Vacation Tips for Parksville/Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

We just got back from another great week on Vancouver Island.  We zip over the border, catch a ferry in Tsawwassen, gaze at the beautiful scenery as we cross over to Nanaimo, drive 45 minutes north and enjoy the aptly named city of Parksville.  The first thing we did was drive to French Creek Seafood where we bough fresh salmon, oysters, clams, and scallops.  It's a bit tricksy to find, but worth it if you are ever vacationing in the area.

We enjoyed Kids Fest, a day of Child-Centered activities at the impressive Parksville Community Park.  There's a water-park, a fully tricked out play-ground (zip line even!), a boardwalk, a terrific sandy beach, a skateboard park, and more.  Will Stroet and the Backyard Band kept the kids and the adults entertained with his silly songs and easy manner.  Chickadee transformed into a superhero before our very eyes.

On an other day we drove to Nanaimo (20 minutes) where we took a ferry to Newcastle Island for a day of biking and strolling.  We rented bikes there and had a beautiful ride along pine-needle trails with a view of the seashore.  My kids have never seen me ride a bike.  They kept telling me how its done.  Somehow the bikes didn't make it into the pictures.  Here we are at resting point.

We spent a very nice afternoon at the Milner Gardens where we enjoyed a woodland stroll, a nice gift-shop, an lovely tea shop with scones and devon cream, and a beautiful view of the ocean. I doubt if the gardeners are too thrilled about the deer in the gardens, but we thought this little fawn was darling.

We also had a lovely time at the Little Qualicum Cheeseworks which featured a petting zoo, cheese samples, wine samples, gift shop, ice cream.

We enjoyed Miniature Golf at Riptide Lagoon where Chickadee got two hole-in-ones.  There are two miniature golf centers in Nanaimo.  Both are enjoyable.

And, as we do every year, we visited the Old Country Market aka "Goats on the Roof": import shop, food market for foodies, bakery, deli, cafe, ice cream, and goats.  The goats stroll about on the roof above you as you eat.

New finds this year include:
Springford Farms where we could have bought organic produce, eggs, beef, and chicken if we had found it earlier. 
Bread and Honey: a new lunch stop.  Freshly baked bread, sandwiches, cookies, really yummy soup.  Very friendly proprietresses. 

Note to Self: Next year we want to make sure that we visit Little Qualicum Falls and the Historical Museum.

Birthday Pictures

We had birthday breakfast, complete with German Chocolate cake. (Check out that foam on the latte in the lower right.) Then Jamie started to unwrap his one and only present. 

 
U2 tickets. He had lusted after them but had talked himself out of it in a gallant effort to be thrifty. I bought them months and months ago and had to wait to give them. Such fun.

Then we packed it up and went to the islands for the day.

vacation pictures

We rode the ferry.

We had a beautiful place to stay.

We had kayaks.

We had a water-park.

We had miniature golf (and I got 4 hole-in-ones!).

We had fun.

vacation news

Oh we hare having such a nice vacation. We kayak daily and see seals and herons and dolphins and starfish and kelp and crabs and jellyfish. We swim a lot. We play in playgrounds and waterparks. We sleep well. We wish some of you were here with us.

5 minute update

How much can I post about in 5 minutes?

• 5 of the 6 hens are laying.
• I've been quite sick all summer and we are all fed up with it -- bronchitis, ear infections, tummy flu, bad colds, whatever comes along I catch. On steroids and antibiotics now and hoping to get to have a life.
  
• Gardens are over-producing -- this would be a good thing if I had any energy for canning and freezing.
• Going to our county fair on Friday with my folks.
• Looking forward to a couple of weeks at Pacific Shores in September.
• Really really love Quicken's Medical Expense tracking software. We've toted up nearly 50,000 of expenses and this program has helped me sort out what the insurance company should pay and what we owe and what we can submit to our Medical Savings Account for reimbursement. If you have a medically complicated year, you need this software.
• I am teaching face-to-face all three quarters next academic year. This should be interesting.
  

oops, time's up.

Pacific Shores Nature Resort

Oh how we love this place. We get up. We make coffee. We walk 12 steps out of our patio door and see this.

And this.

Then we sit on the beach and take pictures of the children scampering up and down the rocks.



Then we go swimming. It's a pretty good life.

take me out to the ballgame

My Gift works for a pretty cool company. On Sunday they took us to a Mariner's game, via the train. We had a fun train-ride and then a nice stroll to the ballpark where we ate hot dogs and sang patriotic songs and had a great time during all 15 innings. Final score: 1:2 in favor of the Detroit Tigers.

New Mexico

Last month, My Gift and Dandy got to go to a family reunion in New Mexico where Dandy got some pottery wheel lessons from his Great-Uncle Fred.

Kuparuk, North Slope

Sometime this month My Gift is flying to the top of the world to do some inspections at the drillings on the North Slope.

It's 24-hour day there and 50-60 degrees. I'm very happy that he is going now, and not mid-winter when it is 24-hour dark and quite cold.

Maybe he will see one of these:



Here is a link to Kuparuk pics.