Category Archives: Courtenay

Best Road Trip Food & Drink of 2018

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Sought and Found 4

Best Coffee: Caleb and Kitty Leung make exacting coffee in their gorgeous Sought and Found Coffee Roasters in Calgary, Alberta

Vancouver Island 4

Best coffee mugs: Katy Fogg’s sublime, hand-thrown mugs, at Tin Town Cafe in Courtenay, B.C.

East Calgary 13

Best brunch: Deane House, Calgary

La Baguette muffin

Best muffin: La Baguette, Revelstoke, B.C.

Edmonton coffee 21

Best doughnut: Made-to-order Portuguese-style doughnut at Edmonton’s Ohana Donuterie

Southeast Arizona 36

Best Bakery: Don Guerra’s Barrio Bread in Tucson, Arizona

Vancouver Island 17

Best bakery treat: Focaccia bread at Fol Epi in Victoria, B.C.

BreadMeat 3

Best sandwich: Meat balls on ciabatta at Meat & Bread in Calgary

Southeast Arizona 11

Biggest Feed. A tie: Sandwiches for three (three days!) at Salt Lake City’s Grove Market

B.C. West Coast July 2018 17

And the Oinker At Bubba’s Big Bites in Chilliwack, B.C.

Grande Prairie 1

Best Mexican: Owner James Nelson and his made-to-order corn tortillas at El Norteno in Grande Prairie, Alberta of all places

Southeast Arizona 231

Best hot dog: Can’t beat the Sonoran hot dogs in parking lot Ruiz in Tucson

Sunshine Coast 49

Best beer: Belgian-style Townsite Brewery in Powell River, B.C.

Vancouver Island 27

Best burger: Chucks Burger Bar, in Sydney, B.C.

Edmonton coffee 6

Best complimentary breakfast: The Le Creuset pots were the clincher at Hyatt Place Hotel in Edmonton

Atco Cafe 6

Best restaurant architecture: ATCO Blue Flame Kitchen Cafe in Calgary

cspace market 1

Best farmers’ market: cSPACE in Calgary

Market Bistro Canmore 5

Best service: Brande at Market Bistro in Canmore, Alberta

Southeast Arizona 255

Best gas station experience: Maverick in Fillmore, Utah

Monkman iPhotos 17

Best foraged food: Wild huckleberries on Monkman Pass Trail near Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

Southeast Arizona 272

Best dining experience: As always, incomparable Carmen making fresh tacos in Hamer, Idaho

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Scenes From a West Coast Road Trip

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Early morning light on Mount Temple near Lake Louise

Early morning light on Mount Temple, near Lake Louise

Vancouver Island 4

The kiddies may be back in school but fall road construction in B.C. carries on

Vancouver Island 6

Taken to its logical conclusion, doesn’t this mean no one should pass?

La Baguette muffin

How fruit muffins should be stuffed. The incomparable La Baguette in Revelstoke

Vancouver Island

Only in Tofino

Vancouver Island 24

No words required

Vancouver Island 31

Must have arrived in the dark

Vancouver Island 4 (1)

The best coffee shop mugs in the world: By Katy Fogg, at Tin Town Cafe in Courtenay

 

Vancouver Island 25

Why I go to Vancouver Island’s west coast in the fall

Vancouver Island (1)

Beats this October 4 return to Calgary

Vancouver Island 32

It’s been a strange fall

When it rains, time for a pour

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Fishing north of Courtenay

Salmon fishing in the Pacific, north of Courtenay, B.C.

“Periods of rain.”

Perhaps the three most devastating words ahead of an impending backpack. Other than the single, four-letter epithet: “Rain.”

What to do? You can forge blithely ahead, hoping the forecast is wrong or exaggerated. But extensive experience has shown me that simply “rubbing one’s nose in it” leads more often to misery than delighted surprise. A misery exacerbated when the trip involves a long drive or an expensive flight to get there.

Thus the importance of having a Plan B, especially if you’ve already arrived on the trip’s doorstep. Rather than simply return home, take the opportunity to explore a new area. It might even buy you enough time, if you’ve got some flexibility, to wait out the bad weather, perhaps camped out on a forgiving friend’s or relative’s floor.

This strategy paid off beautifully recently on a backpack along Vancouver Island’s west coast. Where waiting three days resulted in a lovely, largely dry hike, with the bonus of some fine day trips around the north-central part of the island near Courtenay. Of course, there was also the chance to investigate some great places to eat and drink.

More about that in subsequent posts. In the meantime, here are some photos of lovely diversions.

Fishing north of Courtenay (1)

I’d rather be fishing

Nootka Trail 85

Beachcombing on Hornby Island

Nootka Trail 79

Ocean front hiking in Helliwell Provincial Park, Hornby Island

Nootka Trail 83

Tucking into pizza at Hornby Island’s funky Ringside Market

Nootka Trail 72

Great Hornby Island Roasting coffee at Lix in Ringside Market

Nootka Trail 14

From the suspension bridge at Elk Falls Provincial Park, Campbell River

 

Nootka Trail 112

A great rainy day diversion: Campbell River Museum

Nootka Trail 115

Fabulous, fresh fare at Dick’s Fish & Chips in Campbell River

Nootka Trail 61

Spring hiking at Mount Washington ski hill near Courtenay. Okay, the boardwalk is a little buried in snow here

My Best Road Trip Meals of 2012

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Billings and Red Lodge, Montana 6800 (1)

Casually elegant Restaurant 415 in Fort Collins, Colorado

Best Supper

There are times on a long road trip when you want to wipe off the grime, comb your hair and go out for a nice dinner—the kind where the chefs have trained in high-end restaurants and where the utensils have some heft and are wrapped in linen, not paper. And you want to do so without breaking the bank. Restaurant 415 in Fort Collins, Colorado delivers all that, in spades. The retro-modern dining space is elegant but relaxed, with subdued lighting on the brushed aluminum tables and the stylish chairs, which have leatherette seat cushions and slightly springy wooden backs.

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