Vancouver Island

Hello from EMILY!!

On Wednesday we headed to Vancouver Island, via the ferry, since swimming would take too long! We had a bit of confusion at the ferry terminal, not sure exactly which ferry to take, but we guessed right and took the ferry to Nanaimo. Jon picked us up from the terminal in Nanaimo and we took a nice coastal drive back to his and Heather´s place in Campbell River. The view was spectacular, though I did fall asleep for part of the ride. When we got to Campbell River there was a wood carving contest happening, which apparently happens every year at that time, so Caleb, Jon and I stopped to have a look at the carvings. After that we headed to Jon and Heather´s place. We were in awe at the the site. Hopefully Caleb will post some pictures. But for now I´ll just say that standing in Jon and Heather´s living room you can look out and see the pacific ocean, pretty cool when you consider I look out my living room window and see house upon house upon house...BORING!!!!

Anyway, that night we went out for dinner with Jon and Heather, and Fred, Tara and baby Jasmine. It took a long time to decide where to go, but we ended up at some Chinese restaurant that they were raving about. It was alright! Then we just chilled for the night with everyone. The following day we went to White Spot for lunch, as I had never been and Caleb has always talked about it. I ordered the same things as the guys, a double cheese burger, and I managed to eat more than Caleb, believe it or not! After this we headed to Elk Falls, a great site to see. Caleb managed to get some incredible pictures. It was a long steep walk down to the falls, and as you can imagine the walk back up took our breath away, literally! But it was certainly worth it. After this we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Spent some time online, figured out where we´re going to get married. Caleb did some work for his prof and then we got ready for another evening out to dinner with Jon and Heather and Fred. Tara couldn´t join because she was at a baby shower. We went to dinner at a really nice place in Courtenay, but neither of us can quite recall the name...After dinner we headed to Fred and Tara´s place and hung out there for a while until Tara got home with Jasmine. We got some really great pictures of Jasmine! I didn´t mention, but she was only 3 weeks old at that point.

The following day, our last day on the island, we spent fishing. That´s right, I went fishing! Before we went fishing though we headed to the pier for some good old fish and chips. We got link cod fish, it was VERY good! Then we took the ferry over to Quadra Island, which is where we went fishing. We fished at Homewood Camp, a camp owned by the family of one of Jon´s youth at church. We took out a couple of row boats (Caleb did the rowing in our boat, go figure) and enough fishing rods for each of us. It was a very hot day out on the water, and little did I know that fishing could be so exhausting. Unfortunately I didn´t catch any fish, though I did manage to get my line hooked on the floor of the ocean, at which point I thought I had caught a really big fish and got really scared. It was until I was told to move my line a bit that it released and I realized I actually hadn´t caught anything :( Caleb on the other hand managed to catch a few rock cod. After catching the first rock cod Jon noticed a eagle in the sky and smacked the fish to kill it, then released it back into the water. It floated and literally within a matter of seconds the eagle swooped down and picked up the fish. Meanwhile there was another eagle perched nearby and saw this happen, so that eagle came down and tried to grab the fish from the other eagle. It was quite the site to see. Unfortunately we don´t have pictures of all that happening, because it happened to fast to grab the camera out and capture it. The other catches that happened that day were by Jon and his friend. Jon caught a Link Cod, and it was pretty big, but he just released it back into the water. After this we headed back, as we needed to catch the ferry back to Vancouver Island.

After fishing it was time to head back to the mainland. Our ferry did not leave until 9:30 at night, so it happened to be quite a late night by the time we arrived back and Aunt Marie´s place. It was pretty cool taking the ferry back at night. Though we could not see as many great sights, we did manage to take a few fun pictures just as the ferry departed.

Our last couple days in Abottsford were spent with family. Saturday we spent the day with Omi, going for a walk on Mill Lake, which happens to be one of her favourite places to walk. Sunday we went for lunch with Uncle Lynford to Red Robin. Once again, another restaurant we don´t have in Ontario, so it was pretty special. Then that evening to end off a wonderful time in BC, Vanessa took us to Vancouver for all you can eat sushi, AND Bard on the Beach. This was a rendition of the Shakespear play Twelfth Night. It was outside in a tent and if you were sitting in the right spot (we weren´t) you could see the sun setting in the background. This was a great way to end our time in BC. We got back to Aunt Marie´s at around 11:00pm, and it was at this point that we started to pack for our departure the next morning. I think both of us got about 1.5 hours of sleep that night as we didn´t get to bed until 2:00am and had to be up by 4:00, and as you can imagine, it was challenging to sleep that night as we were a bit anxious about our upcoming travels.

Until next time...
Emily