Summer Road Trip | Victoria/Vancouver {part three}

initially when mr. handsome and i were planning our road trip, we had plans to go to vancouver straight after comox.  however, we failed to take into account that on sunday, vancouver was host to the world cup of soccer, which meant hotel rooms were selling for $1,000,000 or your first born child.

re-route.

instead, we decided to head back to victoria for one more night, before heading to vancouver on monday.

on route to victoria, we stopped in nanaimo for some harbour walks/dock sitting/lunch action.  you'll note from the sepia toned photographs that the smoke from the forest fires was especially bad. 

following our short time in namaimo, we were once again victoria bound.  we missed out on seeing butchart gardens on the first go-round, so the re-route allowed us to take in the beauty of the amazing botanicals.

 i'm hungry because i walk, i walk because i'm hungry.  this is my life in a nutshell.

now that you know that, 

walking amongst flowers = dinner 

i decided to make reservations at Ferris' Seafood + Oyster Bar.  a cool joint, featuring fresh oysters, local seafood, all in a cool brick room, featuring local artists paintings.

 fresh tomato salad |  olive oil, balsamic vinegar, feta, fresh herbs

fresh shucked oysters |  sherry mignonette & fresh horseradish

 four cheese agnolotti |  grilled vegetables, roasted tomato nicoise olives, fresh basil, pecorino

 grilled wild sockeye salmon |  new potato & summer vegetable hash, salsa verde

 steamed local clams & mussels |  fennel, cannellini beans, calabrian chile, tomato, grilled bread

 creme brûlée |  tahitian vanilla bean

 the next morning, we woke bright and early to catch the ferry to vancouver.

i love vancouver.  i fell in love when we visited last year, like wanted-to-move-there-in-a-heartbeat, kind of love.

and upon arrival our first stop was obviously tacofino.

#tacoenthusiast

 sweet & spicy green salad |  pickled jicama, radish, spicy lotus root, soft herbs, tamarind vinaigrette

 pork al pastor |  pineapple, pickled onion, cilantro

lamb birria |  herb salad, arbol chili, pickled nopales, preserved lemon zest

chicken |  pickled vegetables, epazote chimichurri, buttermilk chili crema

 fish taco |  pacific cod, salsa fresca, chipotle mayo

 after devouring all the tacos & prying myself away from consuming further, we went about our quick afternoon visit of vancouver.

gastown, canada place & granville island were the three places we wanted to share with the kids {time permitting of course}  they too shared in our consensus, vancouver is awesome.

goodbye vancouver.  i will miss you.

up next kelowna...