Living Forest RV Park Nanaimo – Sept 11-14, 2012
Fall is in the air – but the weather is still nice, so let's go again camping, but how about a hook up since we have a motorhome: then we know if all is working as it should and we have it warm in the night (and let’s not forget Paul has TV and internet)

 An Ocean view campsite One thing is for sure this is one cool spot… you sit and overlook the ocean and can even see the ferries coming – we enjoyed it a lot... But then when we knew we will come, Paul called ahead to make sure we have an ocean view site.

 Walk around the RV Park
Even it’s an RV park, there is a nice walk to a little viewing platform in case you want to watch the birds, and even we were more to come to see the area…
And then also it’s fun to discover the "permanent" RV’s as well as the different spots and views, a cool place.

 Some old Art-work?
Also we walk and explore that cool little park (?) – So we walk and there is that big round rusty double wheel…. As well as some other rusty hooks. And we enjoy the sunset – the tides – the sunshine when sitting outside and in the evening we enjoy the luxury of a TV (I think Paul doesn’t know what camping means!!)  

 Biking to the Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park
So Gine saw once a picture and decided we have to see that: because it has an old mill tipple, which was built around 1900. The coal mine opened in 1912.
It was a cute bike ride there, we even came by a nice bridge and through some nice neighbourhoods and then had a lot of fun exploring the area: looking at the old concrete structure from all sides and found a nice “gate”.

 Biking to Downtown Nanaimo
Since it’s close by, we decide to explore the waterfront and downtown of Nanaimo… and the first thing you do in a city is go shopping: so we stopped at a bicycle store and got a bicycle basket for Gine’s bike… so now the camera has a spot when we are biking.

 Piper Park
Now this is one cool little park if you like funk little art pieces – and then we came by the Military museum (which is closed) but we admired the outdoor picture gallery and, from there we went towards the past and admired some “modern” petroglyphs

 Along the Waterfront
And then it’s time to go to the waterfront and we discover we love it here. Not only do they have a real long sea walks – but supercool condos overlooking the water (Paul would love to live in one of those), staircases looking like from a sailboat which gives us an excellent view onto the harbour, lots of stores and parks – lots of people to watch, so from one park to the next park… over bridges and with stops on benches: where we end up in the Spirit Square and Paul needs a little relax time. And did I mention all that cool Artwork around here. One thing for sure: Paul felt in love with Nanaimo.

 A stop at the Petroglyph Park
On the way home we had to explore one more historic site (I don’t think Paul was totally impressed) this time to look at some real petroglyphs. First they are difficult to see since they are washed out and then again it’s real fancy: one could be a mix of a deer and a bird? Mystical creatures? A sea creature with a wolf’s head. If I wouldn’t know that they are there, sometimes I would miss them.