Sunday, August 8, 2010

2010 BC Holidays
On Wednesday July 28th we started on our annual drive to BC.  Leaving Calgary we started through the picturesque Rockies past Kananaskis Country and Canmore past Banff.







For the first night we stopped in Sicamouse at the Best Western and had a lovely time in the pool, hot tub and free breakfast the next morning with waffles etc.  While we were there we had ice cream at the Dutchman Dairy, fior tasty Ice Cream on a farm where the kids could pet the cows, see a camel and a donkey.













The next day we arrived in Vancouver at the Tswassen Ferry we bumped into Gail and Donna returning from their trip to the UK and Tenerife - they were only a few lanes away from us.


Eric drove much of the way, and was very excited about it!








Tigger is Jessies special friend in the back seat.


Jessica, Aunty Gail and Eric at the ferry


Our first stop was at Michelle and Dick's in Sidney where we had a lovely visit with our cousins


Jessie and Cousin Danielle

With my sister Michelle
Eric, Cousin Stephen and Uncle Dickie

Eric and cousin Stephen
Some of the Deerfolk that Dickie makes
More Deerfolk


Dickie's latest Grape Trelis


Michelle and Dickie's rambling garden


Dickie's outdoor Garden Beer Lounge


More relaxing garden


There are Veggie patches, Berrie Patches, rose bushes, there are many lovely areas to see



How many cousins does it take to put up a tent?









Some flowers in the garden




Cousin Bevin with Jessica and cousin Stephen





On Saturday we went to Parksville for the Show and Shine Car show that David likes to be in and there was a sandcastle competition, we had a lovely day at Rathtrevor beach with Uncle John and made our own sand castles




While David, John and Eric played golf, Jessie and I walked to Rathtrevor beach


Jessie did some handstands






















Will need to get the final shots from Uncle John because the project was incomplete at this point.

Milk shakes and our favourite legendary burgers at the Whitespot in Parksville/Qualicum YUMMY!



The next day David headed back to Calgary on the 6:20am ferry and we headed to Sproat Lake


Our family has had this spot on Sproat Lake outside Port Alberni since the early 1960's when my grandparents purchased the property with a 2 bedroom cabin there.  My sister and I spent many childhood summers here with friends and family and I learned to swim and dive right off of this warf.  My uncle eventually built this house here and now we visit with my kids, so it has been a wonderful family vacation spot for generations.


Every August long weekend, my Uncle hosts a gathering of his university chums and cousins, now with their wives, and their grown up kids, again this has been a tradition now for a couple of generations, they come in tents, campers and some stay in the house.  When we arrived, some of them were still there and so we had a visit and a cold one on the dock.

Al took Don and then Eric out on the hobie cat


The kids had their first swim as soon as they got there






Getting the "diaper" on Eric for the hobie cat sail


Off they go!



Good wind so they go off across the lake


Uncle Al took us on some boat rides and the kids went skiing around the lake


Al took us to a neat pebble beach area with great views of the lake and mountains




Despite many large homes built along the water these days, there are still many natural untouched areas and small islands



Some of the guys jumped off of this rock into the lake below, it was quite high up




Al parked the boat on this little pebble beach



Al and the kids climbed up the rocks and took some pictures of the view
















On the way back Al went very fast!


The kids wanted to go waterskiing


Jess went first


and went around the lake for a while

The next day after more skiing Jess also went out on the hobie cat

Our last day we returned to Sidney to say cheerio to Aunty Mich and Uncle Dickie and the cousins and then stopped our last night in Kamloops with our friends Toni and Troy and their girls Diara and Kayla.

Stopped at Cathedral Grove and admired the big trees






The kids cooled off in the pool while Toni and I enjoyed some wine and caught up on the past year, it was Troys birthday so Diara had made him cupcakes and cookies.









Pippa and Cooper entertained us, they were cute!


Great holiday but too short, can't wait till the next one!

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Great holiday photos Gilly! thanks for sharing with us all. Miss you guys SOOOOO much, sniff sniff. Wish we were all back together. Love, your sis.