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.