After a particularly dismal, snowy, depressing winter, a quick trip down Island to Sidney, British Columbia was in order the other weekend to blast off some of the cobwebs and get rid of the winter blues.  

Traveling down the Island highway is a thing of beauty until you get to the bumper to bumper traffic of Duncan. Then it’s traffic-traffic-traffic until you get to the base of the Malahat.  Better known as the Malahat 500. This stretch of road goes up and over a stretch of the Vancouver Island Mountain range with some amazing twists and turns and gorgeous vistas that would lovely to see – if the rest of the traffic (cars, trucks, transport trucks, road debris) weren’t trying to hard to kill you.  Although the legal posted speed is 80kmh (90 in some spots), if you go 80, chances are you will have people climbing your tailpipe the whole way. Regardless of how fast you go, there will always be someone going faster. 

Anyways – I digress (I think I was secretly traumatized) – and I was in a car.  

Arriving in Sidney was interesting.  A quaint place with an older charm and a slower pace. Even though the Friday was a bit overcast, the waterfront walkway following the shoreline was a sight to behold. 

While walking on the waterfront we stumbled across distillery. I’d heard that there was one down in the Victoria area, so we wandered in to take a look. Upon entering we found a wonderful little place and – fortuitous for us- discovered we were in time for a tour of the facilities 

After a night in a hotel with a wonderful meal , we headed back home again. Sidney is a gorgeous place. And a perfect little get away for an overnighter