The Rest of Our Victoria Trip

We’re back in Calgary now, after a two-day return journey. Now I need to catch up on all of the happenings between the Tour de Victoria and the Pender Island visit, as well as the trip home.

We spent a lot of time with Dad, Stephanie and the kids over the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The time was relaxing for the most part, with lots of time spent sitting and yakking in Stephanie’s newly-carpeted back yard,  😉 We got to meet her new boyfriend, Tristan, who was fun to be around, and has a great dog, Harley.

The kids got to sleep over in tents in Stephanie’s back yard on Monday and Tuesday night, as well as play lots of games, indoors and out.

We took the time to walk to the playground a couple of times, and to Glen Lake once. Tammy and I walked to the White Spot for lunch once as well. On Wednesday, we played a round of mini golf at Glow Mini Golf, which was fun. Ian did well on the more straightforward putts, showing what he learned at his golf camp this summer.

We did manage to fit in a couple other visits. Sunday afternoon, after the Tour, we were going to go see Chris and Chantel, but they waved it off at the last minute, mostly due to chaos following Savannah’s birthday party/sleepover the night before. So we got to have a bit of a walk along the Gorge, some take-and-bake pizza in our motel room, then went to visit with Jackson and Michelle in the evening.

That was a good laugh. Not quite so humorous was our visit with Sharon on Monday evening. After the kids were set up for their tent sleepover, we met with Sharon at the Four Mile Pub. She used to work with Tammy at Pacific Gateway, and she and her husband Brian had been friends of ours. They had split up earlier this year, and we got a chance to hear the story of what had happened. She and her daughter Lucy are doing as well as could be expected, and it was a good visit.

Before we knew it, it was Wednesday evening, and it was time to say goodbyes. Dad treated everyone to dinner at Jasmine’s, and later that evening we toasted marshmallows in Stephanie’s back yard.

The visit was bittersweet. It was great to see everybody, and we did have fun, but with Mom passing only two months ago, it’s fair to say that my mind was constantly in a state of: “this is great, wish Mom was here.”

We brought home Mom’s fancy Husqvarna sewing machine with us. We’ll have to see what Tammy makes with that.

So, the Pender Island visit was covered elsewhere… it was time to leave there too after a couple of sunny, hot days. We took the ferry from Pender to Tsawwassen for the first time, with a stop on Saturna Island, and a transfer on Mayne Island. We took the Mayne Queen for the first leg.

From Mayne Island we were on the Queen of Nanaimo, which was a nice throwback to the ferry rides of my childhood. The QoN is a 1964 boat, and unlike the Queen of New Westminster, was never expanded to have a second vehicle deck. The kids and Tammy liked it, especially the tons of deck space compared to the modern Spirit and Celebration classes.

We landed in Tsawwassen at 12:05, which meant there was no realistic chance for us to make it back to Calgary in one day. So we had made plans to stop in at Abbotsford to visit Peggy and Al and overnight in Kamloops and visit with Naomi.

Our visit with Al & Peggy was short, but fun. They plied us with watermelon and cinnamon buns. We were outside for a bit, but a wasp was making a nuisance of itself and we moved indoors.

Afterwards, Al showed the kids his cars, and wanted to get pictures of them at the wheel.

Then Al took the kids for quick rides around the cul-de-sac.

Then we were off again, and heading to Kamloops. The trip started under skies which were overcast, but everything stayed dry until we were past Merritt. Then the skies opened up, and it got scary. We couldn’t see even with the wipers on full, and at one point we hydroplaned. We were a bit frazzled when we reached Kamloops, but we checked into the hotel, then immediately headed to Naomi’s house.

The street was having their annual block party, but the weather had dampened the event. We visited indoors with Naomi and Shelley, while the kids played Halo 4 downstairs with Nick (who is Miranda’s age). Zander kept to his room for the most part, and Kerry and Doug were outside for the first hour or so, then came in and joined us. Naomi had made a caramel-chip chocolate cheesecake, and it was delicious. Again, the visit was good, but bittersweet, with the recent loss of Mom (she and Shelley were very close, and at one point Shelley was in tears) as well as Uncle Doug’s passing in March.

I took a picture of Naomi and one of Shelley, but I’ll be darned if I can find them. 😡

Updated – I found them!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express for the night, and were off the next morning for home. We stopped in Revelstoke to get some drinks and use the washroom at McDonald’s, and stopped for lunch at Boston Pizza in Golden. The clouds were low all day, but the weather was dry for the most part. There was one really neat view in Rogers Pass that I got a picture of:

I thought it was very evocative.

Tammy and I listened to podcasts along the way: The Incomparable #288 and #289 (Desert Island album draft), Unjustly Maligned #43 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and The Incomparable #283, a look back at David Bowie (so many deaths this year). Miranda listened to a lot of music, and Ian watched a bunch of movies.

We are all really happy to be home again. Here’s our parting image of the trip: Ian really excited to be wearing the cardboard hockey helmet that came with his kids’ meal at Boston Pizza.

Some additional notes, after having slept:

• It was our 19th anniversary on Saturday, and while we didn’t do anything in particular to celebrate (for obvious reasons), we did get to spend the whole day together and we did retrace part of our 1997 journey home: after we got married, we drove back to Prince George the next day via Kamloops and highway 5.
• The relaxation on the trip was good; now we need to extend it into our regular lives as much as we can. Need some more of the Pender Island lifestyle. 🙂
• The cats are now back home. Apparently Nochie didn’t eat much for the first days there, but then tried to eat everything after that. Squeak was apparently quite social and came out for “play time” with the other cats.
• When we went over to Stephanie’s for the first time, the kids initially were reluctant to start playing. It has been a year, and apparently Zachary was somewhat intimidated by how much Miranda has grown up. She is taller than he is now, and she’s developing into a young lady.
• We had a nice start to our anniversary day: we were up and ready to go not much after 7:00, but weren’t supposed to be at the Plantation to get the kids and final packing until about 7:50. So Tammy and I went for a walk up and down Bosun Way.