, but it was not very warm, even with heaters.
Prawns for Richard and chicken for me on our Thai Bowls. Delicious! The pickled mango was amazing in the bowl. We sat inside for a change, with great social distancing, and plexiglass between the booths, with no one on either side of us and at least 30 feet to the next table. We find that dining out is quite expensive. $24 for each bowl with protein, but it was delicious and we don’t eat out every day, so we splurged on lunch today!
We popped into the Thrifty grocery store next to Lefty’s restaurant after lunch and saw the coolest thing! A grocery store growing fresh herbs that they sell in the store! Now that is amazing! I think more grocery stores should do this!
We decided to explore Parksville a bit more while we were there. Our neighbour Steve is moving to Parksville on Wednesday and we will miss him! We wanted to see where he was moving to, but we checked our the wrong RV park today unfortunately.
We generously received an amazing gift certificate for the Tigh-Na-Mara resort for Christmas from my son Josh & his girlfriend Alicia, and since the resort is in Parksville, we wanted to visit the resort and actually see in person how the accommodations were laid out. It will be nice to have a “vacation” overnight away from Newman in January when we book it!
Tigh-Na-Mara resort has been operating since 1946 and the name in Gaelic means “House By The Sea”. The resort evolved from a single tent, into one of the premier all-season destination resorts on Vancouver Island. The 22 acre property has towering Douglas fir, cedar and arbutus forest and is perched above 3 km of sandy beach, with panoramic views of the Strait of Georgia/Salish Sea.
The unique property has rustic charm with 192 handcrafted log guest rooms,
The Grotto Spa was voted the #1 spa in Canada, surprisingly by Spas of America.
Now we have to decide when to book this amazing resort!
Leaving Parksville we found a back way onto the main Highway 19 without having to drive through town and by now it was really pouring! We are so charmed to have “stolen a day” by being able to get 9 holes in this morning and still get out for the day despite the rain. Our goal is that every day we get out and do some form of exercise and see something new if we can!
I kept telling Richard to stop the wipers for a second so I could get a good “artsy black and white shot” of the rain. His comment to me was “next you will want me to drive blindfolded!”
Artsy shot...I really like the bokeh from the yellow road sign on the right of the photo.
I said to Richard “Some days I feel like I’m living in an episode of the ‘X-Files’. If you remember, the show was always filmed in the rain, fog and seemed like it was shot in black and white.
As I sit here in Newman, the rain is really coming down. The roof is NOT leaking though! Let’s hope the roof stays leak free!!! We’ve got more rain coming over the next month. January is supposed to be quite wet here...so keeping our fingers and toes crossed the roof holds up!
Only a few more days until my new camera shows up! I can’t wait!
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