Island Camping Adventure.

Second year camping at Rathtrevor Provincial Park and it did not disappoint. However, it did not get off to a good start. BC Ferries does not like us. Last year, we were almost not allowed to load because we booked overheight and we ended up deflating the SUPs so they didn't let us on because we weren't tall enough. This year we learned that two inches too tall does matter on the the ferry. We didn't realize that when we had bikes on our brand new bike racks that we are exactly 7 foot 2 inches and those 2 inches set off the alarms at the ferry terminal. They stopped loading the ferry because of us. So terrible and face-palm cringy moment.

Simon figured out how to tilt the bike rack back just enough so that we could squeak onto the ferry and we were able to leave our woes and be distracted by the sunshine and blowing wind outside on the ferry deck. 

I was one of the lucky ones to actually get a provincial campsite this year. We camped for 5 nights and our site was steps from the beach that we could hear the ocean at night. When Noah woke up early, we would go to the beach in our PJs while everyone else slept in. Side note: Christmas onsies in July is the best. 

We were also so blessed that two of our good friends were able to join us on the camping trip. Love doing life with these guys.

We got a new bike rack so we could haul all our bikes and explore the island on wheels. We went on biking adventures around the beach, to Top bridge trail in Parksville, Lighthouse County Regional Park in Qualicum Bay, and Moorecroft Regional Park in Nanoose Bay.

Biking across the suspension bridge at Top Bridge Regional Park

Moorecroft Regional Park

Vesper Point in Nanoose Bay

However, sometimes biking adventures mean you end up at the wrong side of the river and you have to portage your bikes across. Grateful for SuperDad that carried us and all 4 bikes across so we didn't have to get our shoes wet. Kids thought this unexpected excursion was THE BEST THING EVER.

Now that the bikes are on the rack we had room in the truck to haul both SUPs and enjoyed them at Spider Lake Provincial Park and at Rathtrevor Beach. 

And of course Noah just needed us to bring his kayak so we managed to haul that along too. The tide gets so low that we could walk beside him as he kayaked around the beach. 

Oh we couldn't forget the skimboards. When the tide goes out, Rathtrevor Beach has perfect skimboarding conditions. Simon and I spent many summers of our early 20's skimboarding at Spanish Banks and SuperDad was happy to show the boys how it's done (and maybe to prove that he is still a spring chicken). 

So we basically packed everything because you probably need a separate table for the kids to eat at, all the beach chairs, a skateboard to get around the campsite, the canopy and a hammock too right?

And since we packed everything we also had shovels to dig for clams, sand dollars, crabs and unexpectedly also discovered these weird things that looked like tiny shrimpy lobsters. Our research said they are called “ghost nippers”. The kids found dozens of them!

The first day was a bit cool so we went mini-golfing at Riptide Lagoon right  by the campsite and it was so much fun. The kids didn't want to keep score until they realized they were doing much better than me and then it was game-on. 

One evening we waited until dusk and walked around the campsite and there were so many fluffy cute bunnies! Nallie is obsessed with bunnies and she was squealing in delight and we had to make sure she didn't sneak one home with her.

We also watched the sun set every night. So interesting that every night the colors were always different and spectacular.

Parksville Community Park is also a bike-able distance from the campsite so we rounded up the biker gang and biked to the playground and this playground is MASSIVE with in-ground trampolines and zip lines, a boardwalk, tennis courts, volleyball courts in the sand and a curling rink. Wow - for a small town, they know how to do it right.

In the evening you can't go wrong with good friends, glow sticks, camps fires and s’mores -these things all go well together.

Bedtime rules also don't apply when we're camping. It was fun to let the kids stay up late telling shadow puppet stories.

Camping on the island was amazing. So great to unplug for a week, read a book on the beach, breathe in the beautiful outdoors and make memories with amazing people. 

When I asked Noah what he thought of this camping trip, this basically sums it up: 

So I would say island camping was a great success and we can't wait to come back here again.

SUPs, Sasquatch and seals

This was the vacation that kept on not happening because of Covid-19. We had to keep cancelling our family trip from Family Day, Spring Break and May long weekend so we were SO THRILLED to be able to finally go. With almost all of us having both does of the vaccine, we felt happy to resume some semblance of a normal family vacation. We usually vacation together at Cultus Lake but my mom found a beautiful chalet at Harrison Hot Springs and I think we may have found a new family favourite vacation spot.

 Things to love about Harrison Hot Springs. 

The Beach. Once you get here, you have everything you need for a great day outside. The lagoon is there for anyone who wants warmer water but we were concerned about the swarms of Canada geese (and goose poop) so we opted to spend our days at Harrison Lake just past the lagoon instead. We packed lunches but there's lots of shops and restaurants if you rather eat out. There was shady grass for my mom and plenty of sand and sun for the us and the kids. But be warned the the water in Harrison Lake is extremely cold, only the brave souls or adventurous 7 year olds would dare jump off the dock into the icy water.

Stoked on our SUPs. You can drop off all your gear right by the beach so it's not far to take the SUPs from the back of the truck into the water. There's also a rental shop right on the dock so we could try a double kayak and pedal boating as well. There's also a huge inflatable water park/ninja course that entertained us just by watching the people fly off the apparatus. We will probably do this when the kids are a bit older but even just watching is so fun. It's like a live show of WipeOut!

Try the Hiking Trails. We didn't do any serious hiking because it was too hot but there's lots of easy walking/hiking trails in the areas. We did the walk around Harrison Lagoon, Spirit Trail, Bridal Trail, Miami Bridges walk, and an unmarked trail that led to a severely overgrown trail that the kids were too scared to keep on trekking to find out if it leads anywhere. 

Sasquatch Hunt. The kids loved finding all Sasquatch icons everywhere. We even found the bench thatI sat on exactly TEN YEARS ago when I was pregnant with Nallie. The bench is still there with Sasquatch sitting there. 

Seals spotted. When the kids were busying building sandcastles, we took a longer paddle and both days we saw a seal! I had no idea seals could be in freshwater but we looked it up and apparently they it's true. Seals do live in Harrison Lake! The seal didn't pop up to make a cameo for a picture unfortunately though we all tried our best seal calls to lure him out again. 

Harrison Chalet. This was perhaps the best part of our vacation. The rental house was called Harrison Chalet and it was this gorgeous place with 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms - even the kid's bedroom had an ensuite bathroom. There was a beautiful patio with a table big enough for all of us to enjoy meals together. The living room was big enough for us to all sit around and play games all evening.

But perhaps the most spectacular part of this place as the backyard. Calling it a backyard doesn't even seem right, it was this massive acreage with manicured gardens, flowers and trail that led to a view point. It was so luxurious to have all this space to play badminton, spike ball and the kids to have epic pool noodle battles. 

With all those things - we are definitely hopeful to come back here again!