Coastal Tour

I’ve been following the sun all around this side of my beautiful country. This past week I’ve been on a coastal tour. I left from Victoria and headed to the mainland to visit a friend in Burnaby for the weekend. We managed to squeeze in a tour of the Capilano Suspension Bridge. There were several hikes in the forest once you crossed the swaying bridge, most suspended up in the trees on swaying boardwalks. The shade was welcome relief in the hot summer sun. There were lots of tourists, most of them foreign, in very large extended family groups it seems. They clamour to take a few dozen photographs of them all in a few dozen different configurations…let’s move grandma and uncle over there, and now wait for auntie, she’s still over by the bathroom, and where is your brother? Tell him to hurry up and get in the picture…and on it goes…sometimes you just have to jump in front of whichever landmark we’re vying for space in front of and snap away, while they sort things out…







I spent a few hours poolside in Burnaby as well, and played more than my share of Wii and pinball. My friend D. has her own pinball machine, several actually, and one of them is in her apartment. It was very cool, unlimited play of course, and what a trip down memory lane. D. and I used to play pinball at the Tilt in Stephenville oh so many years ago in the early eighties during high school. Now we were playing pinball on the opposite end of the country, over 25 years later. Cool. It was good to see my friend D. again. We’ve both lost someone close to us in the past year, and had spent many phonecalls and chat sessions supporting each other through the gradual but steady decline of a cancerous death of a loved one, and picking up the pieces afterwards, and making sense of it all, if any is to be made. We’re going to go to Joshua Tree Park in California where her friend’s ashes are resting. I’ve never been, and wanted to go with D. as it was a favourite place she shared with her friend for many years.






I left Burnaby on Sunday and headed north to Horseshoe Bay to catch a ferry to Langdale/Gibsons where an old friend of mine lives. She and I met in Waterloo when her husband and I attended university. She and I both worked for the university part-time at the campus residence for families. My daughter used to babysit her girls, and now they’ve both grown into beautiful teenagers, with the eldest in university now. My friend and I tackled a hike up a local steep hill trail for an awesome view of the Gibson’s area, amongst the fir and arbutus trees. It was a challenge to be nearly climbing a near vertical forest staircase, but we stopped along the way to rest, a drink of water and a few puffs from my asthma puffer. Then I somehow acquired a smudge/dirt in the camera lens of my small digital camera. It appears to be between the lenses, so now I have to take it back to Future Shop and get them to clean it. I camped in my friend’s driveway for a couple of nights, under the shade of a bamboo hedge. Her husband is passionate about his bamboo forest, with several varieties , and clusters growths that he has to protect from spreading and taking over the entire yard, as they are an invasive plant. They are all so very gorgeous and who knew you could grow bamboo in Canada…well, I didn’t anyway even if the rest of you did.






My friend had a beautiful Maine Coon kitten that was so very cute. I have another friend who had wanted one in the worst way for years, but recently broke down and brought home a puppy instead. My friend also had a neighbour who liked to use power tools all hours of the day and night, and never seemed to accomplish much. We went to Molly’s Reach for a tasty lunch by the marina, and next to the Persephone. For those of you who don’t know, Molly’s Reach was the set of a Canadian drama that aired on CBC for years called The Beachcombers. While we were lunching, someone spotted my van parked on the main road and tucked his business card in my door. It was the skylight guy, as he is referred to on his website. He manufactures skylights for the Vanagon, something that is both hard to find, and rather expensive but necessary. Mine had a seal that had shrunk and pulled away from the roof edges, and the lid itself was cracked, and the plastic had broken down due to UV damage. He had spotted my damaged skylight (oh yeah, I rammed it into a concrete ceiling in a parking garage in downtown Toronto) and thought I might be interested. I was, and called him immediately, arranging to have mine replaced the following morning.






The following morning, I met the skylight guy in town by Molly’s Reach and followed him to his shop. Of course, it crossed my mind as we wound down this dirty remote rode in the woods with a guy I had just met, that no one knew where I was going…I settled those silly paranoid thoughts, and we drove to his shop that he shared with a partner, on the property of a local logging company. The skylight guy is a welder by trade, and began fabricating these skylights several years ago after recognizing a void in the market, and wanted to help out his fellow Westy owners, such as me. His lovely skylights are double layered for UV protection, and come in a variety of beautiful colors – I chose neon pink! It looks awesome, and no longer will my skylight leak. While I’ve been lucky in the past months with very little rain, and it’s been weeks since it rained in Victoria, it will rain again at some point and I don’t think my upper bunk roommate will appreciate being rained on!






From Gibsons and the Skylight Guy, I headed for the ferry at Earl’s Cove, stopping along the way for a break at a beach with some lovely huge driftwood. I made it to the ferry with mere seconds to spare. I was the last one on the ferry, and I drove on at 12:50pm as noted on my GPS, and the exact departure time for the ferry. Phew! The next one didn’t leave until 3:15. I met a gal with her children who was hula hooping in the empty part of the ferry bay where we all sat in our vehicles or wandered about for the 50 minute ferry ride. I tried hula hooping and failed as expected. I may have managed 3 rotations as it slunk down over my thighs and calves on the way down. I was far better at spinning on my hand. I used to be a majorette in another lifetime with a funfur green hat made out of a Javex bottle…






A short drive to Powell River after the ferry docked to catch the ferry to Comox. Having long missed the noon ferry, I had to wait for the 5:15pm ferry. I sat in the shade of my van and nearly finished reading Stephen King’s novel, Cell. What to read next? I must rummage through the van to see what I can find to read.


The Powell River Ferry was longer, 90 minutes or so, and you can’t stay in your vehicle, so I wandered the decks, and then settled into my seat and finished off the book. I drove straight through to Campbell River where a couple of my cousins live, and met my cousin B.'s wife, W. We’re going mini-golfing this afternoon at a cool miniature village one. I suck at mini-golf but the buildings look awesome, so I’m sure it will be fun to chase my ball through them.


I’m heading to Parksville tomorrow to camp at Rathtrevor Beach, having secured the very last site online at the Tourist Info centre in town this morning. It’s reportedly one of the best beaches on the island with water you can actually swim in, so I am looking forward to that. I’m also expecting to meet up with a friend from Cape Breton at the campground who is touring the island this month. Friday I’ll head back to Victoria for a final weekend!