The Village of Alert Bay

This is by no means an exhaustive representation of the amenities in Alert Bay. There's everything you need and the view is free. The main street of the village has most of the commerce:

The ShopRite has the only grocery store on the island (when we first started coming here there were also two others; the Blue Line and Island Foods). It also has a deli and coffee shop in the back.

The Rona Hardware store is on the second story of the same building. If they don't have what you need they can order it or you can pay for the ferry crossing (not cheap) to Port McNiell which might not have it either.

This is the other mainstay of the island, the drug store and pharmacy. You can also rent a bicycle, have your hair done at the Looking Good Salon or get some exercise at the Feeling Better Gym. There's a gift shop at the very end but it's hard to tell if it's open right now. It was two years ago. Now there's a sign in the window with a number to call to if you want to look around.

The Pass N Thyme is the upscale restaurant in town. They also have B&B type guest rooms.

The lower floor used to be a little convenience store but is now a carving studio. Don't know much about the studio yet.

The Bayside Inn was owned by a Chinese family when we first started coming here. It's now owned by an East Indian. The hotel isn't functioning but the restaurant is and the pub is the only one in town at the moment. We haven't been down for a beer yet. The pub also sells beer and wine. This is relatively new. You had to buy all spirits at liquor stores owned by the province until a few years ago. The BC Liquor store is still here, too, right next to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Station and the Post Office.

I haven't quite figured out the formatting for these dang blog things so my pictures are out of order. This is the main street of the village, Fir Street, coming from our end of the street. The building with the tower houses the Information Center, the public library and The Loft, an art gallery. Aside from carving there's always a lot of really good photography and paintings.

The Cook Shack is new this time around. It's in a part of the old Island Foods building. They have a bakery and serve burgers and fish and chips. The baked goods we've had from there have been really good. Something different every day. The Piña Colada muffin was . . . I'm still trying to come up with an appropriate adjective. That's how good it was. We bought Bannock today. It's a version of Fry Bread but much denser and a little sweet. Apparently it's a North American aboriginal staple.

Bannock