Island Time

As promised, I've finally have some photos to add to this post. It took a while, Gin has them holed up at her place.

Had a really relaxing/lazy holiday on Vancouver Island a few weeks ago but it feels like years ago now. Work has been crazy and the rest from the holiday is already completely gone...sigh. But let me tell you about the holiday. This time our travels took us to a little cabin on Horne Lake (on Vancouver Island) for the week following BC Day (Aug 7 to 13, for those who are non-BCites). Although there were a number of comings and goings at various different times, the holiday crowd consisted of Ginny, Beth, Cindy and myself, with Gladys (Beth's mom) and Heather (Beth's mom's friend) who had planned a few days of hiking further up the island and spent only a brief time with us. The cabin belongs to some friends of Beth's mom's. It was really cute and just a little bit rustic, but had hot running water, loungy couches/lawn chairs, a BBQ, comfy beds, a little deck, and an awesome little red canoe!

The first few days we were there was purely lounging about, doing absolutely nothing but reading, eating, listening to tunes, eating and reading and a bit of sleeping. It was absolutely lovely! Once we'd gotten some lounging under our belts, we thought it best to venture away from the cabin and do some exploring by canoe. Had a bit of a mishap with the canoe gunnel on top of Beth's foot, but nothing too bad to dampen our spirits.

Did a bit of a paddle into the little bay to check out the stop sign and then decided to paddle over to the little island to spend the rest of the day. More reading and eating commenced when we got to the island, but Beth and I added some swimming to our routine...we couldn't convince Gin to jump in...she thought it was a bit too "refreshing". While we were on the island we also had a visitor on a jet ski interrupt our tranquil beach time...how annoying. He turned out to be missing a few bricks, not to mention his drunken stupor. We had a hard time shaking him, but eventually, through not so subtle hints (like us packing up and leaving) he went home. The next day we had to pick up Cindy from the ferry in Nanimo so we spent the day gallivanting around in Roxy (Beth's car) getting lost and finding our way again and then ending up in Courtney, where Gin spent a bunch of money in their lovely shops and we had a nice late lunch at a really yummy restaurant. We then ran the gauntlet at the ferry terminal, picked up an ice cream cake for Beth's birthday and proceeded back to the cabin for birthday festivities. Camp fire, smores, ice cream cake and champagne.

Good times! My last day before Cindy and I headed home with Gladys and Heather was spent with the girls hanging on the island again...reading, eating, swimming. It was a shame to head home, particularly because Gin and Beth were staying a few extra days, but home we headed. It's also a bit of a shame that we were so lazy, otherwise we may have gotten off the lounge chairs to explore a few of the famous caves in the area...but at least now we've got an excuse to go back next year...right?!