Fry was (finally) neutered on Tuesday! I had to drop him off at the vet’s office in Nanaimo at 8:15am and pick him up around 3pm, so I had an entire day to spend off Gabriola with the car. I ran some errands (Value Village, obviously) but still had a pretty huge chunk of time left, so I decided to drive to Coombs and visit the market there. 36 minutes of highway driving north of Nanaimo, Coombs is a funny little tourist stop on the way to Port Alberni and Tofino.

The main square in “downtown” Coombs is filled with statues, which is bizarre but makes for some good family portraits I guess. There are a variety of shops with a real Western feel to them, and several thrift and antique stops.

There was a mini-golf course once upon a time, but now it sits in ruin. There also used to be a ferris wheel, but it is gone. It added a real creepy vibe to the roadside town.

They do have a great used bookstore though! It has a pretty decent science fiction selection, which is what I always look for 🙂

The best part, and really the only good thing that remains, is the market where there are goats on the roof. It was raining (YES!) so it was hard to get a good pic of the goats, but hey, they are goats on a roof I’m sure you can picture it.

They had 15lbs bags of pickling cucumbers that I totally bought for my friend and I to do a dill pickle marathon later this week.

The grocery store there has a great selection of items, but it was absolutely crawling with people and I had two huge sacks of cukes to carry so I did a quick visit then went back to the car.

This guy hangs out by the highway on the way back to Nanaimo. He’s huge.