Haha...! The kids got out of school the second week of March and they go back this week (Thursday for Lukey and Friday for Finny...Molly starts online UVic tomorrow). That is a nice nearly six month break. The longest spring break ever.
But it doesn't matter how much time you get on your "break", you want more. The kids are all looking forward to school, but it still lamenting "going back". I don't know how long it would have to before they were really psyched. I hope we don't find out...haha (450+ Covid cases this last weekend mean numbers are going up, so I really hope we don't go back).
So, in the interest of getting the last squeeze out of summer, we headed to Vancouver Island. I booked an AirBnB at a condo on Yellow Point (just a bit outside of Ladysmith). I spent a bunch of time trolling last minute sites and short term rental sites trying to find something good. When I spotted this one, I jumped on it.
What didn't I think about? Ferries. In the Summer of BC, ferries reservations are like Gold and the Rush is ON. I looked and all the reservations from Duke Point were looooooong gone. I scrounged around and found a Monday reservation (I even went on Craigslist) from Departure Bay. Nothing for Friday.
Nothing for Friday of the last long weekend of the summer (with a stellar weather forecast)? Hmmmm. Two choices: take three meals, a couple of books, some chairs and your toothbrush because you will be at the ferry terminal ALL day OR wake up at the crack of dawn. Nope, BEFORE the crack of dawn and cross your fingers.
So that's what we did. Here's us waiting in line and watching the sun rise:
We watched a whole movie before we got on the ferry. That's how early we were.
Molly was pretty excited to be getting away (there were some bad outtakes from this picture). Eric and Finny stayed in town (Eric: meeting Finny: private lessons). They walked on a ferry later in the day.
We were at Rathtrevor Beach by 9:30. There are a lot of hours in the day when you get up that early.
Molly and I did some beach exploring while Lukey got in his beauty sleep:
We held a bit of a contest. Molly and I each had four minutes to complete something out of beach items. Lukey was the judge. I played strategically and banked on judge flattery. I came in under time with this masterpiece:
Molly went all artistic and ambitious. I think this image speaks for itself:
Wait, it doesn't? You mean you can't tell what it is? It's mermaids. Huh? You still don't see it? Neither did we. But she was proud enough that she wanted a picture with it...
We hit up Parksville (cute stores, actually), including an excellent used bookstore (two books for Molly, one for me).
Then we went to visit the goats on the roof in Coombs.
Meanwhile, Finny and Eric were on their way:
THE fashion item of Summer 2020: masks
We dropped Lukey off at the condo to watch the Canucks game (September hockey playoffs...thank you Covid) and we went to pick up the others.
We had a lazy morning on Saturday, reading and working a bit. We explored the condo property, the kids went for a swim and poked around the tide pools.
We drove to Yellow Point Lodge (gorgeous...must go back!), Ladysmith, Chemanius. Got dinner and headed back to watch some Breaking Bad and relax.
Sunday morning we decided to get an early start and head to Long Beach for the day. A long drive, but it was a beautiful day.
Three hours later, we got to the west coast. To total fog and a fifteen degree temperature drop. The kids were mystified why we would have traveled all that way to sit in a cloud. The next bay over...different story. Sunshine and warm again.
We hung out at Pacific Sands, where the Urbans were staying. They were offshore fishing. We were onshore hammocking :)
Dinner was Tacofino (a full hour wait) and a quick drive around Tofino before heading back to the Urbans to take a sunset walk out to the closest rocky point.
We got home late but feeling like the drive was well worth it.
Up in the morning to pack up and sad to see the summer go.
We took a last walk around Piper Lagoon park (also really cool).
And we thanked our lucky stars that we took that lone reservation. There were three and four ferry waits. But we drove right on to the ferry and got home in no time.
It was a great last weekend. Good weather. The best company. And a very nice way to wrap up the longest spring break in the history of the world.
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