Sloquet Hot Springs...and a Surprise!

The weekend before my birthday back in June we had planned a trip to these hot springs I had heard about.  We'd been talking about it for a while but we knew it was going to be a bit tricky to organise.  The hot springs are at the end of a logging road (dirt road) that's about 3 hours beyond Whistler, we knew none of the usual hire cars we rented would make it there and were told you have to have a 4x4 to drive there.  Luckily, my lovely colleague came to the rescue again and offered us his 'truck' for the weekend...and we were all set to go! 

However, on the thursday night I got really sick! I was off work on Friday and just being sick and feeling awful all day.  I assumed it was some kind of food poisoning or 24 hour bug thing.  I knew Saturday morning was fast approaching and I wasn't about to put off our trip! We only had 3 weekends left in Vancouver and had plans for every other weekend so it was now or never! I assumed I'd be fine in the morning, but still felt awful but told By I could either be sick at home or I could be sick at the hot springs so I just got on with it! 

We stopped at Whistler village on the way, we had planned to do some touristy shopping and pick up some t-shirts and things as we knew it would be the last time we'd be visiting.  However, I had to tell Byron to leave me on a bench sprawled out whilst he went off to stop, because I just felt too terrible! He even got ice cream from Cow's - which is like world famous ice cream and I had to pass on it, it was so sad!!

It was an amazing drive to the hot springs! Well, from the 10 minutes I saw of it in between waking from napping! By had made me a bed in the back of the car and so I just slept the whole way! Going on an incredibly bumpy road when you're already not well is not the smartest of ideas! 

This was our trusty truck that helped us make the trip! You have never seen a dustier car when we got back to Vancouver, it was insane! 

This cool church was in the middle of a random reservation in the middle of the forest! Gotta love B.C and all it's secludedness! 

Finally after what felt like forever, in my unwell state, we arrived at the hot springs! We were going off some dodgy directions I'd found online via someone else who'd been there before...GPS didn't work and so we were glad we hadn't got lost! 

We headed straight for the hot springs! and I decided they must have had healing magic powers because for that evening I wasn't sick once! 

There were about 9 individual pools of water, and each one increased in temperature! 

The one closest to the river was the coolest, and the one I was sitting in first was one of the hottest.  I didn't stay in that one for long and I couldn't even make it into the top one which was the hottest, it burnt my toe even as I dipped it in! 

This was our fave pool! The second in from the river, it was snug and small enough to just have room for the two of us and it's temperature was toasty warm! We could also take a dip in the f-r-reezing cold river if we got too hot! 

These were some of the top pools that I didn't dare try! 

and there behind By you can see the water running down straight from the source! 

This waterfall was probably the hottest water I've ever touched! 

It was so peaceful and relaxing, and such a cool experience to be there! 

It was about a 5 minute uphill climb back to our little campsite, but I didn't mind it too much as I felt rejuvenated after being in the water! 

Here's a close up of the river, the water was sooo clear! 

We set up our little tent, and got a fire going for dinner! 

Later that night we headed back to the hot springs after dark.  This time I had left the camera behind at the tent which I sorely regretted because when we got there little tea lights had been lit all the way around the outside of the pools and it was completely magical! There were even floating pieces of wood in the middle of each pool that had more tealights on, it was the perfect ending to day which turned out better than expected for the sickie! 

The next morning, after another quick dip we started the drive back to Vancouver.  I was feeling slightly better than before and was able to enjoy more of the scenery on the drive this time! 

We stopped off at Alta Lake, just beyond Whistler because it's somewhere I had always wanted to check out! Would you look at that scenery! 

It was amazing! The sun was out in full force...

and By worked on topping up his tan! 

We watched people going out on their boats, and even their kayaks and we watched some people jumping into the lake from the swimming docks.  Sadly, I wasn't feeling up to it myself so we just watched from the side! 

How can you ever tire of that view! 

I loved all the lily pads too! and the snow capped mountains in the distance! Crazy that it was mid June and 25 degree plus weather yet there was still snow up there! 

Another stop off I had always wanted to do was Brandywine Falls.  You all know how much I love a good waterfall and I was determined to check out as many as possible before we left B.C! 

We had to cross this railway track to get to the falls, doesn't that look good enough to be a postcard?! 

Brandywine Falls did certainly not disappoint! and even though I was being sick again, I was glad we'd stopped off! 

Check out how ferocious that water is! 

I fell in love with it even more than Shannon Falls! and wished we had known it was so awesome sooner..all those times we drove past it on the way to Whistler! I would have loved to have seen it snow covered in winter! 

The view across the Cheakamus valley was incredible! 

Soaking up the last few rays of sun of the day, we stopped off at Porteau Cove, another provincial park! 

It's just a little scenic viewpoint and an area where boats launch, but it was beautiful to check it out.  

Despite being so unwell, we had an incredible weekend and got to see so much beauty! 

The surprise part came 2 days later when I was still being sick and By half joked that I might be pregnant! So we bought a test and those 2 little pink lines said I was! It didn't even cross my mind that I could have been, I thought morning sickness was just that...in the morning! but no mine lasted all day long for 5 days! Fortunately when we went to the Dr to get everything confirmed he gave me some anti nausea pills so I could get on with the day to day without feeling so awful! The picture above was us just after we found out the super happy news! 

So ever since we've been busy thinking of names to call our little Canadian baby...Sloquet? Whistler? Columbia? Yeah..I'm not a fan of any of those either! 

Just 2 more Vancouver posts to blog about and then I can crack on with our US road trip pics! 

S'mores, Sightseeing & Hitch-hiking On The Sunshine Coast!

You know you're going to have an awesome weekend when you stumble upon a super cute bakery before you've even got to your destination! 

We had to bus it to Horseshoe Bay where we were going to catch a ferry, and I glimpsed at this bakery just long enough to know it was worth a visit! When we got off the bus, I found out we have 15 minutes til we needed to be at the ferry terminal and so we headed off in search of treats!

It was near the end of the day, so Flour Bakeshop didn't have too much left but everything they did have looked delicious! I snapped up a lemon and coconut slice...

and admired their beautiful decor and we went on our way!

Here By is on the ferry with the cute little town of Horseshoe Bay in the background!

My lemon and toasted coconut bar was completely delicious! I washed it down with a root beer float...in a can! We had come across these at the grocery store and knew we just had to try them out! 

It was a super scenic ferry trip as always! Let me just preface this by saying I'd never even heard of the Sunshine Coast until a few weeks ago.  We were at a church activity, and started chatting with the mom of a friend of ours at church.  It was the first time we'd met her, and she was telling us all about a lovely little place called Robert's Creek on the Sunshine Coast where she had a cabin.  She had just spent the weekend there and was telling us if we'd never been we should really check it out! 

Her son told her she should let us stay in her place and go see it for ourselves, to which she very kindly agreed! and that is how the following weekend we ended up wondering into sleepy little Roberts Creek.

The directions we were given were 'turn right once you get off the bus, go past general store and it's opposite the cafe'!! We weren't sure we were going to find it but when we arrived in Robert's Creek we discovered there really is only one road! and a general store, a library, a restaurant and a cafe! 

It was like the little place that time forgot! It was so quaint and cute...

and so was our little cabin too!

We wasted no time in getting acquainted with the beach which was just a 5 minute stroll from the cabin!

It was a beautiful Saturday evening when we arrived.

We sat down on this rather convenient log, and did some seal spotting for a while! There By is pointing one out to me! Unfortunately they didn't pop their heads up for long enough for me to capture a pic of them!

I did manage to capture the way the sun was sparkling on the water so magically though!

We took a long walk down the length of the beach, 

and came across this log acting as a bridge over this little creek.  Byron dared me to cross it.  I told him very confidently I could easily do it and set off, I hadn't been on the log for more than 2 seconds when I slipped off rather dramatically! It was a pretty wet log and my flip flops weren't gripping too well! so I did the rest of the task bare foot and I'm happy to say I made it, no falling in at all!

We found this mural on the ground that we read about, called a Mandala.  

The whole community comes out once a year and all paints a little spot of it! 

Roberts Creek is quite the little hippy artsy town, and they were even having a local art and music festival there the weekend we stayed.

We heard that 'The Gumboot Restaurant' came highly recommended, which was just as well because it was the only restaurant in Robert's Creek! so we figured we'd give it a try! 

When this starter of warm bread and spinach and cheese dip arrived we knew we'd made a good choice! I could have just ordered another one of these for my main and gone home happy, it was soooo tasty! 

All their ingredients are organic and locally sourced, and it showed! By had pork with roasted apple and polenta,

and I had the most delicious chicken burrito, with a side salad that was served with the most amazing mango dressing!

and then as if it couldn't get any better, they brought out this 'chocolate love' cake that had been home baked on site.  It was the perfect ending to an amazing meal! 

Just next door to the Gumboot restaurant is the Gumboot Cafe, with a beautiful pink tree out the front too!

We caught this wood pecker in action as we were strolling by!

We stopped by the next morning for some baked treats for breakfast! Imagine a tiny little sleepy town with a cafe that sells cupcakes! is that perfect for me or what? 

We set off on the bus for the town of Sechelt - about 30 mins away from Robert Creek.  We had decided to check out Porpoise Bay Provincial Park.  What we didn't know was that no buses ran there! So we had about an hours walk from town to the park.

We arrived to this lovely sandy beach...

and we had our picnic lunch and chilled out in the sun for a while.  It was kind of cloudy too, as the pictures show, and so we rather unexpectedly got pretty sunburnt from this time on the beach!

By had read about an area called 'Hidden Grove' filled with old growth Douglas Fir's that he was keen to check out.  So we hiked for about another hour to get there...and we saw some snakes along the way too!

He was impressed to find some pretty enormous trees...

This was the tallest in the forest.  So tall, I couldn't even get it all in to one picture!

It was a pretty cool place!

We hiked up to the top of a lookout point...

and By ventured out onto this fallen log, but then quickly retreated when it started moving!!

We decided we didn't fancy a 2 hour plus walk back to town, after all the hiking we'd already done so we thought we'd give hitch-hiking a go! Despite a few initial hiccups, like trying to thumb down a bike (it was moving super fast downhill so to be fair it sounded similar to a car!) we eventually got lucky with a couple from Vancouver who kindly drove us all the way to our bus stop! 

We got back to Roberts Creek just in time to catch an ice cream from the little sorbet hut! Isn't it the cutest thing! I got mango flavour and By got dark chocolate, and they were served in the most amazing homemade waffle cones I've ever eaten - they tasted like cookies!

We headed back down to the beach for another campfire, and this time roasted hot dogs for our dinner too!

As the sun started to set, the marshmallows came out...

and the s'mores fun began! I was having fun, contrary to what my face in the picture suggests...I think maybe my sunburn was just starting to come through or something!

You just can't beat s'mores campfires by the ocean! Look how mouth watering it looks!

We caught another beautiful sunset and headed home after our action packed day.

On our last day, we just had to pay one last visit to the Gumboot!

It was a delicious way to start the day! (even though I was missing baked beans in my fry up - they don't serve them over here!)

The food did not disappoint and was worth breaking our budget for!

We headed off to explore the forest right in the heart of Robert's Creek and I was loving all the little waterfalls we kept coming across!

There were 4 in total, but we only came across 3...I guess that's just a reason for us to go back one day! 

Everywhere was so lush and green! The forester was loving it...and so was I, to be honest!

Look at these cute shrooms!

and I just had to take a pick of this sign! Fortunately we didn't see any, but it was pretty exciting to think the chance was there!!

For being a small little hippy town, Robert's Creek sure has some big fancy houses too!

We walked for just under an hour to reach their provincial park, and I was loving all the house watching we did along the way!

Happy to be adding another provincial park to the list! we picnic'd down at the beach, and although it wasn't as sunny as the previous day, we still had a great time and were sad to be leaving the magical little part of the sunshine coast.

How glad we were that we were able to discover it before we left! If only we'd discovered it sooner! It only cost us $15 each to get the ferry from West Van across to Langdale because we went as foot passengers and then the return ferry trip was free! so that's like 10 pounds each! 

All I know is it might just be rivalling Deep Cove for my favourite place in B.C!