Arriving in a Weirdly Named Place

 Hullo! We are leaving St. John's and heading off to our next stop - ready to see a bit of Newfoundland.

We stopped for a bit of a picnic lunch along the coast... just have to find the coast.

Ah, there we go!!

It's beary pretty here. And you can't see it, but there were whales spouting off out there!

Somewhere... out there...

And no, there were no pictures of the picnic... lots of veg and hummus!

After some more driving... and a stop at a grocery store, we found our Airbnb! Let's check it out...

It's one big open space, with a teeny-tiny bedroom and then a murphy bed in the open space.

Like teeny tiny... with a double bed. Not how the pics made it look!

It's kind of got a man-cave vibe...

With a bar area (the "kitchen" sink is back there too).

And the rest of the kitchen is here...

The big draw though was... the hot tub!!!

And the view. It's hard to argue with a hot tub and a view.

Although... little bears really don't use hot tubs!

After unpacking, we set about exploring this little village. It's got quite a popular brewery and coffee shop and...

... ice cream... errmmm...

Um. Yes, this is a family-friendly blog and... why???

Oh... Everything here has that name...

Literally... everything... that's because it's the name of this village!!!

Yes, this village is called Dildo. Look it up. Sigh... my humans are laughing themselves silly right now. Sigh.

Every house has a bin like this... well, not exactly like this... cause this one is painted like Jelly Bean houses! We think they keep their recycling/garbage in there for pick-up days... 

Anyhow... let's go check-out the Dildo Brewing Company...

They have quite a selection... of brews and...

Of merchandise.... I don't know if I would want a t-shirt like that... luckily I didn't have to make that decision as they had no little bear sizes. 

But I'll take a selfie with the sign!!

And they did have something else that was bear-sized...

Let me just go in through this perfectly bear-sized door and...

Ahoy maties!!! Be careful or you'll come to grief on those rocks out there!!

I don't know if I could be a lighthouse keeper... you couldn't be afraid of heights... that's for sure... And it would be a lonely life...

With not much travelling... and a lot of storms... Onwards on our next adventure!

Handy Sandy supervises Suite Painting

 Hullo!! Today I am supervising the painting of a feature wall in the Bearbnb...

It is an off-white right now... and we are going to spruce it up. First... we need to tape all the edges and thingies...

Since I am dressed in my hosting finery... I will be taking an arm's length supervision role... this little bear does not need paint splatters anywhere!

We had this can of paint left over from upstairs...

It's a sage green...

Alright... ready to supervise!!

Hmmm... it looks kind of muddy in this light and for a first coat...

But that's better...

It does need a second coat though.

See... it looks better with a second swatch around the outlet...

Carry on painter!!!

Yep, getting there...

And I think it turned out pretty good!! It still looks a bit weird as it's not dry yet but... it'll do!

Do you help supervise your humans when they are painting?

Clam-Digging with a Bearbnb Host

 Hullo!!! Sandy Bear here... as a Bearbnb host, we get a lot of guests who come to Nanoose Bay to go clam digging and oyster hunting! I'd never, ever been here, so I thought I would check it out, the better to interact with my guests!

We know the spot along the highway, where people park in the spring and summer. Sometimes there are tonnes of cars lined up here! But today is not bad!!

Then we had to find a little trail down the embankment to the old railroad tracks.

No fear of getting hit by a train along here! This section of the line hasn't been used in decades!

Then we scrambled down another trail to the beach.

We are on the right track! Discarded empty shells line the trail!

And pretty Nootka Rose flowers!

Here's the beach! The best time to come is at super low tide... not just any low tide... super low tide... like 2 ft or less.

As we walked out towards the water, we started seeing little clams. We think this one might be a Butter Clam.

There's a clam airhole!! Some people start digging at these spots! You might find a Butter Clam down there!

And a little dead crab too!

That big, open one is definitely a butter clam.

When you dig here, you have to be careful not to disturb the sea grass... it's part of the habitat you know.

Lots of empty shells and then... we say it... a very weird thing sticking out of the sand...

You you see it??? It kind of looks like a clam but...

When we touched it and gave a tug... it was kind of rough and soft and it pulled back... It's a Geoduck! There's a clam at the end of this siphon, a very big clam.. with a very long siphon. I am not going to post a picture of the gooeyduck (that's how it's pronounced)... but look it up. They are quite the delicacy... we would have needed shovels and fast digging to dig this puppy out!

There are some people over there digging clams... let's go check it out...

They have small rakes and are picking these from the top 6 inches of the rocky sandy here... They are Manila clams...

Farther along, the sand gets even more rocky and there are tonnes of oysters.

We found a Dad and two kids picking oysters!

There sure are a lot here!

Do you like oysters and clams? Well then, this is the place. So many places along the coast suffer from "Red Tide" (algal blooms of dinoflagellates that accumulate in shellfish in the summer months and lead to Paralytic shellfish poisoning). But Nanoose Bay is "usually" toxin free!