Parksville is on Vancouver island so that meant making sure we made it to the ferry terminal in time for our reservation. With Covid restrictions, we heard that passengers were supposed to stay in the vehicle so we had downloaded the season finale of Beastmaster season 3 and that was fun to watch it together in the truck. People must of been wondering why we were hollering and yelling at the laptop but you can't stay quiet when the contestants leaping across the obstacles like flying squirrels. People in other cars actually started looking at our laptop and watching from their cars. It did get super hot on the car deck though so we were so glad when we could drive off the ferry to our campsite at Rathtrevor Provincial Park. *Note: we learned for our ferry ride back that we could leave our vehicle and that made our trip back immensely better.
We spent 4 days here and I wish we could have stayed longer but these are the 15 things we loved about camping in Parksville.
1. Our tent and camping with a 6 & 8 year old is awesome. I already talked about this in my last blog but seriously, I am so happy with this tent. We were joining our friends who were camping in their tent trailer so it took a bit of logistical planning to figure out where to put the massive thing but it all worked out. I totally love this "Darkroom Technology™" that blocks out the sunlight and allows everyone to sleep in past 9:00 am. Maybe it's not just the tent but also that the kids are older. It feels so much more like a vacation when everyone (including mom) gets to relax. The kids can stay up late and go to bed past 10:30 pm and stay sleeping until we wake them up. This is heavenly compared to when they were a whiny sack of potatoes if they stayed up too late and wake up at the crack of dawn the next day. The thing that woke me up was actually the sound of a baby crying somewhere on the campsite and when I realized it wasn't my baby and I didn't need to nurse, rock and soothe baby back to sleep, the relief and joy of that just put me right back to sleep. Cheers to making it to this next life stage. 
2. Friends make everything better. We were so grateful our friends invited us to camp with them and our other mutual friends were also at Parksville at the same time. After so many months of limited social contact, it was great to be able to see friends in real life and enjoy the great outdoors together.
3. The beach is so peaceful. After acclimating to the gong show of the beaches in the Lower Mainland, it was astounding to walk to the beach and see a parking lot with ample spaces and a huge beach with almost no one else there. I almost burst out singing the Dixie Chicks song "wiiiiiide open spaces..." as we walked the miles out towards the ocean.
4. Low-tide skimboarding. Simon and I used to skim-board all the time when we were in our 20's. This makes us sound so old but we would look in the newspaper when low-tide was and bring our skimboards to Spanish Banks and spend our weekend playing in a puddle. I didn't get back on the skimboard (totally not worth the injury) but Simon cruised as if 17 years had not passed since he skim boarded. The kids had fun trying it out too and I winced watching them wipe-out knowing that if that was me I would not be bouncing back up like they did.
5. Sand-dollar search. My kids had never seen a sand dollar before so it was so exciting for them to walk along the beach during low-tide and spot so many sand dollars. They were so happy every time they found a special shell, a crab or sand dollar or clam...we had to tell them to limit their collection of 'specials' or we would have brought home the whole beach.
6. The bunnies! So many bunnies! If you know us then you know that we love our Bella Boy bunny. When we first arrived at the campsite, it was dusk and there were 50+ bunnies everywhere. The kids were squealing "I see one!" "I see another one!" "Look at the black ones" "Oh those ones are babies" "AWWWW, they're SOOO CUTE" "Can we keep one? Puh-leeeeeeeaaaase?!" We had to make sure to check their luggage bags to make sure they didn't sneak any cute bunnies home with them.
7. Bears, blue jays and bunnies. Our kids are animal-obsessed (just like me when I was a kid). They kept a count of everything we saw: 3 deer, 2 lizards, 3 blue jays, 2 raptors, 6 woodpeckers, a mouse, a chirpy chipmunk and a million bunnies. There was also a sign that there was a bear sighting at the campsite but we did not encounter it during our camping trip. We also checked out the North Island Wildlife Recovery so we saw plenty more owls, eagles and a black bear.
8. Campsite biker crew. Independence means having your own wheels to cruise around the campsite. I never had to walk to the garbage bin while we were camping because they thought it was a great mission to bike to the trash bin all by themselves. Win-win! We didn't have room for our bikes but I'd love to come back and do some mountain biking as a family.
9. Amazing places to swim and cliff jump. We hiked along Top bridge trail to a suspension bridge across Englishman river - this is the perfect place for cliff-jumping. My kids were too scared to jump but Superdad couldn't resist the chance to ninja-kick into the river. As you can see in the pictures, it was not very busy for a hot day in July!
10. Sunset and stars. One of the best parts of leaving the busyness of the city is watching the sunset on a quiet beach. One night after we tucked the kids in their sleeping bags, we walked back to the beach and watched the stars just the two of us - it was so quiet and still and wonderful - and then my flashlight started to flicker and we decided we better head back to the campsite.
11. The forest playground - ninja edition. One of our friends gifted us a hammock as a wedding present and we have never used it but we brought it camping, along with some rope and the kids had so much fun making it into a ninja obstacle course. The only thing is that next time I should invest in something better than dollar store rope because that hammock came crashing down multiple times when the kids were swinging in it. At least they thought that was hilarious and no little ninjas were hurt in the process.
12. Getting a hole in one at mini-golf. When the kids were younger, mini golf was pretty painful, it would take them 36 shots to get the ball in the hole and and I was ready to tell them that you just pick it up and drop it in the hole but now that they are a bit older, it was a lot of fun. Simon and I entertained ourselves by making lots of Happy Gilmore references and the kids were excited that they both got a hole in one. Bumper boats after mini-golf made it the best day ever.
13. Goats on the roof. We drove out to Coombs for part of the day and it was so crazy busy. We saw the iconic goats on the roof, got ice cream and spent some time checking out the shop in the town.
14. High-tide means the SUPs come out. We had hauled our stand up paddleboards with us and on the first day at the beach, I didn't see any other SUPs out there. I realized it was because low tide means you have to walk 3 kms before you get to the water and no one wants to carry their board that far. But on the evening we had pizza at the beach, the tide had come in and it was the perfect time to take the SUPs out. It was perfect since the kids could walk out for miles and still be at waist-deep water and I could paddle all around them.
15. Making campfires that are taller than your camping chair. Instead of buying firewood, this Menno dad chops up wood from pallets at work. The wood is super dry though so when it burns it kind of makes a crazy inferno. We had to put some water on it to tone it down when the fire was taller than our 6 year old. It made for some epic marshmallow roasting and jiffy-popcorn fun though!
So we have learned that with excellent weather, the right camping gear, a beautiful campsite and great friends, we are converted happy campers and we would love to come back to Parksville and camp again.
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