Monday, July 10, 2006

Mainland State of Mind

The Island was even better than I was expecting. We got there Tuesday and dropped stuff off at my Nana and Papa's place and then headed into Nanaimo for dinner. Mmm Greek. The sunset that night at the beach was the best one of the vacation (the rest were wonderful but cloudy). My Papa was very cute and waited up until we got home, but I told him how unnecessary that was and assured him that we wouldn't get stolen by the bad guys if he went to bed.

Wednesday we headed out to Chemainus only to find that the Twisted Sisters Tea House was closed for the day. Instead, it was relaxing to sit by the ocean and take a couple self-portraits. On the way back we grabbed a bite at Timmy Ho's in Nanaimo and then walked along the harbour. It was a beautiful sunny day and I even got a bit of a burn.

We took my grandparents out for dinner that night. My Papa insisted on driving and I forgot to warn Mike about his driving (my Dad and Uncle refuse to let him drive when they are with him). Mike was sitting in the front seat and my Papa was pointing something out to him while we catapulted towards another car stopped at a red light. I wasn't sure how to navigate that one from the backseat, where I was entertaining my hard-of-hearing Nana, but Mike handled it alright. After dinner they took us on a little drive and it took forever to get back to the house. After all that I informed Mike that he might possibly be a saint. That night we had wine on the beach and we knew we had earned it.

Thursday was an impromptu 2 hour drive to Tofino which turns out to be a lack-luster shanty town. Long Beach, on the other hand, was spectacular. It's huge! And the sand can hold it's own against Australia's. We found a starfish and walked the beach for an hour. The water was pretty cold but that didn't stop the surfers. On the way back we stopped at Cathdral Grove, an old-growth forest. Mike figured out how to work his camera's timer and we took pictures with an 800 year old tree! I felt like such a nerd because I got way too excited about these trees, but I've waited awhile to experience and remember Long Beach and Cathedral Grove (the trip when I was 18 months old is fuzzy...actually non-existant in my memory bank). After all that driving we had another well-deserved bottle of wine on the beach.

Friday was our last day and after we packed up, ate some breakfast, and said by to my Nana and Papa we were off to Victoria before hopping on the ferry. Victoria was very pretty. We saw the Parliament Buildings and they were pretty impressive (again, it's been a while since I've seen them and I didn't really remember them). I ended up bailing off a sidewalk right infront of Parliament. I rolled my right ankle and I have a sweet bruise on my left shin with a little side of road rash. Luckily the Aura of Safety kept me from riding my face on the sidewalk. Later, I purchased a Sigmund Freud action figure in this fabulous store. I felt the Freud bobble head might have been taking it too far.

Then it was on the ferry for the ride home. After seeing the 11:20pm show of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and arriving home at 2:30am it was sheer bliss to fall into my own bed. I love vacation like nobody's business, but there is no place like home. Insert ruby red heel click here.

3 Comments:

Blogger heather said...

glad you had a good trip, and glad to have you back :)

1:32 p.m., July 11, 2006  
Blogger Sylvia said...

sounds like you had a good time!
glad to hear you got up to tofino. i love that place. nothing excites me as much as old growth forest.

8:59 p.m., July 12, 2006  
Blogger Magnificent M said...

sounds like a great trip! Glad you are relaxing and getting some down time! You've earned it after working so hard :-)

1:36 a.m., July 14, 2006  

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