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Chemainus: Named after the native shaman and prophet Tsa-meeun-is, which means "Broken Chest" or "bitten breast"(Hulquminum language), a reference to the bitemarks possible during a shamanic frenzy, which the local horseshoe-shaped bay is thought to have resembled.
This little gem shone for the day we were there. Bright sun cool breeze and friendly people.
As I stood outside the postoffice a dear lady stopped to chat with me. She was a volunteer who was part of the Chemainus welcoming committee and she was a wealth of information, most importantly - where was the best cafe in town? As we chatted a man stopped to ask Sholeh if we needed help. When he discovered we wanted to look at the murals he informed us that he was involved in organising the Post Office mural and told us how the artist had painted himself into it and some of the historical facts about the mural including how a car ran into the mural several years back and showed us the repair.
We walked down to the Owl cafe with our new friend Terri. It was a cute place that catered for Gluten Free and had all types of things that were dairy free as well, unusual for such a small place. We sat in the narrow lane that had been improved with plants, art work and tables. It was quite charming sitting outside just enjoying life.
The horse and buggy ride was recommended to us because it went by every one of the 40 something murals (see muraltown.com for information on them all) and the driver gave a running commentary of the town and each mural. We had a delightful 50 minutes seeing the town at a leisurely pace, hearing lots of anecdotes and stories, it was well worth it. We had a quick visit to the well stocked Tourist Information Bureau, then the little country museum before we needed more... you guessed it, FOOD!
We wandered here, we wandered there till we were like to drop, then we found the ice cream parlour that was also a pirate shop!! We sat and had ice cream and delicious drip filtered coffee, then it was time to go back to Nanaimo. We took one last drive around admiring the elegant houses before saying our last goodbyes to this charming place.
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Joy Bev, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your travel blog, especially the Vancouver Island entries and pictures. Safe travels hummingbird!