Our family grew to five for this trip. MiRim's (Mary) host family went to Mexico.
Our trip this year began with a funeral service for Brent’s father, Ervin who passed away 6 days after Brent’s mother, Ruth. I will have more about Brent’s family on my other blog if anyone is interested. (Not published yet)
Brent had flown down earlier so I was left with driving with the girls to the Island. Stopping along the way for photo ops....
We stayed the night in Hope as I really don’t like driving through Vancouver traffic when I’m tired and I’m not used to driving Brent’s truck. The motel was pretty rundown since the last time we stayed with Antonia and her family. Plus there was a party happening with a bunch of hockey players and a keg of beer. I was not impressed. Luckily it was shut down at a decent hour. We or at least I was awoken at 6 am to a diesel truck starting up right outside our room and sat idling for 30 minutes before leaving!
There is a restaurant in Hope called Kimchee that made up for the lack of comfort. Serves Korean and Japanese style food. Soooo good. The only one not excited was Ilka but she was a trooper and gave it her best try. She was not disappointed.
We stayed in a 3 bedroom condo on Skinner st downtown Nanaimo. One block from the harbour. Great location! Because Brent and his brother had been so busy with family stuff and driving to Courtenay several times we girls planned that the first night we would make lasagna, apple and pumpkin pie. The next night was Salmon, then steak at Daryl's, then out for Sushi....Crazy 😜
Walking around the harbour in Nanaimo
Crab fishing from the dock....someone was not impressed 😜
Ilka's new love, Bruce 💖
On the way to Tofino....stopped at Cathedral Grove (a very old grove forest). We ran into snow, hail...and oh yeah rain!
Reported to be 800 years old....the tree that is...and the one that is standing...
View from our cabin on the first afternoon
Hail on the picnic table....brrrr...
Notice the phone falling out of her pocket?
Walking along the Wild Pacific Trail
There is a bald eagle at the top of the tree....I took this shot with my zoom and then cropped the heck out of it so the girls could see that we wer not just saying there was an eagle over there!
....and back at the cabin...
Mary running in circles...
I love this one... 💕
Very grateful for the one day of sunshine...life is good...
Taken and shared by Ilka
Hamming it up in Cabelas....
Raclette....
