Spring Dreams

Leaving the Sunshine Coast required us to leave the snow behind. Well, we did it, and I’m hoping to have that be the end of winter. Down in Pt. Roberts, it’s definitely more like spring than winter, but not a lot more. There are alpine primroses blooming in the garden and purple and yellow crocuses just starting to open. The daffodils have big buds. All the bushes are showing green buds and the hydrangeas actually have a few leaves out here and there. (Our house is in a primarily shady area because surrounded by tall trees, so it would be even more marked in the sunnier areas.) The community flower beds on the main street, Tyee, are showing little colored crocuses, though they are mostly pale lavender so not very showy.

This morning, the owners of undeveloped acreage several hundred yards from us decided that their property had way too many trees on it and brought in the machines to get rid of all those undesired trees. About a year ago, when the water situation was dire, the owner of the property put in a well as part of some kind of development plans, so I guess his plans are continuing, financial disaster all around us or not. He has hopes, I guess.

The local paper tells us that there are giant plans afoot to turn The Cannery into a Wickeninnish type of resort. The Cannery is over on the west side, on ocean-front property. The owner of that piece built it some 20 years or so ago with plans for it to become a wonderful Point Roberts institution. It had a restaurant and a bar and a dance place, as I understand it (this was before our time here). However, The Cannery has been dead empty for all the 14, 15 years we’ve been here, so I have assumed it to be another case of dreams going to die. It's not an abandoned house, but it's at least an abandoned dream. (The photo above of The Cannery was taken last summer.)

New dreams now arising there, though, with a hotel, spa, bakery, restaurant, and organic garden all planned. It depends, first of all, on getting various kinds of zoning cleared up with the county (never an easy task), and second on attracting a clientele. There’s this great conviction that there are rich people who would are just longing to come to Point Roberts if only there were someplace for them to stay once they got here.

I’m dubious about this, largely because Pt. Roberts isn’t dramatic enough for rich people. Too small, too confined, too ordinary, in a sense. The Wickeninnish Inn is located on the west/ocean side of Vancouver Island, in an old and established area. The area is dramatic. The hotel is built on the rocks of the beach, and the storms from the ocean bring these crashing waves right up to rooms. The waves whip up dramatically for your entertainment. When the storms stop, you can walk for miles down a gorgeous, long, flat beach with ocean forever around you. And there’s a lovely little town with all kinds of native art and other little shops: it’s like Carmel, kind of. By contrast, here in Point Roberts, we don’t have those kind of storms because we’re not facing the open ocean, we've got a narrow, flat, short beach, and the view from The Cannery is of a lot of islands, of the marina to the south and of the B.C. Ferry terminal to the north. It doesn’t feel wild, dramatic, historic, or romantic in the way that Tofino does. And the town is pretty minimal.

But, people will have dreams. And good luck with them. I hope that the people with dreams also have financing. One does wonder whether the smart money is putting its money on developing fancy resorts right now. That Saudi Prince who sank $20 billion (or something like that) in Citigroup last fall might be wanting a cool and rainy spot to put up his feet and think about his losses. And he’s probably still got a few billion around looking for a home.