Life at Home on Wednesday (Part 2)

Today was the first day of summer AND my birthday and I thank everyone for their great wishes via text, emails and phone calls. I have the GREATEST family and friends!! Of course, my best friend and husband always makes my day the best!!

First, we headed out to check out a local RV park, Living Forest Oceanside Campground. It is right in Nanaimo on the south side. Pretty amazing. Once you drive in, you would never know you are in the city. It is located on the shoreline but also has nice, forested sites and nice trails.

 Check it out at www.Livingforest.com

We were lucky to have sunshine today for the first day of summer, so next thing was we headed off to the Dinghy Dock Pub (www.DinghyDockPub.com). This pub is located on Protection Island in the Nanaimo harbour. Super cool because you can only get there via a little ferry. It does cost $9 each for the return trip but it is worth the ride. The food and drinks were awesome and so was my lunch partner!!

Part of our lunch commute...

...our fancy ride there!!

My favourite lunch partner!!!

...and that's all that is left!!!

Those are my updates from "the rock". We will see what the rest of the week and the weekend brings!

Hope you are all still out there!!

Cheers and thanks again for all the birthday wishes!!

Life at Home on Tuesday (Part 1)

Catching up -> so this is the first of two posts going up tonight!!


Hi everyone!! Now that we have figured out where to find the coffee pot....we have finally gotten settled into Nanaimo. Poor Euri sits on the driveway, awaiting his next adventure (too bad that it is only to the grocery store for now!!) There is still a thorough cleaning to be done on the van. Seems that we keep bringing things out of the van and there are still more to come. It is pretty amazing how much stuff we had crammed into it for 4 months!!

Our niece, Lacey is involved with a program called Claytree Society, here in Nanaimo. It is a fantastic program for people with developmental disabilities.They do some awesome things each day with the very dedicated staff. She has loads of friends and their days are always full. She never ceases to amaze us with her funny stories each day.

On Tuesday, we met the group at Bowen Park in Nanaimo for their annual "Boat Race". They have a great picnic afterwards too! Lacey's boat was a wedding cake boat. Staff sets up a course on the little creek and the boats are launched in little groups, according to their size....

Top of the race course...

Getting the course ready....

 

The wedding cake boat builder herself!!

 

Lots of people there to enjoy the race!!

 

Some of the boats awaiting their turn...see the wedding cake boat in there?

 

Lacey and Uncle Doug...

...momentarily hung up on the bumpers!!

Yeehaw...see the finish line on the right??

We had an awesome morning and really enjoyed the race. Hats off to all the organizers for sure!!

Cheers!! 

Home in Nanaimo!!

After 12,000 kms, we made it safely back to our new home of Nanaimo on Friday June 15th. We were actually gone longer on our tour than we had lived in our new place in Nanaimo. We had to spend the last few days reacquainting ourselves with "home"!! Like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz wisely said, long ago, "There's no place like home"....now, if we could have only brought the sun and warmth with us!!

Before we left Josh & Kathy's in White Rock, Josh spent a bit of time cleaning up my bike from all those Mexican miles that were put on it. He ran out of time for Doug's bike, maybe next time!! Thanks, Buddy!! 

Here's our ride that will complete our journey back to home...

Beautiful coastal mountains of Howe Sound...

Yup, even the Coast Guard came out to say Welcome Back!! (ha ha)

We are enjoying the extra space. For those not aware, we downsized our lives, selling our townhouse and we both retired in November and December to Nanaimo. We built a comfy little suite of 550 sq ft in my sister's house on the lower level. This is our new home base that allows us to travel. Believe me, even 550 sq ft seems REALLY huge after living in Euri, our VW Westfalia!!

Today is Sunday - Father's Day. Both our great kids spoke with their Dad this morning and made his day. Kids are the best!! Afterwards, we headed up to Qualicum Beach to see the big car show, Seaside Cruizers. (www.seasidecruizers.com) It takes over the whole town and is really fun. We sure enjoyed walking around. So much time, effort and money spent on these cars. Some of them are pretty incredible. Doug loves walking around, reminiscing about the old cars that he has had in his car stable over the years. The sun even managed to poke through for most of the day...

Loads of car fans...

...including us!!

Doug had a car very much like this, only his was a '53 Ford and this is a '54 Ford.

I like the odd bits on the cars!!

I always wondered why they put an airplane on the hood of a car....

Anyone remember the awesome movie "The Rocketeer"???

No car show is complete without a guy in a kilt!!!

This one is for my brother-in-law, Martin Nichols. He has a red jeep like this and loves his outdoors-plus he is a new Canadian (as of a few years ago!!) 

That's it for us today. Happy Father's Day to all those Dad's out there!!

Cheers!!

Stayed tuned for more "Island" updates.....

White Rock (Day 5)

Sorry for the absence the past few days. We have just been hanging out with Josh & Kathy in White Rock. More than anything, we love hanging out with our kids, whether it is in Edmonton with Teagan & Shawn or here, in White Rock, with Josh & Kathy. Kids are EVERYTHING in your life for sure!!

Don't have much for photos, but we will sure share what we have from here. Just started out this weekend with a nice walk around White Rock

Gotta love that pier in White Rock!!

We just HAD to stop at our favourite lunch spot, Jimmy Flynn's...

...then it;s a REALLY steep walk back up to Josh & Kathy's!!

...after that steep walk, it was time for a rest on the patio with Mr. Plastic Owl.....

Sunday morning tequila toasts!! (Well, there were some extra folks to help us!!)

...and Sunday afternoon visits with our great nephew Mason Robert Theodore Bucholtz!!

Check out that snazzy volkswagen shirt (who gave him THAT??)

Ain't he a handsome little fellow??

And that is all that we have done. Just soaked up some nice BC sun. Tomorrow we are off to North Vancouver to stay at my Mom's for a few days!!

Stay tuned!!

Cheers!!

Post Mexico

I know that I have done the Mexico wrap-up already. I was going through my photos and realized that there was something else that I did not address. Tablecloths. Yes, that's right, tablecloths everywhere. No matter how small the restaurant was, how close it was to the highway, tire shop or whatever, there was always a pride in setting the table "right"....it has to look proper and nice for company. This is a country of a lot of pride. It doesn't really matter which cities these are in, the theme is the same.....set the table right!!!

...even if you don't buy his BBQ'd corn-othe-cob, table is ready...

But, my all time favourite is below: the bus drivers in San Jose del Cabo. Even though they were eating in their parking lot, behind a minivan, they still had to have their tablecloth out. This wasn't done for anyone else but themselves.......gotta love it!!

I have tried to use my tablcloths too!!

Thanks Mexico!!

G'Night from White Rock everyone!!

Cheers!!