Our family set out on a two week vacation aimed at exploring the northern Gulf Islands in Canada via sailboat. Clearing customs into Canada was crazy easy - just a phone call on a dock and then an official number on "an official post it note". The hardest part was a totally pissed off toddler screeching "I wanta go to beach with Daddy-O "
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Brandon eating the restricted items
before our 9 am border crossing |
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| A happy Canada dance |
Three days later, we traveled over a hundred nautical miles, used over a hundred rainbow stickers, and Brandon possibly went to the bathroom over a hundred times (he caught a stomach bug early on). After three days at sea with a toddler we were unable to account for a jar of green playdough which must have incorporated itself in various orifices on the boat and we lost count of how many times we had read the hungry hungry caterpillar. We were all excited to be in Nanaimo- our northern most destination.
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| The elusive playdough |
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| a budding deckhand |
I was stoked to walk around and see a new city. Brandon was stoked to buy Imodium. Annabelle was stoked to see a school bus. So we did those epic things in this new foreign city and also bought a bottle of whiskey which happened to be the best whiskey ever. Brandon started to feel better- we hiked, paddle boarded and even made some new friends on the dock. After taking the dinghy to a water front pub we felt like were finally on vacation.
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| "I'm too hot MaMa" |
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| I'd climb that |
Nanaimo is famous for having a daily cannon firing ceremony in the summer- except for the day we were there. Puzzled about where the cannons were, we departed Nanaimo. Little did we know Annabelle was going to have her own projectile ceremony later that evening. Annabelle got the stomach bug next exploding vomit all over any fabric covered surface in the boat and on our sleeping bags. Brandon 2022~ " You know you're not on vacation until you're done cleaning up black bean barf and crawl into a sleeping bag covered in someone else's pee" .
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| Why won't anyone fire these |
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| A class two scrambler |
A few days later things were looking up and the stomach flu ran out of hosts so we continued Island hopping through the various Gulf Islands exploring the parks. Favorite stops included Pirates Cove where there was a Treasure chest on shore- filled up with multiple treasures (AKA Toddler Crap) created solely to occupy toddlers for hours on end. We also enjoyed Wallace Island's abandoned resort structures and Princess Margaret Island's trails.
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| She picked a cougar and called it doggy all week |
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| Belle down |
Our crew spent some time near Butchart gardens and bused to Victoria. Annabelle finally got her bus ride (turns out buses are scary) where we enjoyed the lovely British Colonial vibe and wandered around various shops. We even found time to go to Value Village and came home with a memorable souvenir dust buster for cleaning playdough out of boat crevices.
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| "I want off school bus MaMa" |
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| Pretty happy about the garden |
Our final stop was to see new friends Dave and Tina and the dog Morseby at Mills Creek. Annabelle's been telling us ever since that "Dave's pretty cool" and "Tina's so nice" and keeps talking about Morseby.
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| Don't fall water Annabelle |
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| Catching some rays |
Out of water, out of beer, a boat was full of turds and low on food it was time to head home with the souls filled high on adventure. A quick video chat with a US customs agent we were back to America- trip completed.
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| "Mama, these caterpillars don't move" |
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| Some light coloring |
Looks awesome!
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