Trip to Sunshine Coast, Gibsons and Sechelt

Last hurrah for summer! We wanted to go on another trip close by, and since K had not even been on the ferry before, we decided to make a trip to the Sunshine Coast, since it’s so close and easy to get to! It’s a 40 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay.

I would definitely recommend checking the ferry availability before booking your place, especially in the weekends during the summer months. We booked our Airbnb awhile back, but we procrastinated in booking our ferry ride. Thank God C kept checking the ferry website and we were able to book our reservation, because the line-ups were crazy long for the ferry ride.

Before we headed to the terminal, we made a pit stop at Ambleside Beach, cause, why not? We went there on the way to Squamish in our last trip and loved it! Then, we had an early lunch at Wooden Fish, a Vietnamese Restaurant in West Vancouver which was pretty good! C liked the salad rolls because it was a nice change, and the pho was pretty decent too.

We arrived at the ferry terminal about an hour prior to our reservation at 2:20, then we were loaded and finally left around 2:40. Chase conveniently fell asleep while we were waiting to be loaded, and was awake by the time we were in the ferry, so we got to walk around and check out the lounge and upper deck. Everyone was required to wear a mask, and half the seating was gated off and closed for social distancing.

Our Airbnb was in Gibsons and was just a 5-min drive from the terminal, so it was super accessible. The first day the skies were clear and the sun was high up in the air, a gorgeous day! We had more haze from the forest fires the next couple of days. Definitely loved our Airbnb - it had a spacious patio, BBQ, private beach access, and tons of natural light windows. Chase definitely loved spending time in our little home for the weekend! He had so much fun sitting in the patio, watching the waves crash into the beach, eating grapes and watching the sunset.

For dinner, we wanted to go to Smitty’s Oysters but they were too busy even though we came a bit early, and I had tried calling them all week for a reservation, but they were too busy to pick up the phone. So, we went to Buono Osteria instead. Delicious Italian restaurant, we had the Duck Confit pizza (a special that evening) which was a nice highlight. We also had the meatballs, Cacio de Peppe and the Sunday Sauce pasta. The meatball and Sunday sauce was kinda similar and a bit too spicy for Chase, but he loved eating the pizza and cacio pasta!

Chase decided to have a slumber party the first night, so we slept in a bit. We woke up to a beautiful, hazy morning. The tide was out so we could see more of the beach, so, so stunning. I had some pumpkin spice latte in the patio and enjoyed this gorgeous view.

Then, we headed to Half Moon Bay to check out the Smuggler Cove. Flo, our neighbor, recommended this beautiful place to us, so we wanted to check it out, too! It was about a 40 minute drive from Gibsons. The hike itself is about 4km roundtrip, and about half of it is constructed, so it’s a fairly easy hike! Lots of things to see through the hike and lots of wildlife spotted as well - from slugs to beetles to birds and ducks… we must have stopped at each one to check them out.

Somewhere in the middle of the hike, there was this spot that had lots of rocks, and C and Chase had so much fun flipping the rocks and finding “treasure” which are these little crabs and sea creatures running for their lives. There were also tons of oysters, mussels at every corner. It was so cool! I had never really seen oysters and mussels “out in the wild” like this, and so it was really quite amusing. Some of the oysters were as big as my hand!

Then finally we reached the Smuggler Cove itself, which was so breathtaking! It was a pretty hazy morning so the waters weren’t as blue, but it was still a stunning view. Since it was the morning, the waters were low, so we could easily hop from one spot to the other. I’m sure when the tide comes in later, you wouldn’t be able to access some of the spots we were on. So, I definitely recommend going in early. All Chase cared about at this point was eating his snack and watching the view, lol!

Then we headed back for lunch! Finally we got to try Smitty’s Oyster House, because we got to make a reservation at 12 noon. Had delicious oysters which we haven’t had in so long. The food was good but definitely the service was a bit slow, considering we had a toddler with us. Everything feels slower when you are hangry! Haha! Def recommend the oysters, breaded oyster sandwiches and the broiled ones as well.

In the afternoon, we lazed around the house and the patio. While Chase loves the outdoors, this time around he seemed pretty homebody just wanted to hang out and play with us at home. C and I made the trek to IGA again to pick up some food for BBQ and s’mores.

Chase loved his first s’more experience! Can’t tell if he liked the graham cracker better or the marshmallow bit. Def not the chocolate. This little dude doesn’t like chocolate for some reason.

The next morning, we had a simple breakfast and played around the beachfront for a bit. Found some crabs and interesting sea creatures. Then, we went to Roberts Creek to the Cliff Gilker Park. It’s a short trail/hike to the falls, which was beautiful. Wish we could’ve stayed longer to enjoy this beautiful park!

Then, we went to grab some lunch before we headed back. Our ferry was at 1PM, so we needed to be there by 12noon. Molly’s Reach was so busy so we picked up some sandwiches from Black Bean Cafe, and ate by the Gibsons pier area. Then, we headed to the ferry terminal. The Langdale terminal is so small so there’s not much at all, so if you are heading to the ferry, we would highly recommend eating before or getting takeout food so that you won’t be hungry on the ferry if it’s around mealtime. C got Chase a BC ferry boat to commemorate this trip. Chase loved it because he could load the cars in and out like a car transporter.

In 40 minutes, we arrived back into Horseshoe Bay. We usually time our driving around Chase’s nap time, so even though Chase said “no nap nap!” when we said it’s time to nap, he fell asleep in two mins… holding all of his cars.

That concludes our little trip to Sunshine Coast!

Love,

K