Life On The Coast: Month 1
- Kelly McKenna
- Jul 5, 2021
- 5 min read
Hello from the beautiful Sunshine Coast town of Sechelt. We have been living here for over nine weeks now, which has gone insanely quickly and I cannot believe we have less than four weeks left before our next adventure.
Our first month living on the Sunshine Coast was action packed and full of wonderful memories, here's what we got up to...
Food And Drink
We were very excited to explore the food and drink in a new region of BC. After six months touring BC's wine region, this month was all about breweries and cideries.
Located in the town of Sechelt, Batch 44 is a great little brewery with a fairly extensive food menu. They have a pretty spacious outdoor seating area, but it is on the main road so can get a little noisy at times. When we visited it was relatively busy, so the traffic noise was drowned out by our fellow diners.
We shared a wild mushroom flatbread and the calamari and I truly could not fault the food or service. Also as an added bonus, this is a location on the BC Ale Trail where you can redeem points, so we got $10 off our bill.
This has quickly become one of our favourite spots on the coast. Located in West Sechelt, the cidery has a lovely outdoor garden space that reminds me very much of a traditional English pub garden. We have visited several times now and it's safe to say that we have sampled all of the ciders that they currently have to offer! My current favourite is the "Peaches & Cream".
Located in Gibsons, the neighbouring town to Sechelt - and where you get off the ferry from Vancouver to join the Sunshine Coast - Tapworks is a small little brewery with incredible views over the Shoal Channel. The food tastes as good as it looks and the beer is ice cold, what more could a foodie couple ask for?
This restaurant is located on the Sunshine Coast Highway between Sechelt and Roberts Creek. It is newly opened, in fact our first visit was only their second day of operation, but the food is good and the atmosphere mostly nice - bar the traffic noise.
We went for Happy Hour and shared some meatballs and fried zucchini and we both left very content.
Last, but not least, The Wobbly Canoe was a recommendation from our "English Friends" Alex and Dan. Alex suffers from celiac disease and was very impressed with their gluten-free options.
Although neither of us require gluten-free food, we were also both very impressed with the food. Not one to usually go for fish, I had a cod burger and did not regret my choice. It tasted so fresh, it could have just jumped out of the ocean and on to my plate.
As an added bonus, The Wobbly Canoe is located pretty much next door to The Porch so when we haven't been able to get into one, we've gone to the other.
Exploration
Davis Bay Beach & Pier
The setting for both The Porch and The Wobbly Canoe, Davis Bay beach and pier are located on the Sunshine Coast highway, between Sechelt and Roberts Creek.
We have enjoyed many afternoon strolls in this area looking out at the ocean for miles all around us.
Francis Point Provincial Park is about halfway between Sechelt and Egmont, in the Pender Harbour region of the coast.
We visited the park during our first trip this way last year, but the weather was pretty miserable so we were looking forward to returning. Sadly, we still haven't yet made it on a sunny day so we're yet to see it at its best. Still, the views over the Strait of Georgia are pretty special, even in the rain.
Lamb Bay Kayaking
We finally got to take the H.M.S. McKenward out on the water! After a couple of false starts, we got the perfect weather conditions for us to feel comfortable in the kayak and after one last practice run on our Airbnb deck we were ready to go.
We launched a couple of times from Lamb Bay which is on the opposite side of Sechelt Inlet to where we are living. It's a pretty small beach, but it is secluded so is a good starting point for novices like us.
So far we are doing pretty well! We haven't (yet) fallen in or hit each other with our paddles! We have also been fortunate enough to paddle with seals and eagles on our adventures so far - still holding out hope for an Orca sighting before the end of the summer.
We can see this park and beach from our house as it is on the opposite side of the inlet from us. It's a lovely leafy park with a couple of trails and is our go to place when Rich finishes work because it's easy walking and gets the sun all evening. Probably one of our favourite little finds since moving here.
Our second "go to" place when Rich finishes work. Sargeant Bay is another flat easy walking area, but the beach is more pebbly than Porpoise Bay. There are also lovely wetlands and marshes to explore, but on our first visit we encountered a snake - definitely not my favourite animal - and now we tend to stick more to the water area!
Possibly one of my favourite places in the whole of BC, Smuggler Cove is where I truly fell in love with the Sunshine Coast. It's an out-and-back trail that is mostly flat with a few scrambles and a small incline towards the mouth of the cove.
The reason I enjoy this walk so much is the peace and serenity that I feel sitting on the rocks looking out to sea at the midpoint of the trail. I always feel so content gazing out at the blue waters listening to the gentle waves and reminding myself how lucky I am to live in this incredible country.
(The one downside is that, despite my best efforts, I've never made it out of this park without a bug bite of some kind!)
In The Kitchen With Kelly
For someone who writes a lot about amazing food and drink, I've always been pretty hopeless in the kitchen. For the longest time, I didn't enjoy cooking and never felt like my efforts paid off. At the beginning of our relationship, Rich probably made about 95% of our meals.
That slowly started to change when we moved to Stevenage and came across Hello Fresh meal prep boxes. I gradually became more confident in my abilities and found that 90% of the recipes I followed, actually turned out okay. After that, Rich and I started sharing the cooking pretty much 50/50.
Since my shift to unemployment, I now do about 95% of the cooking and genuinely enjoy it.
In May, I managed to make homemade risotto, arancini balls and burgers. I was especially proud that my first ever attempt at mini Yorkshire puddings went well and I even succeeded in baking Richard's favourite dessert - lemon drizzle cake.
And Finally...
Just for those things that don't fit anywhere else... We had a wonderful day in watching the Eurovision Song Contest with a few ciders - although we definitely missed the musings of Graham Norton - as well as a great morning drinking mimosas and watching Liverpool finish third on the last day of the League.
And that was month one on the Sunshine Coast done.
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